Dear Parents/Caregivers,
This week I had the privilege of joining school and preschool leaders from across the state to discuss and workshop the purpose of public education. It was an opportunity to hear from world leading education experts and to participate in shaping South Australia's education future focus. The discussion is very targeted on our South Australian story, in our state’s context. Some themes that shone through included; excellence and equity, belonging and connectedness and student agency in learning. This is an important conversation as the purpose will direct how education is delivered in our public education system into the future. Recently, you should have received a link through Skoolbag to a survey so parents and carers could have their say in shaping the purpose of public education. I encourage you to participate and have your say.
NAPLAN
As you are no doubt aware, the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy or NAPLAN will occur from Wednesday 15 March and continuing through until Monday 20 March, with additional catch up sessions available for students who miss a particular test day. NAPLAN is held annually and at Hallett Cove East, students in years 3 and 5 will participate.
All tests are completed online, with the exception of year 3 writing which is still in hardcopy format.
NAPLAN tests four areas namely:
- Writing
- Reading
- Conventions of Language i.e. spelling, grammar and punctuation
- Numeracy
The key aim of the test is to monitor student progress annually in areas of literacy and numeracy. Results from NAPLAN are useful to monitor learning progress and to help our school set goals for teaching and learning over the coming year. As parents, NAPLAN provides you with a snapshot of how your child is progressing against the education benchmarks.
Students have already participated in a practice test so they are aware of the types of questions and the test conditions. As parents and caregivers, the best thing you can do before each test day is to be positive and encouraging. All children should be encouraged to complete questions to the best of their ability on the day.
Governing Council
Thank you to parents who attended our Governing Council AGM on Monday night. I particularly want to acknowledge and thank the Lighthouse Leaders for their exceptional work in sharing the highlights of 2022. Their delivery of the 2022 school year was done with clarity and good humour. Thank you to Raya, Casey, Zoe, Alex, Neil, Cooper and Laura. You should be very proud of your public speaking and presentation skills. A draft Annual Report was presented to the AGM. It is anticipated that a final Annual Report will be available to the community in early April.
It is not too late to nominate for a role on the school’s Governing Council. We still have some vacancies and would love to have your voice as part of the council. You can attend meetings in person or online, with meetings held twice per term. Please contact the front office if you would like to nominate.
Last week our year 3 / 4 classes participated in an excursion for Clean Up Australia Day in their local community. A significant amount of rubbish was collected including some unique items! Special acknowledgement to Mr Marks and the Waste Warriors for your organisation and to all students for demonstrating care for our local environment.
With regards
Matthew Champman
Principal