St Nicholas School

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Term 3 - Week 5

 

Welcome to Week 5,

 

This week I continue to explore our NAPLAN data by taking a deep dive into Year 5 Reading:

 

Situational Analysis

In March, 85 St Nicholas School students sat the Year 5 Reading NAPLAN Assessment, 39 (46%) were female and 46 (54%) were female.  Four (5%) students identify as of Aboriginal origin. 18 (21%) students are on a Personal Plan. 74 Year 5 students were enrolled at St Nicholas School in Kindergarten (2019) and 77 were enrolled by Year 3 (2022).

 

NAPLAN READING ANALYSIS 2024

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

Table 5B illustrates the percentage of St Nicholas School students in each standard. This data measures very well against the Nation (Table 5A). 80.2% of our students achieving a ‘Strong’ or ‘Exceeding’ standard is wonderful. So too, that no student was in the “Needs Additional Support” standard is wonderful.

 

The challenge for St Nicholas School moving forward is to move more students from the ‘Strong’ to the ‘Exceptional’ standard.

Table 5C presents St Nicholas School Year 5 Reading average alongside the System, Nation, State and NSW Inter Regional School averages. Noticeably, St Nicholas School is the only cohort to break the 500 mark. 

While our Year 5 Reading 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 5D displays, 58% of our students scored above every cohort's average, while 67% of our students scored above the Year 5 average for students located in Inter-regional NSW. These percentages highlight our learning and teaching is supporting all students and our averages are not reliant on high achievers.

“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 5E. 

 

Our Year 5 students whose attendance rate was above 90% in 2023 (Year 4), on average, scored an additional 11.47 marks than their peers whose 2023 attendance rate was below 90%. Due to our school's rigorous and sophisticated learning and teaching of reading, our children with consistently high attendance are being set up for success!

While table 5E clearly shows the importance of our children being at school, what do our NAPLAN Year 5 Reading results tell us in regards to the consistency of teaching across our school? Table 5F breaks our results into three cohorts:

  • Year 5 St Nicholas students enrolled at St Nicholas in Kindergarten 2019
  • Year 5 St Nicholas students enrolled at St Nicholas from Year 1 2020
  • Year 5 St Nicholas students enrolled at St Nicholas from Year 3 2022

Table 5F supports the positive position we are at St Nicholas School in regards to a strong reading culture across the entire school.

 

Conclusion

The deep analysis of our Year 5 NAPLAN reading data reinforces the strength of the learning and teaching of reading at St Nicholas. 

 

At St Nicholas School we should be proud of our reading culture. A culture that is founded on a rigorous and sophisticated learning and teaching program. A learning and teaching program developing “literate and numerate students for a hope filled future”.

 

Have a great week!

 

John Clery

Principal