Dear Parents and Carers,

It was wonderful to acknowledge the hard work of our students last week with our very own St Pius X Well Being Week. It certainly has been a term full of challenges and the children were rewarded for their hard work and resilience with an easing of tasks. I particularly enjoyed the daily story time zooms and it was wonderful to have over 100 plus children join us for this special time.

This week I had the great pleasure of signing off on our Adventure Playground, as the works have now been completed. The space looks fabulous and I am sure the children will be looking forward to experiencing all the equipment on their return to school. I would like to acknowledge the work of our consultative committee, including Danielle Chapman and Kathy Hicks. We have had a few obstacles along the way but never gave up!

Finally, I hope that you enjoy the opportunity to step away from “Remote” learning for the student break. I look forward to welcoming our boys and girls back to remote learning  on Tuesday 5^th October, following the long weekend. 

End of Term Prayer

We thank you Lord, for this term.
For the challenges, the successes, and the mistakes from which we have learnt.
Be with us as we spend our time with family and friends.
Give us strength and courage to do what is right: to be witnesses of our faith. Help us to be a practical Christian these holidays, to appreciate what others do for us, to give time and effort to help others.
To be peacemakers in our family.
Keep us safe in our activities; give us good rest and good fun.
We thank you for our classmates, teachers, parents
And a community that cares for us.
May we always be conscious of you in our lives.
Amen

Yours Sincerely,

Pauline Chrostowski - Principal

National Assessment Program-Literacy and Numeracy

NAPLAN Results have arrived and these were posted to you earlier in the week.

I want to say how impressed I am with our school data for this year! We are above the State, Nation and CEDoW Wollongong schools for mean (average), in every single domain in both Year 3 and Year 5, significantly in most cases. What an achievement!

What each Band means.

Year 3:               Year 5:

Band 1               Band 3               -             Students are below the National                                                                             Minimum Standards

Band 2               Band 4               -             Students are at the National Minimum                                                                    Standards

Band 3-6           Band 5-8            -             Students are above the National                                                                              Minimum Standards

Above 6             Above 8             -             Students sit in the triangle above on                                                                       parent report

Taken from the NAPLAN Parent Example Paper:

NAPLAN is a national assessment that allows you to see how your child is progressing in literacy and numeracy. Literacy and numeracy skills are the critical foundation for all learning. NAPLAN is the only national assessment that all Australian children can undertake.

This report should be considered together with school-based assessments and reports. Use this report for conversations with your child’s teacher about their progress

Literacy assessment

The literacy assessments measured student achievement in reading, writing and language conventions.

Reading: Students were required to read a range of texts and answer questions of varying difficulty to show their understanding of the material.

Writing: Students were instructed to respond to a writing prompt. This writing task required students to generate and organise ideas and demonstrate their skills in vocabulary use, sentence structure, spelling and punctuation.

Language Conventions: Students were required to identify and correct spelling errors and answer questions on aspects of grammar and punctuation.

Numeracy assessment

The numeracy assessment measured student achievement across number and algebra; measurement and geometry; and statistics and probability. Questions required students to apply mathematical knowledge, skills and understanding in a variety of contexts

Where to next?

As a school we analyse  and discuss this data and align it with classroom teacher gathered data, other standardised testing and observations and come up with a focus for our instructional coach role and teacher direction in 2022.

Information Session

Two Zoom OPTIONAL  information sessions will be offered to year Three and Tear Five parents early next term to unpack the results, In the interim if you have any individual enquiries about your child’s results please contact your child’s teacher.

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