THE LINK

Principals Report

It has been lovely to have some sunshine during our school days this week. I have loved getting outside during break times and seeing the students playing and having a great time together. Our Grade 6 students had a wonderful time away at camp for the first part of the week and I was very pleased to receive extremely positive feedback from the teachers about their time away. We are looking forward to having them all back at school tomorrow and hearing about all their wonderful adventures and activities. 

 

NAPLAN

Last week we received preliminary NAPLAN data and I am so pleased and proud to share that were thrilled with our results. We are achieving higher than our network of schools and similar schools in our area in almost every domain. We have worked hard on teacher collaboration, adjusting our planning to meet point of need and implementing the Professional Learning Community Framework over the past 12 months and have the evidence to show it is making a difference. I celebrate every teacher and ES staff member who are making an incredibly positive impact on each student, every day and can’t wait to share the results with our school community at our Term 4 parent forum (save the date - Tuesday 10th October, 7-8.30pm). Grade 3 and 5 students will be bringing their individual NAPLAN results home this Friday. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to your teachers for further clarification if needed.

NAPLAN helps governments, education authorities and schools to see whether young Australians are reaching important literacy and numeracy goals. It provides information about how education programs are working, areas for improvement, and which schools need support in the teaching and learning of literacy and numeracy.

It can support school improvement by enabling teachers to monitor their students’ progress against the national measure, to identify strengths and areas to improve in teaching programs. It provides additional information to support teacher judgement about progress in a child’s level of literacy and numeracy attainment.

NAPLAN also allows parents to see how their child is progressing against national standards in literacy and numeracy. As students progress through their school years, it’s important that checks are made along the way to see how well they are learning the essential skills of reading, writing and mathematics – skills that will set them upon the path to success as adults.

NAPLAN offers students an insight into where they are at on their learning journey. By sitting NAPLAN and trying their best, students help to make sure teachers and schools have the right information to help every student in Australia get the support they need to reach their full potential.

Literacy and numeracy are core to a well-rounded education and are essential life skills that students develop in every aspect of daily life, no matter what further education or career path they take. Students can’t fail NAPLAN as it’s not that type of test – they should just try their best.

NB  - NAPLAN tests are one aspect of each school’s assessment and reporting process, and do not replace the extensive, ongoing assessments made by teachers about each student’s performance.

Professional Learning Community (PLC)

At WEPS our staff work together as a Professional Learning Community. We focus on school improvement where our teachers work collaboratively to improve student outcomes.​

WEPS believe students learn more when their teachers work together. 

WEPS commits to PLC, as it is a proven way for schools to increase student learning by creating a culture that is:

  • focussed on continuous improvement by linking the learning needs of students with the professional learning and practice of teachers
  • committed to professionalism
  • fuelled by collaborative expertise

 

As part of our PLC process we have recently conducted Learning Walks (classroom observations) to investigate student engagement through a lens of High Expectations. We notice, document and share observations with teachers, celebrate what is working well and form wonderings around areas for improvement.  This term our focus has been on ‘High Expectations’ as, research suggest high expectations promote both students' academic achievement and their wellbeing. The result of this process affirmed what is working well – calm classrooms, teachers knowing their students, teachers making reasonable adjustments to meet each student’s point of need and students knowing what they are learning and why. We have identified some areas to work on – the impact of student behaviour on learning (self and others), identifying the small things that make the biggest difference in relation to high expectations and engaging students in the development of their success criteria related to the learning and how this is displayed and monitored.  We are working together to work through these wonderings by forming some learning community and whole school actions. 

 

Foundation 2024

It is time to finalise Foundation 2024 enrolments. We currently have healthy numbers enrolled, but want to make sure all existing families have handed enrolment forms in, as we begin the acceptance process. Please make sure enrolments are in no later than tomorrow to assist with our planning process. 

 

Student Illness

We have noticed an increased number of students coming to school when they are visibly unwell. Please remember it is important to keep your child home and take time to recover, and of course stop the spread of germs and infecting others. We sincerely thank you for your support and understanding.