From the Principal's desk 

This week NAPLAN results were released across Australia and after reading through them we could not be prouder of the children, their teachers, and their families. We will be sending the individual reports out to families by post next week but we have once again performed strongly against like and state schools benchmarks. In Year 3 in the main areas of Reading and Writing, we had more children in the Top Two bands than schools similar to us. In Year 5 in Reading, Writing, and Numeracy we had more students in the top two bands than like schools and also higher than the state in Numeracy. An area we will need to focus on over the next year will be our Year 3 Numeracy where we were lower than similar schools and the state. 

 

It is not only in Year 3 & 5 that our students have been excelling, our approach to intervention has been also yielding some great results. Through extra funding from the Tutor Learning Initiative and careful investment of school funding Sue Herlihy, Faye Holmes, Penny Naish, Denise Riordan, Alla Duke have also been working with students who we identified at the start of the year who had not grown in their learning by 12 months in 2020. This included children above, at, and below standard. Early analysis of data has shown that all children in the program have grown by more than 6 months in the first semester. There have been a significant proportion of children who have grown by 12 months or more. Jody Tilley has also been working across the school with students we have identified as having high abilities in Maths and we are seeing some great results.

 

So overall despite the extremely challenging two years we have had and a future where goalposts keep shifting our children have shown remarkable resilience. I take my hat off to the remarkable staff in our school and all parents and carers who are managing Zoom and Team meetings, Compass, Seesaw, and also in many cases trying to work from home! 

This weekend is father's day. A time where we celebrate the important Dads, Grandfathers, Uncles, or others in our lives that take care of us. I hope everyone enjoys this time with their families and who knows maybe next year we will be able to have our school morning breakfast again.

Take Care

Debbie Oliver

Principal