Assistant Principal's Report
As a school, there are many ways that we assess and track student learning. Some of these assessment practices may involve daily or weekly monitoring and allow us to tailer learning for students in the short term. At the other end of the spectrum, we conduct summative assessments that allow us to track student progress over longer periods of time. These assessments provide us with an overall health check about whether programs we have in place are being successful. Assessments such as NAPLAN and PAT fall into this category.
The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is a literacy and numeracy assessment that students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 participate in each year. It is the only national assessment that all Australian students can undertake and assesses the essential skills of reading, writing and numeracy. These assessments are one way that schools, DECYP and government track progress over time.
When we look at our own school progress over time it is important to remember that when we implement new programs or instructional practices, we may not see significant changes in data for up to 3- 5 years. Over the last 3-5 years you may have heard terms like “reading/number groups” in the primary area or Literacy and Numeracy Growth in the secondary setting. These programs/structures ensure that literacy and numeracy learning is being targeted based on student need.
Whilst we won’t share all the NAPLAN data with you today (as there is a lot), we are EXCITED to share a few insights directly related to our school improvement priorities of Reading and Numeracy.
The aspect of our NAPLAN data we are most excited about is the level of learning growth the results are showing across all grades. The snippet below highlights some areas of Growth that are certainly worth celebrating.
The set of graphs below shows how our Penguin District School students achieved in terms of mean scale scores compared to other “similar schools.” Eg, schools serving students from statistically similar backgrounds. Please note that all grades performed above similar schools in both reading and numeracy. Our staff will take a deeper dive into our NAPLAN data in coming weeks.
IMPORTANT – Parent early pick-ups
If you are required to pick up your child during school hours, please come to the Admin block first as per the DECYP safeguarding requirements. I hope you can appreciate that this is to ensure the safety of ALL our students.
Book Week
Book Week is always an exciting time of year for all of us here at Penguin District School. Whilst we celebrate books on a daily basis in every classroom, Book Week really does put a spot-light on the power of reading and the impact that great books have on our students. Reading really is magic!
Reminder - Our annual dress-up day will take place on Wednesday August 21.
Australian Maths Competition
I had the pleasure of supporting our budding young Mathematicians this week as they took on the Australian Maths Competition. Congratulations to all students involved. Your persistence and willingness to persevere on some challenging mathematical problems was exceptional.
Yours in partnership
Adrian Beard