From the Principal 

This term I was proud to attend the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning Achievement Awards. On the day we saw eight of our 2021 VCAL students awarded the Intermediate Team Award (for students). The team was recognized for their ‘End Family Violence Now!’ community awareness project where they demonstrated their civic mindedness, conflict resolution and leadership skills. Congratulations to Orieyo, Chanel, Kaylah, Chelsea, Soli, William, Marshall and Nathan. Montana from Year 12 was awarded the School Based Apprenticeship/Trainee Award which acknowledged her determination, dedication and commitment to her VCAL studies and her Head Start auto technician apprenticeship in 2021. Thanks to her boss Con Kafetzis from Berwick Mazda for joining us at the ceremony. 

Congratulations to all staff that have worked with and supported these students throughout the course of their education.

In recent weeks our Year 7 and 9 students undertook the 2022 NAPLAN tests. 

If you Google NAPLAN you will see a lot of debate about its benefits and increasingly the detrimental impact of it on both students and school communities. 

Originally it was designed as a diagnostic tool for teachers to monitor their students' performance, identify their strengths and weaknesses and hence target their teaching program. It also helped parents understand if their child was meeting minimum literacy and numeracy standards.

In schools, NAPLAN has become a high stakes test used to compare schools and form judgements about the quality of teaching and learning in those schools. This has led to schools and teachers feeling pressured to teach to the test, which meant they spent less time teaching other important and engaging parts of the curriculum. At Cranbourne East Secondary College we have not adopted this approach we have continued to invest time and energy into all areas of a broad curriculum.

At previous schools I have shared the following words that I found on-line (I am unsure of their actual origin) but i believe it is a great message to our students and ask you to share it with your child between now and receiving their results:

Tests like NAPLAN do not assess everything that makes each of you exceptional and unique.

The people who score these tests don't know that some of you have beautiful singing voices, can dance gracefully or are clever at teaching others how to use computer programs. The people who score these tests have not seen the way you love to help your teachers when no one else is around. They have not heard you speak confidently to a large group and have never seen how amazing and detailed your drawings are. They do not know that you are always there for your friends when they are feeling sad.　

They do not know that you love sports or that you have a brilliant footy kick. They do not know that you have just played eight games of basketball over the last three days as you so desperately want to get into the representative team. 

The people who score these tests do not know that you get your little sister breakfast some mornings and pack your own lunch when Mum and Dad are busy. They do not know that you are kind, thoughtful and caring. They do not know that every day at school, you always do your best. They do not know this because things like this cannot be tested.

The scores you get from tests like NAPLAN will tell you how well you did on these three days, but they will not tell you everything. These scores can't tell you that you can now understand how to do long division that you once found difficult. These scores can't tell you that you now know how natural disasters impact communities. These scores can't tell you that your beautiful smile each morning lights up your teacher's day. These scores can't tell you how amazing and special each and every one of you are.

Remember, there is no one way to 'test' all of the wonderful things that make you special.

As a school, when we receive the results we will delve into the data and look for areas of success as well as identify areas that will need further focus and energy. Our aim is to continue to improve learning outcomes for all students and our focus will continue to be on growth data (improvements made across a two year period). We will remain cognisant of the fact that there is no one way to 'test' all of the wonderful things that make each of our students’ special.

The remainder of this term is going to be very busy as we head into our 10-12 exam period and report writing in preparation to move into our Semester 2 classes in week 9. 

I would also like to take this opportunity to remind parents and carers that Friday 17 June will be a pupil free day to accommodate the return of Professional Practice Days for teaching staff.