Dear Parents and Carers,

Yesterday the annual student NAPLAN parent report for students in Years 3 and 5 was sent home. The report contains student results for numeracy, reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation on an achievement scale. The results provide parents and educators with a snapshot of how students are progressing – individually, as part of their school community, and against national standards over time. Of course, your child’s teacher knows your child’s learning best and the NAPLAN results need to be interpreted in light of classroom monitoring and assessment, teacher feedback, school reports and Personal Plans. The NAPLAN information adds to your child’s school-based comprehensive learning profile.

St Thomas More’s school staff also review the NAPLAN results from an individual and whole school perspective. This work helps us monitor our teaching, evaluate learning outcomes, set school-wide goals, evaluate curriculum and improve the accuracy of our individual analysis of student learning data.

While NAPLAN has its benefits, there can also be some angst attached to the process. I think the most important element, however, is “student growth”. The first thing I do when checking our school’s NAPLAN data is to chart individual student growth. This information is what we celebrate and promote the most.

Summer Sport Registration

It’s that time of year when our students are beginning to register for summer sport. If you are registering your child into a local community comp or sport, please let us know. We can arrange for the Class Contact to send out details to the class - we could have a few STM teams!

Dance Display

Today we had our dress rehearsal for our Dance Display next Wednesday night. It is all coming together! The dance display will begin at 7:00pm sharp next Wednesday, with a sausage sizzle running from 6:00pm. Pay on the night: $2 per sausage and $2 per drink. Remember, gold coin entry for the Dance Display.

Cuppa at the Gate

This Friday, from 8:20am, the School Community Council will be hosting “Cuppa at the Gate”. Stop by, grab a tea and coffee, browse the secondhand clothing pool and have a chat to SCC members.

Centred in Faith Gathering

Please join Year 1 for our Centred in Faith Gathering which will take place in Holy Faith Hall at 9:00am this Friday.

Yours sincerely,

Julie Wiley
Principal.