Assistant Principal

Preparing for transition to secondary school for your child

Preparing for transition to secondary school for your child

ATTENTION PARENTS OF STAGE 3 STUDENTS 

As your child is in Year 5 or 6, it is important to start thinking about their transition to secondary school. This starts by determining which secondary schools you would like to submit applications for. 

For Sydney Catholic Schools, families are able to submit applications once their children are in Year 5. It is important to submit your applications in a timely manner as schools can have limited places. 

Every child is unique with specific strengths, passions and needs. This might include giftedness, passion for sport or the arts and/or support for their learning. It is important to consider what school environment your child will need at school and to determine which secondary school best meets their needs; it may not be the same school as their friends or siblings. 

Open Days provide an excellent opportunity for students and families to explore classrooms and facilities, meet Principals, staff and school communities and get a glimpse into what makes each school so unique. 

Each primary school has feeder secondary schools in surrounding suburbs where the majority of our students transition to when they graduate. We have listed these below. We encourage you to attend these to experience the schools in person and ask any questions you may have. 

When visiting consider the following:

• What are your child’s strengths and passions? Does this school have opportunities in these areas?
• What are your child’s individual needs or challenges? How does the school help students with these needs? 
• Are you wanting your child to participate in specific programs or interventions? Does this school offer these? 
• It is important to be open and honest with the secondary schools about your child so you are provided with the correct information. This will allow you to make an informed decision.

Enrolment applications are open and are made online. Sydney Catholic Schools has information on HOW TO APPLY or you can go directly to the secondary school’s website. Application closures differ for each school so please contact the school for more information. 

If you are unsure, have other questions or need assistance submitting applications please contact us. We will work closely with you and your child to prepare them for transition to secondary school. This may include supporting you in discussing different secondary schools, answering your questions, submitting applications and sharing information with secondary schools to ensure continuity of support and a positive transition to secondary school. 

NAPLAN

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is an annual assessment for students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. It is a nationwide measure through which parents/carers, teachers, schools, education authorities, governments and the broader community can determine whether or not young Australians are developing the literacy and numeracy skills that provide the critical foundation for other learning and for their productive and rewarding participation in the community.

Our Year 3 and Year 5 students will sit the tests on the following days - 

Wednesday March 13 - Reading and Writing Tests 

Thursday March 14 - Conventions of Language Test 

Friday March 16 - Mathematics Test 

Monday March 19 - Catch up day for any child who missed out 

With the exception of the Year 3 writing test, all tests are online. The tests are “adaptive” which means as each child progresses through the questions, the test changes to suit their level of ability.  In previous years, 6 numerical bands (Bands 1 -6) were given to indicate achievement. Those bands are now discontinued and have been replaced with:

      “4 levels of proficiency”

• Exceeding: The student’s result exceeded expectations at the time of testing. 
• Strong: The student’s result met challenging but reasonable expectations at the time of testing.  
• Developing: The student’s result indicated that they are working towards expectations at the time of testing. 
• Needs additional support: The student’s result indicated that they did not achieve the learning outcomes expected at the time of testing. They are likely to need additional support to progress satisfactorily.

The new report continues to show each student’s achievement against the national average and is more individualised. 

Diverse Learning

Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD) 

The Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD) takes place every year. The NCCD is a collection that counts: 

• the number of school students receiving an adjustment or ‘help’ due to disability • the level of adjustment they are receiving to access education on the same basis as other students. 

Students are counted in the NCCD if they receive ongoing adjustments at school due to disability. This ‘help’ allows them to access education on the same basis as a child without disability. 

At St MM’s, our teachers and staff are constantly monitoring and reviewing plans and adjustments in place for our students to help them fulfil their potential. We have a school-wide approach to this process and welcome collaboration with parents and carers. For more information on the NCCD please see the parent information letter  https://www.nccd.edu.au/sites/default/files/nccd_parent_fact_sheet_english_0.pdf 

Parent Helpers Needed

Do you have any spare time to volunteer as a parent helper to work 1:1 with students? If so, we would LOVE to hear from you. 

At St MM’s we have programs we use to help support the learning of students in the classroom. You will be provided with all materials, a script and answers! 

The more volunteers we have, the more students we can offer these programs to. So if you have any spare time in the week, could you please let me know by emailing danielle.frost@syd.catholic.edu.au 

To be a volunteer, Sydney Catholic Schools requires you to follow the steps below. You must hold a current WWCC (Working With Childrens Check) Volunteer Number to complete this process:

Go to the following link  

- select the orange bar working with children check,

- select the orange box on the right volunteers / researchers 

- complete the three steps 

If you do not have a WWCC, but would still like to volunteer, please email Danielle Frost anyway.