From the Principal 

Principals Message - Term 3 2024

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to Term 3!

Students and teachers have hit the ground running, jumping straight back into learning. Our students are so settled and happy to be back. I just love seeing their huge smiles and zesty eagerness when they stop to chat to tell me about their day.

NAPLAN

I briefly spoke to students and parents at our assembly last Friday about our NAPLAN results for 2024 and said that I would provide more detailed information in this week’s newsletter. I am so very proud of what we have been able to achieve in the 2.5 years that we have been operating as the first school in Kalkallo. I would like to share our results with you so that you too, can feel proud of our students and our educators.

Our teachers at Gilgai Plains are here for one reason. They want to make a positive difference in the educational outcomes of the children they teach. They work incredibly hard together to ensure that every child experiences growth in their learning. Results such as these, confirm that they are doing an outstanding job, and as a leadership team, we are incredibly proud.

NAPLAN is The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy and assesses literacy and numeracy skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life. Students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 participate in the annual NAPLAN tests in reading, writing, language conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy.

The tests provide parents and schools with an understanding of how individual students are performing. NAPLAN tests are just one aspect of a school’s assessment and reporting process; they do not replace ongoing assessments made by teachers about student performance. NAPLAN tests also provide schools, education authorities and governments with information about how education programs are working and importantly, allows us as a school to see how we compare to similar schools.

In the data below, you will see our results compared to similar schools, and network schools. Similar schools are schools with statistically similar backgrounds (size, economic background and cultural data) from all around Victoria. Network schools are the schools from our region which is Hume North.

As a baseline, when we first opened our school in 2022, we had students coming from many different schools and locations and our NAPLAN data was well below both similar schools and network schools. We have worked very hard and have been committed to offering the very best teaching and learning programs. Everything we do and every decision that we make is always based on high level research and evidence. Our staff have undergone extensive professional learning to improve their practice and make them experts in their field. Our student outcome data has shown huge improvement in a very short space of time. 

Below are the results showing the percentage of students who are in the top 2 proficiency levels for each assessment area. I have included the results for Year 3 and then Year 5.

NAPLAN Year 3 2024 results

NAPLAN Year 5 2024 results

Gilgai Plain’s growth for Year 5 students from 2022 to 2024, compared to other schools in the state of Victoria.

We are very proud of what we as a school have achieved and what we will continue to achieve as we grow.

Grounds

It’s hard not to notice our new outdoor project that is currently underway. The cover over our courts will offer shade from the sun and protection from the rain and provide us with another great space for our physical education program. The cover is due to be completed by the beginning of August, just a couple of weeks away. We will have some other projects coming up in the near future and I will keep you updated.

Learning Conferences

I hope you were all able to attend our Learning Conferences on Thursday and catch up with the wonderful achievements your child/children are making in their learning. I would like to say a big thank you to our amazing teachers for the dedication they have to improving their student’s learning and educational outcomes and the hard work and commitment they have towards their profession. We are very fortunate that they chose Gilgai Plains Primary to be their work home.

Thank you to parents and carers for your continuing support of our school.

Anthea Jamieson

Principal