Deputy Principal

Clancie Neilson 

Deputy Principal

ASSESSMENT

Our Year 11 students begin Exam Block in Week 9; this is a scheduled block of time designed to improve student outcomes by allocating set times for sitting exams, independent of regular lessons.  The value of this allocated time will be most beneficial to the students who use the time to consolidate their learning and appropriately prepare for their assessment. No appointments or optional absences should be booked during this time; students need to be aware that alternative timelines will not be negotiated, by the school, for absences that are unsupported by medical or other appropriate documentation. A parent letter stating ‘family reasons’ does not meet the criteria for negotiated timelines. To avoid stress and upset to students; please do not plan absences during term time and particularly during exam block.

As other year levels move towards the end of the term, it is timely to remind them all to remain on task, meet timelines and take advantage of the teacher support available.

Assessment Planners are available are in the Portal to guide them in keeping on track.

PARENT STUDENT TEACHER ONLINE

On Thursday 29th April, 2:00-6:30pm we will be having our first Parent Student Teacher interviews for 2021. We will be using the booking system called Parent Teacher Online (PTO) for these interviews.  Information, including the web address and how to access your user name and pin number will be emailed to parents at the end of this term (for those who have not provided the school with an email address, your information will be mailed out) – all you need to arrange is access to a computer. The system will open for bookings on Friday 2nd April at 3:00pm. Bookings and changes can be made up until 3:00pm on the day before interviews, however bookings are made on a first in, first served basis. If, after receiving your booking information, you have any questions please contact the school office. Please ensure your contact details are up to date.

NAPLAN ONLINE

St Mary’s Catholic College will be administering NAPLAN online in 2021.

The NAPLAN online 2020 test dates are:

Friday 14th May is final catch-up day; all NAPLAN tests will be finalised in this week. Please do not book appointments or holidays on these days.

To ensure school readiness and familiarise students with the format, we are required to run a Practice test in March this year. This is to check our network capabilities and to familiarise students and it does not provide a report on student performance. The Year 7 and 9 cohorts will be sitting the practice test in preparation for NAPLAN online this year. The Practice test is not reported on. The Practice test will run in Week 9, Term 1, on Thursday 25th March, session 3. All students should have downloaded the NAPLAN Locked Down Browser (and checked their device) prior to then. Students have had time provided for this to happen – refer to letter emailed home to parents.