Education News

The Book fair is coming to CSPS. 

The theme of our Scholastic Book Fair is Dino-Mite, where we hope you will Stomp, Chomp, and Read! It’s a fun reading event that brings the books kids want to read right into our school. It’s a wonderful selection of engaging and affordable books for every reading level and much more. Don’t forget our amazing posters and stationery too. 

Dates: 20th, 21st to the 23 rd of March 2023. Time: 3.30pm – 4.15pm

 Place: The Hub (Library) 

Special activities: Coloring in Competition and Guess the Pirate Gold in the jar. 

**Just a reminder that we Do Not do online purchases. This event only takes **EFTPOS ONLY** no cash. 

We look forward to seeing you and your family at our Book Fair! Remember, all purchases benefit our school.

In week 7, from Wednesday 15 March NAPLAN will be implemented for Year 3 and 5 students. 

Tips for helping our student 

Tip #1: Ask your child how they are feeling about NAPLAN

This is the best place to start as it will give you a good understanding of what you need to do to support your child through the NAPLAN testing this year.

Are they feeling anxious about it? Are they concerned about the test results?

Encourage your child to talk about how they are feeling, so you can identify as a parent how you can best support, and encourage them throughout the week.

Tip #2: Get familiar with the NAPLAN test structure & layout

One of the best ways to help students prepare for NAPLAN is for students to go through a NAPLAN practice test.

This doesn’t mean they need to complete all the questions, but they should at least read over the practice test to look at the types of questions and the style of the paper.

This helps students get more confident before going into the NAPLAN tests and also helps them become more familiar with the structure, layout and wording, so they don’t miss anything!

https://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/public-demonstration-site 

Tip #3: Get comfortable with completing NAPLAN online

Your child will be sitting the online version of NAPLAN we recommend they take the time prior to the test to complete some practice questions online to get comfortable with using the technology and submitting answers successfully.

Tip #4: Plan how to use your time

One of the big things that most students struggle with in any test is time and running out of it!

Often this is a result of not having a plan for how to use their time.

Talk about with them what this means for how long they can spend on questions and what to do if they get stuck on a specific question. Should they keep trying to solve it, or move on?

Tip #5: Discuss how to tackle certain types of questions

If they don’t understand a question, what should they do?

Discuss how important it is to re-read the question first, before panicking and guessing the answer!

For multiple choice questions, discuss how can they use a process of elimination to give themselves the best chance of getting the answer correct, and run through applying this with them on a practice question.

Tip #6: Practice brainstorming ideas for writing topics

In the Writing component of NAPLAN students will need to write an informative, narrative or persuasive piece of writing. And this means coming up with ideas.

While some students are full of creative ideas, many students struggle with coming up with good ideas in exam conditions.

Remind them that they know the structure of what to write and how to write.  Just keep going!

Tip #7: Get a good night’s sleep

Getting a good night of sleep helps short and long term memory performance, the ability to focus, decision making capacity, math processing and cognitive speed — all things that can make a big difference in tests!

So making sure your child gets a good night sleep the night before can make a big difference!

Tip #8: Stick to your normal morning routine

Sticking to your normal morning routines is very important as it will help normalise the day for students (particularly if they are feeling anxious or stressed!).

Act like it’s just another normal day of school and go through all the typical things you would do in preparation for a day of school.

The less you can change about the morning the better to help your child arrive at school relaxed and ready!

Tip #9: Focus on the process and not the results

Shift the conversation from the results of NAPLAN, to the process.

Instead of focusing on results (which can make student feel anxious and impact on their exam performance) discuss with your child what they can learn from the experience.

NAPLAN represents an opportunity to learn how to get better at taking tests, to learn how to deal with and overcome test anxiety, and to identify their strengths and where they can work to get better!

Tip #10: Be positive and create perspective for your child

If your child comes home from the first day of NAPLAN and has had a bad day, be encouraging and transition the focus to the future. Ask them what can they do differently for the next day of NAPLAN to improve?

So focus on what they can change, rather than what has happened.

It’s also important to help them get perspective. Even if they don’t do well, explore with them what’s the worst that can happen? They may have ideas in their head that are entirely inaccurate and speaking about this can help them find perspective!