Learning and Teaching News
What is Success?
As educators, we often find ourselves asking the question - what is success?
Over the past couple of months, we have been privileged to see snapshots of individual and class performances as students rehearse for our school musical "This Is The Greatest Show".
To see students remember and confidently deliver countless lines with humour and perfect timing, is evidence of success.
To watch a student step up to the microphone and belt out a tune that makes your feet tap and heart sing, another sign of success.
To see families come together with great pride to celebrate the Sacrament of Eucharist with their son or daughter as they invest and participate more fully in the Catholic faith, another measure of success.
To enable 34 students to participate in the District Athletics Carnival and 11 representatives for Prep - Year 6 classes meet as a student voice committee to have a say about all the good and not so good things happening at school, more evidence of success.
Our very strong belief at SMDP, is that a primary school education must provide students with lots of opportunities to explore their talents, interests and self, and participate in experiences which engage or ignite their passions and unleash their creativity. This supports academic learning that is at the heart of all we do and our core business.
NAPLAN, as a national assessment in Literacy and Numeracy provides us with feedback about individual student performance and reliable data about grade level and school performance and growth. We also use NAPLAN to reflect on how our teaching and learning programs in Literacy and Numeracy are working and which areas need to be prioritised for improvement.
NAPLAN is completed in March making Year Three testing an evaluation of learning and teaching in Years Prep-Two, and for Year Five, evaluation of teaching and learning in Years Three and Four.
NAPLAN is one test that governments, education authorities, schools, teachers and parents use to determine whether or not young Australians have the critical literacy and numeracy skills for lifelong learning.
Our 2024 NAPLAN results have arrived and we are so proud of all our Year Three and Year Five learners. Their results are another example of success.
Despite media negativity, Victoria's 2024 NAPLAN results once again solidified its position as a leader in Australian education. Our state consistently outperformed other jurisdictions across multiple domains, including reading, writing and numeracy.
SMDP achieved impressive results.
SMDP performed above the state mean in Year 3 in Reading, Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation and Numeracy.
SMDP performed above the state mean in Year 5 in all areas, Reading, Writing, Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation and Numeracy.
Since 2023, new proficiency standards were introduced to measure achievement. The scale is below.
At SMDP:
86% of Year 5 students were at strong or exceeding in Writing
85% of Year 3 students were at strong or exceeding in Writing
84% of Year 5 students were at strong or exceeding in Numeracy
74% of Year 3 students were at strong or exceeding in Numeracy
85% of Year 5 students were at strong or exceeding in Reading
77% of Year 3 Students were at strong or exceeding in Reading
Writing was a particular highlight in our Year 5 2024 NAPLAN results. More than 80% of our students achieved at or above the expected level.
The staff at SMDP reflected on why our writing results were so high. They stated:
"Grammar in Context that was taught to the Year 5 students when in Grade 3 and 4 has made an impact on their writing"
"Mentor texts serve as invaluable tools in fostering students' writing skills. By analysing and imitating the techniques of published authors, our students have developed a deeper understanding of craft, structure, and effective communication when writing"
Below are some excerpts of what our students wrote during this year's NAPLAN Test where the topic was "The Boat".
Some Year 5 excerpts
Excerpt 1
Excerpt 2
Year 3 excerpt
We continue to use NAPLAN as one measure of academic success but always in a context where we seek opportunities to celebrate growth and identify areas for improvement.
If you would like to drill down on your child's NAPLAN results, please contact Denise or Elise.
Elise Coghlan
Co-Deputy Principal | Literacy & Numeracy Leader | Visible Learning Leader
Denise Kelly
Co-Deputy Principal | Learning & Teaching Leader