Principal
Dear Parents,
It is hard to believe that we are already in May!
Next week all our students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 will be sitting the NAPLAN (National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy) tests.
NAPLAN only tests areas of literacy and numeracy; and is a narrow assessment of educational progress and does not encapsulate all that education needs to be for our children and our future generation.
Of course, we all want excellent results for our children and for the College – but real growth whether our children are low or high academic performers, needs to be seen in how they have improved on their own results.
Your child’s ‘effort’ and their ‘improvement’ are more solid indicators of their future success than just reviewing their raw score and comparing this mark with their peers.
If your child’s marks/efforts are improving, congratulate them and ask them “what has helped your results to improve?” If their results are not improving, ask your child and their teacher, “what do they need to do to help improve their results?” and together put these strategies into place to assist your child’s learning.
Always encourage effort over results and let your child know that you love them because they are your child, not because of how they perform in their school results.
Improvement at St Andrews Christian College
St Andrews is recognised nationally as a high performing school in NAPLAN, but it was an email from ACARA (Australian Curriculum and Reporting Assessment) in March that was really encouraging to receive.
This email congratulated St Andrews on our NAPLAN results from last year, as we were identified as a high gain school that demonstrated substantial NAPLAN improvement in both reading and numeracy.
This is exciting, because it is about real growth and improvement.
Devotions for all our community at St Andrews
Everyday before school commences, staff gather together for devotions. This is a beautiful time where staff share what God is doing in their life; share Bible truths; encourage each other in our spiritual journeys and pray for each other and the College.
One morning each week we also visit a different classroom where we pray for all the students in that classroom.
Twice a term we are calling our community (parents and students) to join us so we can worship and pray together for the College.
Please join us for our first Community Devotions Time together on Wednesday 10th May at 8:15am (till 8:30am) in the Meeting Room, next to the Library, upstairs in the Innovation Centre.
Prayer was a priority in Jesus’ life and it needs to be a priority in the life of St Andrews. Jesus didn’t pray because He had to pray, He wanted to pray so He could be united with and empowered by the Father.
Let’s pray together for each other, our children and for the College. “Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
HAPPY MOTHERS’ DAY to
all our Mums on Sunday 14th May.
May you be truly blessed not just on Sunday
but in the privileged role of being a Mum.
Be Blessed!
Catriona Wansbrough
Principal