Assistant Principals
NAPLAN 14th May – 16TH May
As you may be aware, the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) for Years 7 and 9 students will be held on Tuesday 14th May, Wednesday 15th May and Thursday 16th May 2019 across Australia. The NAPLAN tests are designed to assess student knowledge and skills in Writing, Reading, Language Conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and Numeracy.
Although our students in Year 7 and 9 may have completed NAPLAN testing before, we feel that it is important to let families know about how NAPLAN runs at Wantirna College. We see NAPLAN as an opportunity to provide us with point-in-time information regarding how your child is progressing in literacy and numeracy. We do not look at NAPLAN results in isolation and recognise that NAPLAN is just one of many assessment tools used by the College to assess student learning and to plan for programs that will continue to extend the learning of our students. As educators, we want to ensure that we are providing your child with relevant, engaging and rigorous learning programs that address students individual learning needs. The results of the NAPLAN testing are used by the College to inform our teaching and learning programs so that we are providing your child with the best educational opportunities possible.
Further organisational information about NAPLAN has been distributed to Year 7 and 9 families via Compass. If you would like further information about NAPLAN, please visit the VCAA website at www.vcaa.vic.edu.au or the NAP website at www.nap.edu.au
If you have any questions regarding the NAPLAN, please do not hesitate to contact Shane Kruger, at the College on 9801 9700 or kru@wantirnacollege.vic.edu.au
Student Lunch Deliveries
The modern era of fast food deliveries and mobile phones has recently been bought home to us with a number of students ordering Uber Eats for delivery to school at lunch time.
Due to our duty of care for students this trend has raised significant concerns for us. The first and foremost of these is we know some students have been approaching unknown cars on the street in the hope it is their food order. In addition we have had instances of delivery drivers approaching students on the school ground in relation to food orders. Both circumstances are a concern in terms of protecting our students and managing expectations.
The Department of Education requires us to have a record of a Working with Children check for all adults who may come into contact with students during the school day. For the safety and security of students onsite we are also required to ensure anyone visiting the College signs in at the General Office.
Students were informed last week that they may not order Uber Eats (or other similar services) to be delivered to the College. As a deterrent we have informed them that food that is delivered to the College will be confiscated and not returned.
We also request that parents or older siblings do not deliver take away to school for students. This creates food envy among students and can result in students going offsite to McDonalds or similar. It also makes it more difficult for the team to monitor other food orders.
If your child forgets their lunch you may wish to leave food or money at the General Office. Students can also access bread, Vegemite and cheese in the Student Well Being Centre or speak to a Yer Level Leader who will assist them in sourcing food.
Students, Parents and Mobile Phones
Parents can best support student learning and school operations by not texting or calling their children during the school day. When these calls or messages occur during class, students feel compelled to respond immediately. This results in disruption to their learning and has the potential to lead to conflict with the teacher.
If you need to contact your child urgently during the school day, please contact the General Office who will pass a message on to them.
We also strongly discourage students from ringing their parents to come and pick them up from school. If your child does this, we ask that you contact the General Office and make arrangements for collection from there.
It has now been 12 months since we finalised our Mobile Phone and Digitial Communicaiton Devices Policy. This policy allows students to have their mobile phones on them in class provided they are turned off and only ever used with the explicit permission of the teacher. We will be evaluating the impact of this policy on student learning in semester 2 to determine whether this is the best approach for our students and community. More information regarding this evaluation will be on the Newsletter over the course of term 2 and 3.
Catherine Ford, Shane Kruger and
Andrew Lewis
Assistant Principals