FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Term 3 - Week 9

Today I present to you our second last report into NAPLAN 2024: Year 3 Numeracy.

Situational Analysis

In March, St Nicholas had 80 Year 3 students sit the Year 3 Numeracy NAPLAN Assessment, 35 (44%) were male and 45 (56%) were female. Nine (11%) students identify as of Aboriginal origin. 20 (25%) students are on a Personal Plan. 72 of our Year 3 students were enrolled in Kindergarten (2020) and 8 students have enrolled at St Nicholas since the beginning of Year 1.

NAPLAN NUMERACY ANALYSIS 2024

Since 2023, Australian students have been categorised into one of four proficiency standards for their Numeracy proficiency:

Table 3B illustrates the percentage of St Nicholas students in each standard. This data measures very well against the Nation (Table 3A). St Nicholas has an additional 20% of our students in the top two bands: ‘Strong’ or ‘Exceeding’, with only one student in the “Needs Additional Support” band.

Trend data: While we are comparing different cohorts of students, the trend data for St Nicholas Numeracy results in NAPLAN is significant. Since the implementation of a more rigorous and sophisticated approach to the learning and teaching of Numeracy in 2023, our Year 3 NAPLAN Numeracy results have seen a significant shift in student numbers from the bottom two bands, and into the top two bands.

St Nicholas challenge is to keep our Numeracy data trending in the right direction, which will see more students achieving to the level of their potential.

Table 3C presents St Nicholas Year 3 Numeracy average alongside the System, Nation, State and NSW Inter Regional School averages. Noticeably, St Nicholas is the only cohort to break the 430 mark, more than 20 average marks above the 2nd highest cohort (State average).

While our Year 3 Numeracy average is pleasing viewing, it is important to break open our cohort and see the number of students who are achieving marks above the System, Nation, State and NSW Inter-regional School averages. As Table 3D displays, 71.3% of our students scored above the average of their NSW Inter-regional peers, while 57.5% of our students scored above the Year 3 NSW State average. These percentages highlight St Nicholas’ improvement processes in the learning and teaching Numeracy is founded on supporting all students - not just a targeted group of students.

“Regular attendance at school is essential if students are to maximise their potential” (CSO Policy & Procedures for Student Attendance, paragraph 1.1). This statement gains extra weight when viewing Table 3E.

Our Year 3 students whose attendance rate was above 90% in 2023 (Year 2), on average, scored an additional 22.53 marks than their peers whose 2023 attendance rate was below 90%. Of the three 2024 Year 3 NAPLAN Assessments I have broken open (Reading, Writing & Numeracy), the strongest correlation between high achieving students and high attendance is in Numeracy. One of the greatest ways parents can love their child, is to get them to school every ‘possible’ day!

While table 3E clearly shows the importance of our children being at school, what do our Year 3 NAPLAN Numeracy results tell us in regards to the consistency of teaching across our school? Table 3F breaks our results into two cohorts:

Year 3 St Nicholas students enrolled at St Nicholas in Kindergarten 2021
Year 3 St Nicholas students enrolled at St Nicholas after Kindergarten 2021

Table 3F supports a positive Kindergarten to Year 3 Numeracy culture at St Nicholas..

Conclusion

A deep analysis of our Year 3 NAPLAN Numeracy results provides some early data around the positive impact of our staff’s focus on improving the learning and teaching of Numeracy. As we focus on improving the way we teach, our students' results improve.

While there is work to be done, there is also reason to celebrate, on our path to developing “literate and numerate students for a hope filled future”.

Have a great week!

John Clery

Principal