Dear Families,
We’ve had a great start to term three, and as always, there is plenty going on besides the teaching and learning.
Mrs Joy Darmody is on long service leave this term, and we welcome back Mrs Michelle Goudie who is teaching the year 5/6 class in Joy’s absence.
Ms Emily Brown went on maternity leave at the end of last term. Emily and Kane welcomed baby Elena in to the world on July 26th. Both Emily and Elena are doing well. We wish them well and look forward to a visit soon.
We welcome Ms Cindy Sharrock who is now teaching R-2 HASS, and year 3-6 Geography on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
We also welcome Ms Aimee Fish who is teaching R-6 Performing Arts on a Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. And what a time to take on the performing arts role, it’s a concert year! At this stage we anticipate the concert taking place early term 4 (possibly Thursday 31st October followed by a pupil free day on Friday 1st November). Dates will be confirmed after the next Governing Council meeting.
A warm welcome to our mid year intake of receptions, and their class teacher Miss Tilly. The students have settled in well and are confidently connecting with staff and other students, particularly students in the other two reception classes. You can read what they are all ‘excited about’ in this newsletter.
This term students will participate in a number of assessments to monitor growth in phonics, reading and Maths.
Phonics Screen Check
The Phonics Screen Check is a simple formative assessment that tells us how students are progressing with phonics. It takes 5 to 7 minute per student and is compulsory for all year 1’s. The results are used for further learning and, if necessary, provide any additional support that students might require. Our Year 1 students will be tested by their class teachers (Mrs Irwin, Mrs Tempest and Mrs Hale) before the end of August. If students are absent they will be tested on their return to school.
Progressive Assessment Testing (PAT)
The Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT) are online assessments that provide diagnostic information to teachers relating to the learning strengths and needs of their students. All South Australian Department for Education students in years 3 to 10 are required to undertake PAT Reading Comprehension (PAT-R) and Maths (PAT-M) annually, with optional testing for years 1 and 2. Testing will occur from week 7 for all our students in year 1-6.
PAT is an online assessment platform so we will have the results immediately and can therefore act on them in terms of identifying strengths and areas for additional support at an individual student level and whole school focus.
PAT Maths assesses students’ skill and understanding in multiple-choice format in the six strands of Number, Algebra, Geometry, Measurement, Statistics and Probability as well as the mathematical processes of understanding, fluency, problem solving and reasoning.
PAT reading assesses students’ reading comprehension skills, vocabulary knowledge and spelling in multiple-choice format. These skills reflect comprehension skills described in the Australian National Curriculum for English.
NAPLAN
By now all year 3 and 5 families should have received their child’s NAPLAN results. Since 2023, achievement in NAPLAN is reported against proficiency standards. The proficiency standards represent a challenging but reasonable expectation of student achievement at the time of testing. These standards are made up of 4 proficiency levels. The levels replace the previous numerical NAPLAN bands to deliver better information for teachers, and parents. The proficiency standards are reported on a new NAPLAN measurement scale that makes better use of the online adaptive tests. This is used in national reporting, as well as on the individual student reports received by parents.
The 4 proficiency levels that make up the standards are:
· Exceeding: The student’s result exceeds expectations at the time of testing.
· Strong: The student’s result meets challenging but reasonable expectations at the time of testing.
· Developing: The student’s result indicates that they are working towards expectations at the time of testing.
· Needs additional support: The student’s result indicates that they are not achieving the learning outcomes expected at the time of testing. They are likely to need additional support to progress satisfactorily.
A new NAPLAN time series was established in 2023. This means results from 2023 on cannot be compared to results from 2008 to 2022. The cut-points for each proficiency level were established in 2023 and will not change in future years. This will allow the monitoring of school-level performance over time.
Our school’s performance in 2024 for year 3 and 5 sits in the proficiency level of Strong for each of the test components; Reading, Writing, Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation, and Numeracy. This is a pleasing result for our school.
The School Closure Day for this term is on Monday 2nd September, followed by the Pupil Free Day on Tuesday 3rd September. Nuriootpa High School will also have their school closure and pupil free on the same days. The Monday is a day off school for all students and staff. On Tuesday teaching staff will be participating in professional learning at another school site re. Year 3-6 Spelling and Morphology.
The Department for Education coordinates an annual survey to better understand the things we’re doing well, where we can improve, and what’s important to you as a parent. The information we collect from this survey is driving change for the department. The survey opens mid to late July and closes midnight Sunday 8th September. During the first few weeks of the survey window, you will receive an email or SMS from the Parent Survey Team with a unique link to participate in the survey.
I highly encourage you to complete the survey, which takes less than 10 minutes. Your feedback will be used locally in our school improvement planning and more broadly to inform other key initiatives to improve education in South Australia.
Your answers will not identify you or your child. Only collated feedback will be provided to our school.
If you did not receive an email or SMS with your unique survey link by Friday 9 August 2024, please check your spam or junk email folders. Otherwise, please contact education.ParentSurvey@sa.gov.au and include our school’s name in your email. A new survey link will then be sent to you.
