News from the classroom...

NAPLAN:

NAPLAN will take place from Wednesday 11th March - Wednesday 18th March, for Birranga College students. All Year 7 students enrolled at a school are expected to participate in 4 NAPLAN tests:

• Writing
• Reading
• Conventions of Language (spelling, grammar and punctuation)
• Numeracy

All students will soon be involved in a NAPLAN briefing next week and a practice session. This will familiarise them with the sort of questions and testing they will have, and it will also remind them to bring plug in headphones and a charged laptop. We ask that Parents/Carers avoid medical appointments from 8.50-11.00am on each of the NAPLAN testing days, as both the Dept and School use the NAPLAN information as a measure of providing some further support to students as well as allowing school the opportunity to use data to inform aspects of the teaching and learning program.

Public demonstration site

The public demonstration site is available for students and parents to get familiar with the types of questions, tools and functions used in the NAPLAN tests. It includes demonstration tests for each NAPLAN year level, test domain (writing, reading, conventions of language, and numeracy) and alternative tests for students with disability.

Should you have any questions about NAPLAN please reach out to your child’s PEARL group teacher.

Teaching & Learning

As students settle into the routine of Year 7 and moving from class to class for their subjects teachers are beginning to take advantage of the transition period and the time to get to know each student and their learning needs. Classes follow a routine on entry and exit which is supported by a class structure that follows a clear model of instruction for learning. This consistency and predictability in learning provides an opportunity for students to learn at their best. Part of the model of instruction also see’s our teaching staff explicitly inform the students of what they are learning in this lesson (learning objective) and also how they can demonstrate success (success criteria) – which in turn allows student the opportunity to reflect on their own learning. 

Teachers are also beginning to set learning tasks on Compass that students complete at school or at home. These tasks support the explicit teaching that occurs in the classroom and allows students to build their skills via the content knowledge they are gaining. As parents-carers it will be important for you to monitor this completion go learning tasks so that you can also have discussions about what your child is learning. 

Progress Reports

In just over a week teacher will begin to asses your child’s progress in each subject against a specific set of criteria – seen in the table below. Each criteria supports our values in which allow an opportunity for all students to also gauge themselves against. The progress report cycle will occur three times over each semester and will be tracked by a GPA score which is an average score for each criteria. Students will also reflect on their progress after each reporting cycle in their PEARL class so that they can celebrate their achievements and set goals for future improvement.

We would encourage any parent-carer who has questions, issues about any subject their child studies to contact their child’s teacher by either sending an email through compass or contacting the college and requesting to speak with them