Principal

NAPLAN: Strong Progress Over the Last Two Years 

In the last week, NAPLAN 2021 results were published on the myschool website. It is disappointing to see newspapers creating league tables about achievement when what we really need to do is focus on what progress students have made.  

 

Depending on the socio-economic make up of the school population, its gender balance and geographic location, student achievement will vary. You would expect students at a privileged school like St Patrick’s College to do well. We need to dig a little deeper at PROGRESS and look for how each boy is travelling. 

 

The best way to improve achievement is to focus on individual learning progress. Understanding student learning growth, not just achievement, is important. Student progress measures tell us how much students improve from one year to the next. Students who fall behind will never start to close the gap unless their rate of learning accelerates. 

 

I am happy with the progress that our boys have made between Years 5 to 7 and Years 7 to 9 in 2021 after two years of pandemic disruption. 

 

Percentage of SPC Students Making Above Average Progress* 

Years 5 to 7 

2019-2021 

Reading 

57 

Writing 

56 

Numeracy 

51 

Years 7 to 9 

2019-2021 

Reading 

51 

Writing 

53 

Numeracy 

48 

*Compared to students of a similar background and who have the same starting score on their previous NAPLAN test. 

 

Parents/carers often ask what they can be doing at home to improve their son’s progress. 

Reading at home 

Support their learning: 

  • help your son gather newspaper, magazine and journal articles for a topic of interest at school. Help him find information on internet sites
  • talk to your son about what they have been reading on the Internet. What have they learnt? What questions do they still have? Where else could they find information that would be useful? 
  • talk to your son’s teacher about available books and resources that relate to your son’s interests
  • read through your son’s homework tasks and questions together and talk about what he is planning to do to finish the homework
  • play card and board games as a family. Increase the challenge – it really helps children’s learning. 

Here's a tip: be a great role model. Let your son see you enjoying reading – whether it’s the newspaper, a magazine, a comic, a cookbook or a novel. Read magazines, newspapers and books in your first language. 

 

Read together: 

  • for a young, reluctant reader, read your son a novel that they are interested in – try one or two chapters each day. Audio books in the car and using headphones are a great way for slow readers to build confidence
  • get your son to listen to younger siblings doing their reading homework (this is a good chance for him to practise some of his own reading skills)
  • you can remind him about pausing while a younger child thinks about a word they don’t know, giving them help to work out the word, and giving him/her praise for their reading too
  • have books, magazines, comics, newspapers, and other information available for everyone in your family to read on topics that interest your son – e.g., skateboarding, surfing, fashion
  • listen together to CDs and mp3s of your son’s favourite stories, books and songs. 

Here's a tip: be positive whenever your son is reading, no matter what they are reading. Respect your son’s opinion as it shows they are thinking about what they read. 

 

Hunt out things to read:

  • take a trip to the library and help your son to find books, audio books and magazines that they will enjoy reading – e.g., books about their favourite musician, movie star, sports celebrity or other role model
  • find books or magazines that tell stories about who your son is and where they have come from
  • find a difficult puzzle book to work on together
  • read and talk about advertising signs you see – talk about how the company decided on the words and the design, and who they are trying to appeal to with the advertising
  • use a map to find directions for a trip you are going on or follow the journeys of people on travel and adventure programs
  • get some instruction books from the library on how to plan for and make food, gifts, or toys, for family birthdays or Christmas. Work through the instructions with your son
  • find some recipes together that your son might like to cook for a family treat. Be there to help your son as they read through the recipe, get all the ingredients and create the final result. 

Writing at home 

Write for a reason 

Help your son to: 

  • write a letter or an email to a newspaper editor, radio announcer or television broadcaster sharing your son’s opinion on a topic of interest in the news 
  • start a blog/wiki on the Internet and get your son to record thoughts about their day to share with their friends and family 
  • write a proverb, family motto or pepeha and illustrate it with images from the Internet or photo albums 
  • develop a spreadsheet on the computer to record the progress of your son’s sports team including games played, performances given, penalties, scores, player/performer of the day 
  • start a writing journal to record trips and weekend activities 
  • take some photos using a digital camera and write a picture book for a younger son using the photos 
  • write a comic using drawings and graphic design to present an idea or story 
  • make some birthday cards, thank you notes or letters to friends and family. 

