Dear Parents, Guardians, Students and Other Parishioners,
On Tuesday night I was fortunate enough to catch an interesting discussion about the use of NAPLAN on the television show, Lateline. The discussion was between Professor Barry McGraw, Dorothy Holdinott and David Gillespie. The comments of Barry McGraw, who oversaw the introduction of NAPLAN as Chair of the Australian Curriculum and Assessment Authority and Ms Dorothy Holddinott AO, Principal of Holyrood High School in Sydney echo my own understandings about the use of NAPLAN data. It is time it was stopped being used to reinforce the status quo where affluent schools are perceived to be more effective than schools serving children of low and disadvantaged communities.
Both these highly respected individuals thought that NAPLAN was very useful. I agree with that. It is useful to have a national test system because when we analyse and use the data it gives us then we can track where we are doing well in education across the country and where we need to put more effort in. The data is complex but enlightening for those who know how to read it. Most of the people who rely on the data to choose a school for their children do not know how to read it effectively and the data is presented in such a way that parents do not get a true picture of what success a school is having in its educational programs.
Ms Holddinott said that NAPLAN also showed us information about our students both as a whole group and as individuals. Using that information, understanding that it is only a collection of information on one day, we can look at the data we collect all the time in schools and see if everything lines up. If it doesn’t, we need to check the accuracy of what we are collecting or ask ourselves, what went wrong for that student on that day. We use it effectively in our school to do that too!
However, everyone agreed that the use of NAPLAN data on the My School website is not really serving the needs for students, parents or schools and it could be changed so that it does.
When the NAPLAN data first went up for everyone to see we had only one year of data to look at so it was placed on a chart that showed if the school’s students at Years 3, 5, 7 or 9 met the national average. That chart is still the main feature of the My School website and it is the place where parents go to compare schools against each other. That chart shows the level of achievement of students but it doesn’t tell you if the school helped the child to grow over time.
We now have many years of data to compare and there is data to show how much growth the students are making over time. Some schools, like Dorothy’s school, have a community of students who do not come from homes where everything supports success in learning. Dorothy’s school is a community of refugee children, children from non-English speaking backgrounds and young people who have experiences of poverty and a history of family unemployment that covers 3 or more generations.
The tragedy is that although her school shows huge growth for the students, her enrolment numbers are falling. Parents looking for schools are only seeing the red bars on her chart on the front of the My School website. What they needed to look for was the graph showing phenomenal growth for the students. The ABC had a whole series of shots showing the same story in schools all over the country that do amazing things for disadvantaged children. Ironically, once the enrolment numbers drop, the Government funding drops too, so the school is up against it at every level!
In other words, Dorothy Holddinott’s community has many barriers to successful learning to overcome. But overcoming these barriers they are! They have a wonderful story of growth for their students between Year 7 and Year 9. That growth comes from really effective teaching from highly committed staff. That is the data that parents need to be looking for and it ought to be easier to find.
Ms Holddinott and Professor McGraw agree on the need for change to the My School website and so do I!
I recommend that you read Ms Gage’s article on the inside of this newsletter to see more information about our NAPLAN data.
Sincerely
Christine Ash
Principal
Religious Education News
Dignity of the Human Person
We are made in God’s Image. This means we each have a God-given dignity.
Each person possesses a basic dignity that comes from God, not from any human quality or accomplishment, not from race or gender, age or economic status.
How is dignity upheld? The dignity of every person, independent of ethnicity, creed, gender, sexuality, age or ability, is the foundation of Catholic Social Teaching. No human being should have their dignity or freedom compromised. Poverty, hunger, oppression and injustice make it impossible to live a life in proportion with this dignity. Help should be people centred with empowerment at its heart. People should never be treated as commodities and certainly not just recipients of aid.
I took a picture of this beautiful child when Dean Andrew and I went to visit our friendship school in the Philippines this year. His home was on the edge of rubbish tip, he had very little in his one room home but he too is a gift from God. He has the right to human dignity. The community who live in and around the rubbish tip work with ‘Kadasig Aid’ to find a way to care for their toddlers in a safe and dignified way while their parents scavenge for recyclable material at the tip to make money for their families. The children are organised into one room homes with a carer who will feed them one meal a day that is cooked by volunteers and donated by organizations like ‘Kadasig Aid’. All the volunteers: the cooks, the carers, the people who carry the pots of food, to all the homes with toddlers in their care, are people who grew up and live in and on the rubbish tip. ‘Kadasig Aid’ is helping this rubbish tip community to live with dignity by empowering them and showing them how they can help and support each other.
At St Elizabeth’s we work with ‘Kadasig Aid’ to provide financial support to Matutinao Elementary, through fundraising and will continue to do so. Our students have brought in things that the students at Matutinao could use for their learning like pencils, books and most recently 14 mini netbooks to help them work with technology. Mr Andrew and I went to visit them to get to know them better. We write letters to the students at Matutinao and they write back to us. Our students this week are making short videos of themselves which we will send with the netbooks so we can build stronger relationships between the students.
We don’t just care about providing material support but also caring about the Matutinao students and staff and are continuously building a relationship with them. We believe in treating everyone with dignity. It is important that we treat our friendship school teachers and students with respect and dignity. At St. Elizabeth’s we believe in the Catholic Social Teachings and we believe that each of us has a God given dignity.
