From the

Assistant Principal 

Dear Parents / Carers,

Welcome to Term Three. Our staff launched the term with a day of rich discussions, deep thinking and planning actions. We worked with Literacy Consultant and Author Alan Wright and our goal is to make our writing workshops even better. Our teachers developed a greater understanding on how to support our developing writers in the study of process and craft. There are many packages on the market that schools can use to implement a writing program. We have made a decision to skill our teachers with what it means to plan and develop a study of writing in the classroom rather than following a commercial package.  Our reading and writing programs are very closely linked because it is through the study of what published authors do that our students understand how to apply this in their own writing.  We want our students to make conscious decisions and choices in their own writing. We want them to be self-starters which means that they already know what they are going to write about when they enter the classroom each day.

The 2023 NAPLAN results are due to be released this month. However, there has already been much written about the changes in the reporting of the 2023 results. Previously, there were 10 assessment bands and this is now down to four proficiency categories.  Experts are predicting that more than 30% of students will perform in the two lowest bands of proficiency. In other words, they will not meet the benchmark.

In March, our Year 3 and 5 students participated in NAPLAN – National Assessment Program: Literacy and Numeracy. This in itself was a change from previous years where the assessments were conducted in May. We need to hold all of this in perspective as one assessment at one point in time. Our teachers collect ongoing evidence all day every day about student learning. I encourage all parents to attend the upcoming Parent Teacher Conferences as these will provide a more accurate assessment of student learning.

Parent Teacher Conferences will be held on Wednesday 2 August (3:30pm - 7:15pm) and Thursday 3 August (3:30pm - 5:30pm).  All parents are invited to take the opportunity to discuss their child’s learning progress with both classroom and specialist teachers.  Bookings will open on Wednesday 19 July at 9am.

Kind regards,

Tiffany Bamford

Assistant Principal