Here's a tip: be a great role model. Show your son that you write for many reasons, e.g., replying to an email, writing a shopping list, invitation or letter, writing a story about your early life for your son to read. 

 

Make writing fun

Get together with your son to: 

  • play strategy games and do word puzzles like word search puzzles and crosswords 
  • make the weekly shopping list using supermarket flyers and find all the bargains and savings to fit the budget 
  • write some descriptions for items you may wish to sell using the Internet 
  • find out about some of your family history and/or family stories and record these stories to share with other family members. 

Here's a tip: make writing fun and use any excuse you can think of to encourage your son to write about anything, anytime. 

 

Talk about writing with your son:

  • ask him about a piece of writing they are doing at school and/or for their homework
  • tell him about some writing you are currently doing – a letter, a poem, a list for the holidays, a scrapbook, something you are doing for work or study 
  • help him to use dictionaries and thesaurus (both paper and Internet versions)
  • here's a tip: talk about what your son writes. Be interested. Use it as a way of starting conversations. Listen to your son's opinion, even if you don’t agree with it. 

Mathematics at home 

Talk together and have fun with numbers and patterns.

 

Help your son: 

  • find and connect numbers around your home and on family outings, e.g., read the odometer on the car to see how many kilometres the car can go on a tank of petrol  Get him to note how much it costs to refill, then work out how much it costs per kilometre 
  • talk about sales in town – 15% off, 33%, 20%, half price. Look for the best value. What would the price of the item be after the discount? Is it better to buy two items and get one free or get 25% off the price of the items? 
  • budget pocket money and/or plan ahead to open a savings account or reach a savings target. Talk about earning interest. Calculate what interest would be earned using different savings schemes 
  • work out the floor area of your home, sports stadium – how many square metres is it? 
  • talk about goals and plan ahead to budget for items for himself or for others 
  • do complicated number puzzles. 

Here's a tip: the way your son is learning to solve mathematics problems may be different to when you were at school. Get him to show you how they do it and support him in his learning. 

 

Use easy, everyday activities 

 

Involve your son in: 

  • planning to help make a dish or a full meal for the family or even a community event at the hall – working out the cost of making it at home versus buying it already made, planning the preparation and cooking time – and focus on the ingredients and the amounts of fat and sugar, too
  • planning what proportion of their own, or their brother’s and sister’s, time should be spent on tasks (like homework, sleep, TV, sport) to make sure there’s time left for fun and family 
  • watching documentaries, which are full of facts and information using mathematics 
  • reading the newspaper to find articles or advertisements featuring graphs or tables. 

Here's a tip: talk with your son’s teacher to understand what they are learning in mathematics and what the learning is in the homework they’re doing. 

 

For wet afternoons/school holidays/weekends 

 

Get together with your son and: 

  • play games: find new card and board games that use strategy 
  • calculate the chance of their favourite team winning the tournament. Investigate how many points they need and work out what their competitors need as well 
  • play outdoor games – skateboarding, Frisbee, touch rugby, cricket, soccer, basketball 
  • plan and perform a rap, dance and draw up the outline of the dance steps on graph paper 
  • make a present or gift for someone using a scrapbook, quilting, collage, painting, carving, knitting, sewing or carpentry 
  • plan for when you have saved $10/$20/$30. What would be the best use of that money for a day out? 

Here's a tip: being positive about mathematics is really important for your son’s learning, even if you didn’t enjoy it or do well at it yourself at school. 

Acknowledgements 

It brings me great pride and joy when I am contacted by a community organisation acknowledging the service and contribution of our students to a community-focused program, leading by example and living the College motto of ‘Luceat Lux Vestra’.  

 

I acknowledge and congratulate Luca Ortado (Year 6) and Isaac Neville (Year 6) who contributed to the Kids Giving Back community program during the December/January school holidays. Their contribution resulted in 5,000 meals, care packs and new backpacks of school supplies for those in need being prepared and distributed. A total of 11 charities were assisted as a result of their work which supports the homeless and vulnerable in the community.  

 

Congratulations boys!  

 

Dr Vittoria Lavorato

Principal

 

SPC boys can do anything!

** except divide by zero