At St Elizabeth’s Catholic Primary parents, students and staff understand that we are made in the image of God. We show and treat each other with dignity and respect by getting to know students and staff at Matutinao. We let them know that they are important to us. This is something that our school is proud of. We are constantly asking ourselves what does it mean for us in our world today to show dignity to all those around us?
School Liturgies, Events and Celebrations:
All families are invited and very welcome to come to all liturgies!
Thursday 1st September: Social Justice Day
Saturday 3rd September: Chisholm- Gold House Hosting Mass at 6.30pm
Friday 11th September: Year 1, Year 2, Year 3 & Year 4 Buddy Mass at 9.15am
COIN TRAIL FUNRAISER
FOR OUR FRIENDSHIP SCHOOL ‘MATUTINAO ELEMENTARY’
We are organizing all the spare change 5 cent, 10 cent, 20 cent, 50 cent, 1 dollar and 2 dollar coins into one giant line. It is fun giving our small change to make a big change in other people’s lives.
Our Coin Trail Fundraiser started on Tuesday morning the 30th August at the school gates! We will keep adding to our coin trail line on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning.
Our goal is to reach right up to the school PAC doors.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we succeed?
See you with your small change Thursday and Friday mornings at 8.30am
Confirmation timeline 2016
Event/activity due date / Date dueTERM 3
Profile of a Confirmation Candidate permission form (Green) / Friday 26th August
(Now Overdue)
Sacrament of Confirmation Information form (Purple) / Friday 2nd September
Student Profiles (Blue) / Friday 2nd September
Permission for Lysterfield reflection day on CAREMONKEY. / Monday 5th September
TERM 4
STUDENT Activity packs / Friday14th October
Saints Project / Friday14th October
Banners / Friday14th October
Parent letter written to Confirmation Candidates / Friday14th October
LYSTERFIELD REFLECTION DAY
Students wear casual clothing. / Thursday 20th October
Bishop Elliott’s School Visit / Friday 3rd November
CONFIRMATION SUNDAY / SUNDAY 13th November
Family & Individual Confirmation Photos / SUNDAY 13th November 11.00am-12.15pm
Group Confirmation Photo / SUNDAY 13th November. Arrive 12.30pm, Photo 12.45 sharp.
CONFIRMATION SUNDAY / SUNDAY 13th November 1.00
Chisholm Gold Hosting Mass at St Elizabeth’s Parish on Saturday 3rd September, 6.30pm
Our school hosting masses will be held on Saturday evenings 6.30pm.
We have chosen a Saturday night mass to make it more convenient for families to attend.
This will be one of the ways that we will be building team spirit in each of the house colours. Team spirit is built through a variety of ways and gathering together to pray is one of them. Children from the same family will all be in only one house colour.
We are looking forward to seeing each of the house teams from Foundation to Year 6 gather together to celebrate liturgy together wearing a touch of gold to represent their team.
Maria Popowycz
Religious Education Leader
Student Wellbeing News
Father’s Day 2016 – Favourite Quotes - Michael Grose Parenting Ideas
A great quote can convey BIG thoughts and sentiments in just a few small words.
“I know what a good man is because I saw it in my father.” Raimond Gaita
"A father is someone who will play with you, even though he has friends his own age to play with.” Unknown
“If you can give your son or daughter only one gift, let it be enthusiasm.” Bruce Barton
"Your children need your presence more than your presents." Jesse Jackson
"The fundamental defect of fathers is that they want their children to be a credit to them." Bertrand Russell
“One of the unseen benefits of having children is that they deliver you from your own selfishness. There’s no going back.” Martin Amis
"What a father says to his children is not heard by the world: but it will be heard by posterity." Jean Paul Richter
“When you have kids, there’s no such thing as quality time. There’s just time. There’s no, ‘Ooh, his graduation’s better than going to the mall.’ It’s all kind of equal. Changing her diaper and her winning a contest — it’s all good.” Chris Rock
“My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person: he believed in me.” Jim Valvano
“Having a kid is like falling in love for the first time when you’re 12, but every day.” Mike Myers
“A man knows he is growing old because he begins to look like his father.” Gabriel Garcia Marquez
“When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years." Mark Twain
“I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.” Harry S. Truman
“My father taught me that the only way you can make good at anything is to practice, and then practice some more.” Pete Rose
“Before I got married I had six theories about raising children; now, I have six children and no theories.” John Wilmot
“He has always provided me a safe place to land and a hard place from which to launch.” Chelsea Clinton
“The older I get the more I can see how much he loved my mother and my brother and me and he did the best that he could and I only hope when I have my own family that every day I see a little more of my father in me.” Keith Urban.
Wishing all those special father figures in our life a happy day on Sunday
Nan Perazzo
Learning and Teaching News
NAPLAN
2016 NAPLAN results were released to schools two weeks ago. In this time, we have worked with teachers to unpack the results we achieved. It is important to remember that the NAPLAN results provide an indication of students’ achievements but they provide only one snapshot of selected aspects of what students know and can do. Working with classroom teachers we have analysed the observations made by teachers on the day and compared results on NAPLAN to assessments completed in the classroom that monitor progress over time. Teachers are able to provide further information about your child’s results and how they compare with their observations and it is for this reason that we ask parents to contact their child’s teacher to collect the NAPLAN results.
There are many ways that the NAPLAN data can be presented. The My School website offers five different ways to view NAPLAN results:
· Results in graphs: this shows the average score for each area tested as well as the margin of error that could exist.