Principal's Message to the School Community

This week I would like to bring a local context to the reporting in the media this week about Year 4 reading levels in 2021 as reported below:

“Victorian students were the only Australian cohort to go backwards in a prestigious international reading exam, after experiencing the longest periods of remote learning in the nation.

The 2021 progress in international reading literacy study (Pirls) test, released on Tuesday, measured trends in year 4 students’ reading literacy across 57 nations.

It found Australia’s overall results remained relatively stable compared with the most recent survey in 2016, ranking 11th overall, while Victoria was a notable outlier, with the average student score falling 14 points”.

I would like to assure our community that this did not occur here at Kyneton Primary School. Since 2020 the percentage of Year 4 students achieving at or above age expected level in reading has increased from 75% in 2020 to 86% in 2022. Whilst those achieving below age expected level has decreased from 25% to 14%.

Congratulations to everyone in our community that helped ensure our students learning continued during those difficult Covid years.

I am sure you were all shocked to hear of the terrible school bus accident near Eynesbury this week.  All of our hearts and minds go out to all involved as well as the first responders.  We would like to let our community know that any time our children travel on buses on excursions or sporting events with their classroom teachers we ensure that seat belts are worn correctly at all times.  With many reminders and spot checks occurring during travel times.

Alistair Rayner

Principal