Curriculum 

Year 12 Assessment Block

The Year 12 Assessment Block will commence next week on Monday 4 March with English Advanced and English Standard and will conclude on Friday 15 March with Mathematics Advanced and Mathematics Standard 2 in the morning session. The assessments are varied in type, structure and format and include but are not limited to written responses to pre-published stimulus materials, written tests, essays, oral presentations, and practicals.

The Assessment Block timetable was issued to Year 12 students last week and students are reminded to become familiar with and abide by the Assessment/Examination Block Rules for Senior Students available on the Year 12 CANVAS page.

Parents/carers and students of Year 12 are reminded that in the event of absenteeism due to illness or misadventure during the Assessment Block, a telephone call to the Year Coordinator, Mr Herro, must be made on the morning of the assessment. Where possible, the missed assessment or a substitute will be arranged within the Assessment Block period. On the student’s return to school, a completed illness/misadventure form, with the related medical certificate or other official supporting evidence attached, must be personally given to Mr Herro and the relevant Head of Faculty.

If illness or misadventure prevents a student from attending or submitting an assessment or affects their performance in an assessment, it is the student’s responsibility to complete and submit an illness/misadventure application, not a parent/carer or relative, unless the student is physically unable to do so.

It is important to note that illness/misadventure applications are for cases where an illness or misadventure:

• occurred immediately before or during an assessment
• was unexpected
• was beyond the student’s control and prevented them from attending or diminished their performance in the assessment.

The College will not consider illness or misadventure applications for:

• difficulty preparing or lost preparation time
• alleged deficiencies in teaching
• misreading the Assessment Block timetable
• misreading assessment instructions
• attempting the wrong assessment
• long-term illness (e.g., glandular fever, asthma, or epilepsy), unless the student has suffered a flare-up of the condition during the assessment
• conditions for which the student has been granted disability provisions, unless they have further unexpected difficulties
• conditions for which a student should have applied for disability provisions
• other commitments such as participation in work, sporting event, holiday, or attendance at tests conducted by other organisations.

Illness/misadventure applications must include advice or evidence from a relevant independent expert, not a parent/carer or relative, on the same day, either immediately before or after each assessment for the student. The medical certificate must be written by a practising medical doctor who is not a parent/carer or relative.

The student must provide documentation that is current, specific to the date and time of the assessment, and submitted with the illness/misadventure form. A medical certificate that merely states “illness” and/or “unfit for work/study” is unacceptable and the College will not consider an illness/misadventure application without sufficient evidence supporting a genuine reason.

Michael Cutrupi 

Director of Curriculum

2024 National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN)

Last year, ACARA moved NAPLAN from May to March. The online tests will run over a testing window of nine days commencing Wednesday 13 March and concluding Monday 26 March to allow students an opportunity to sit missed scheduled tests within the testing window. The tests will ensure national consistency in benchmarking Literacy and Numeracy standards across all Australian educational jurisdictions. 

In general, for our students, NAPLAN will occur on the following days:

Students in Years 5 and 7 will complete tests during Periods 1 and 2 each morning, and students in Year 9 will complete tests during Periods 3 and 4 each day.  

Parents, carers, and boys of Years 5, 7 and 9 received an email from me two weeks ago with information about preparing for NAPLAN and installing the updated NAP lockdown browser. Students and parents/carers are encouraged to visit the NAPLAN site at: https://www.nap.edu.au/. Sample test items, marking criteria and a marking guide are available as are past tests and marking guides. 

The NSW Education Standards Authority has advised that the genre for the 2024 writing test will not be disclosed prior to the test period. In 2024, as in previous years, the writing test will be a single common task for all students. Students will be required to respond to either a narrative or a persuasive prompt. Therefore, boys from Years 5, 7 and 9, ought to practise and familiarise themselves with both the persuasive and narrative styles of writing. To understand more about the writing test, visit the NAPLAN site at: https://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/writing.

Next week, homeroom teachers in Years 7 and 9 and class teachers in Year 5 will do device checks to ensure all boys have the new lockdown browser installed and that they have a pair of device-compatible headphones, ready to use in the Week 5 examinations.

Teachers will do some revision with students in class to expose them to test questions and the overall test format. The more aware the boys are of the test format and approaches to completing the test items, the more confident they will feel during the NAPLAN test days.

Public Speaking this Friday at SPC

Catholic Schools Debating Competition Public Speaking commences this Friday, with St Patrick’s hosting ten additional schools from across the Sydney Metropolitan area.

Registration commences from 5:30 PM in the McGlade Library and the speeches will start from 6:00 PM in the Coghlan rooms. We are also in need of students to serve as ushers, guides and chairpersons in the various rooms. If your son is interested in assisting on the evening, please have him email me as soon as possible. 

We would love to see strong support from across all year groups as the oratory season begins! 

Denise Lombardo

Director of Learning and Innovation

St Patrick’s College Strathfield Libraries 

After a full month of Term 1 now passing, I would like to take the opportunity to welcome all the St Patrick’s community to the library spaces. 

My name is Jessica Lonard, and I am the Head of Library and Information Services here at St Patrick’s College. I have over fifteen years’ experience working in school libraries and come to the College from St Ignatius’ College Riverview where I worked in the library for the past thirteen years. 

Many students new to the Senior School have had the opportunity to come to the McGlade Library for wide reading and/or lessons. Students can borrow three books over a fortnight period, and many students, especially those in Year 7 have borrowed over the last few weeks, which is great to see. 

Premier’s Reading Challenge kicks off this week and students are strongly encouraged to participate. Their logins from Junior School will still work and they can start adding books they have read from September 2023. 

Through CANVAS, students have access to the Library Services page – there they can find subject and assignment help, recommended reading lists, book request links and much more. I aim to develop this page so that students have 24/7 access to library resources even when they’re not physically in the library. 

I look forward to assisting your sons throughout the course of the year. 

Jessica Lonard

Head of Library and Information Services