NAPLAN Results go home
Years 3, 5 and 7 NAPLAN test results have been sent home today. This year Star of the Sea School was one of twenty Catholic schools that trialled the NAPLAN online test. The NAPLAN online used an adaptive test design, which presented questions that better matched student achievement levels, aimed to provide a more precise result for teachers to interpret. Each child was presented with questions that were intuitive with how the student was performing in the test and varied in the range of difficulty. Only Year 5 and 7 students completed the writing test online.
I remind parents that no matter how well the NAPLAN test is designed it is one test on one day in the life of your child and is only a snap shot of your child’s ability. NAPLAN tests do not assess all of what makes our children exceptional and unique. The people who score these tests do not know that some of our children love to sing, some are good at drawing or others can teach you how to use a computer. They have not seen the way our children dance with grace or speak confidently to an audience. They do not know that our children participate in sports or play a musical instrument. They do not know that our students are caring, thoughtful, respectful and that every day they try their very best.
The scores from these NAPLAN tests do provide valuable information and tell the children how well they did on the test days.
As a staff we will review in detail the school data and we will seek to highlight those areas where improvement in our teaching and curriculum delivery can be achieved. Please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher should you want further information about your child’s NAPLAN results.
Marine Discovery Centre Refurbishment
During the holidays Cook Building Constructions will take over the MDC for the long awaited make-over. Using the $170,000 from the Fund My Neighbourhood grant the MDC will receive a transformation that will include a complete repaint, new purpose lighting, new timber decking and entrance, new joinery, a Kaurna Learning Room and new whale and dolphin models.
We look forward to moving back into the renovated MDC in October.
Recently I have been reading a book by Donalyn Miller called the ‘The Book Whisperer’. In her book she speaks passionately about creating a reading culture. Donalyn compares the learning of any new skill – driving a car or learning a new sport to learning how to read. The more time you spend reading the better you are going to be at it. During the holidays I encourage all children to keep up their reading and keep using their reading muscles.
To all of our families and children I hope you have an enjoyable holiday break to recharge the batteries and have down time from school routines, and enjoy plenty of opportunity to relax and read.
Joe De Tullio
