"BE INVOLVED AND BE CONNECTED"

While we wish we were able to welcome our students back on site, the recent announcement has been that lockdown will extend until the end of Term 3. We wish to encourage everyone to “be involved, and be connected.” As the lockdown goes on we are continually impressed with how involved and hardworking you all are. We have put together a breakdown of what “be involved, and be connected” means for our school for your interest. We do want to emphasise that, while it is incredibly important for our students to be engaging in their learning as much as possible, your own health and wellbeing must come first.

To that end there is a free webinar for parents and carers of young people being run by Headspace that you may be interested in. Information presented during this webinar will cover:

Understanding your young person, and recognising mental health difficulties
Managing the challenges of parenting young people today
Having better conversations with your young person
Connecting your young person with the right help and support

When:

Monday 13 September 2021 7:00pm – 8:00pm AEDT

How do I register?

Click here to register via Eventbrite,

or type the below URL below into your web browser: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/connecting-communicating-with-your-young-person-webinar-elsternwick-registration-167691871903

After you have registered, you will receive an email confirmation from Eventbrite which will include the Zoom meeting link to access the webinar.

For more information email:headspaceSchools@headspace.org.au

NAPLAN

The incredible resilience and hard work of Victorian educators, students and families has been reflected in the remarkable results for this year’s NAPLAN tests. NAPLAN is just a thermometer check, and is not reflective of all the amazing work and effort you and your children put in throughout their schooling career. It is just one measure, yet it is definitely worth celebrating that Victoria has ranked first in NAPLAN scores on average.

At South Melbourne Park Primary we have done exceptionally well, even compared to state. One measure that we look at when analysing NAPLAN results is the percentage of students in the top two bands of NAPLAN. All NAPLAN results fall into one of six bands, the bottom two bands are scores below the national minimum standard, the middle two bands are at standard and slightly above, and the top two bands are significantly above standard.

The percentage of students achieving in the top two bands for South Melbourne Park Primary can be seen below in comparison to the state scores.

Year 3:

	Reading	Writing	Spelling	Numeracy	Grammar and Punctuation
SMPPS	68%	59%	77%	47%	77%
State	60%	55%	50%	41%	60%

Year 5:

	Reading	Writing	Spelling	Numeracy	Grammar and Punctuation
SMPPS	72%	47%	56%	31%	61%
State	43%	20%	37%	33%	35%

Please note that we do have to be careful when using data like this considering the small number of students we have at our school. In 2021 we had 24 Year 3 students and 20 Year 5 students complete NAPLAN.

Individual results reports will be arranged for pick up by families, please keep an eye on Compass for more information.

FAMILY CHECK IN SURVEY

Thank you, everyone, for completing our Family Check In Survey! We had an amazing response rate to this most recent one and our teachers are busy looking through the feedback and working on any adjustments that they can put in place to support you. As always, thank you for staying connected, we really value hearing from you and we always act on what we receive.

WEAR IT PURPLE DAY

The last Friday in August each year is Wear It Purple Day – a day to support and celebrate young LGBTQIA+ people by fostering inclusive, safe environments.

Each colour in the rainbow flag represents a different element.

Red represents Life

Orange represents Healing

Yellow represents Sunlight

Green represents Nature

Blue represents Serenity

Violet represents Spirit

The updated rainbow flag adds five arrow-shaped lines to the six-coloured Rainbow Flag, which is widely recognised as the symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities.

The flag includes black and brown stripes to represent marginalised LGBT communities of colour, along with the colours pink, light blue and white, which are used on the Transgender Pride Flag.

INTRODUCING PORT MELBOURNE SECORDARY COLLEGE

There is very exciting news that we have a new secondary college opening nearby. Port Melbourne Secondary College will open its doors in 2022.

Please see this message from the Foundation Principal, Anne Stout, the former principal of Mac Robertson Girls College, along with some frequently asked questions about the school.

Next newsletter Thursday 16 Sep 2021

BE INVOLVED, BE CONNECTED

Next newsletter
Thursday 16 Sep 2021