As discussed at a previous Governing Council meeting, we had less than 40 parents respond to the 2023 survey, and although the results were very positive, they cannot be considered truly reflective of our school communities views. We appreciate families are busy so any time spend on the survey will be appreciated.
Enrolment Packs for year 6 students attending Nuriootpa High School in 2025 will be sent home with students this week. Parents are expected to return all the necessary paperwork directly to Nuriootpa High School by 6th September.
As well Nuriootpa High School will be hosting a Meet and Greet evening on Wednesday 21st August from 6-7pm. Refer to flyer in this newsletter.
The Whole School Assembly on Friday week 3 was hosted by Ms Irwin and Ms Hales year 1/2 classes, and what a terrific job they did of hosting the assembly, and entertaining us. The play, How to be a Lion, was confidently delivered by students with strong voices and wonderful acting. The song (You’re a Star) and dance routine was just as energetic. We all left the assembly humming a tune and reflecting on the message we heard about embracing differences. Great job everyone, and a special thank you to Stella for all her support with the assembly this week in Ms Irwin’s absence.
The choir delivered another standout performance with their song, Impossible is possible. Again, listening to the lyrics, we heard messages about giving things a go, not giving up, and reaching for the stars. Looking forward to their performance at the Festival Theatre this term. No doubt the students represent our school with pride.
Congratulations to the following students who received an Encouragement Award at the week 3 assembly:
Aubree Elvin
Indi Schulz
Eleanor Wigan
Ruby Heasman-Haigh
May Taylor
Chelsie Harris
Kelly Mitchell
Emma Polley
Kora Deakin
Harper Hore
Liam Pendergast
Max Smith
Louis Manuel
Ivy Merkle
Joan Fiegert
Jessica Rosenzweig
German Award: Bonnie Kirtlan
Attendance Award (no days off semester 1): Phoebe Hahn, Elsie, Audrey and Poppy Feist.
After the assembly parents were invited to stay behind for coffee, cake and a chat with myself, Nat and each other. I used the opportunity to discuss camps, and in particular the rising costs, and parents’ views on what is considered a reasonable cost for a three day, two night camp, and a one night camp. We also chatted about how often students should go one camp in primary school etc. This information will be shared with staff and Governing council with the aim to develop a school camp schedule/expectations moving into 2025. Besides talking about camps, it was great just to connect and have informal conversations about school, family etc. Thanks to those who stayed, and we look forward to doing it again after the week 7 assembly.
I would like to thank Peter Pech from the Angaston Lions Club for the cheque presented to our school today. Peter came prepared with The Leader to have a photo taken with our students and staff. Thank you Lions Club for your continued generous support. The money will go towards the school garden and cooking program which has a positive impact on students R-6.
‘Nothing is impossible. The word itself says I’m possible.” Audrey Hepburn.
This is the most exciting part of the year for choir! We have been hard at work preparing for our first rehearsal at Magic Millions (week 4 Friday 16th Aug.) with various schools around S.A. We will get a glimpse of how this year’s repertoire will be brought to life with the orchestra, troupe, soloists and choreography leaders. Tickets just went on sale Monday for our concert at Festival Theatre (Concert 3-Wednesday 11th September) and this year’s Festival series promises to be very entertaining and something to look forward to. All choir members will need to show excellent behavior, concentration and song knowledge (words, parts and choreography).
In week 8, we will be off to our final rehearsal and performance at the Festival Theatre on Wednesday 11th September. I would like to congratulate all choir members for their hard work and dedication throughout the year. We also need to congratulate Kenzie M and Elsie F as they will be the choreography leaders for our concert. These two girls have shown great courage with their audition, and we wish them luck and bravery for our final performance.
If you haven’t purchased tickets yet, please do so through Ticketek. Please come along to our school assemblies if you would like to hear and support our school choir. We look forward to a successful performance.
Congratulations to Liam and Lachlan Pendergast who successfully competed in the SA, TAS, NT Interschools Snowsport Championships in July.Lachlan won a silver medal in the Alpine Slalom, with Liam competing in the same race to win a bronze. There was only 0.5 of a second between them. Lachlan also won a bronze medal in the Ski Cross. Well done boys, a great achievement for you both.
Library Life is fabulous!
Preparations are well under way for this years Book Week, 'Reading is Magic!' There will be lots of fun lunchtime activities in the library fitting with the theme. We will have our usual whole school dress up parade on Friday August 23rd at 9am, if children need to borrow a costume or would like some help to make one, they can pop into the library and see me.
Our annual Book Fair will be held over 3 days, from September 4th-6th. This has always been a brilliant event and helps our school purchase new and exciting resources for our library. If any parents would like to volunteer to help man the event please pop in and see me. The kids are always soo excited to come in and 'shop at school'.
Our students love spending their time in the library and the creative games they come up with are amazing. We have had a fantastic dress up fashion parade, cheered on the Olympics and had some chill out time in our PJ's.
I'm excited to see what they come up with next!
