Our NAPLAN Results Reflect Student Success
The NAPLAN (National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy) results for 2019 were the best set of results achieved by our Years 3 and 5 students in the past five years.
Barbreck girls continued to achieve well above the Victorian state mean, with the average difference between our School means and that of the state means being 54 points across both year levels; however, the highest difference of 92 points was with Year 3 Grammar and Punctuation.
It was interesting to note that in some areas of assessments, our Years 3 and 5 girls scored better than the Victorian means for the next level of assessments for Years 5 and 7 respectively. This is a marvellous achievement!
Congratulations to our girls who have worked hard in class; their efforts are reflected in their results. Congratulations also to their wonderful teachers who have nurtured, guided and developed their learning throughout the years. I would like to thank the parents who have encouraged the students, kept a focus on learning and downplayed the hype attached to these assessments. Our girls participated with little to no fuss and conducted themselves well throughout the testing period.
Barbreck girls continued to achieve well above the Victorian state mean in the 2019 NAPLAN.
The aim of NAPLAN is to provide information about what a student knows and can do in relation to Literacy and Numeracy, at their given year level. NAPLAN assessments test core skills – those required to become literate and numerate. The information is then used by schools to identify trends and to inform planning; it addresses the strengths and areas for improvement for students at both an individual student level and at a year level. Once the School receives the data pack, we will be analysing it to determine areas where we can continue to improve the outcomes for our students.
It is important to note that the NAPLAN assessments test only a slice of the curriculum, not the whole curriculum. They can only test skills and understandings through the method of multiple choice, except for writing, where students write in response to a given stimulus, which usually includes a photograph. While the skills and understandings they test are essential elements of learning, and all students should be progressing towards being competent in these elements, Barbreck staff teach many more elements, both within the curriculum and beyond, such as research skills, collaborative learning and growth mindset.
Our focus is to provide a comprehensive curriculum, which not only ensures that for each girl the essential Literacy and Numeracy elements are developed, but to immerse them in a rich tapestry of learning and experiences that develop the whole student academically, creatively, physically, socially and emotionally.
Ms Karen McArdle, Head of Junior School
Year 1 Writing Exercise
The Year 1 students were asked to look at the below picture and write from the perspective of a person on the boat.
Students were asked to consider things such as, ‘What would they see? Feel? Think?’ They were asked to use words that we brainstormed together as a class, such as huge, gigantic, enormous, barnacles, breech, rough, dark, suddenly. They were not allowed to use the word whale!
I am standing on the boat waiting to see an enormous blue living creature.
I am shaking while my heart is racing and suddenly it breeched.
As it breeched, I saw it had blue slimy skin and little white bumps.
Am I dreaming?
Nina Calvert
I am standing on a boat waiting for a miracle, a creature that is massive.
I am standing still waiting for an animal as big as a bus to jump out of the water.
The magic animal is dark blue with barnacles.
Am I dreaming?
Rose Miller
I am standing on a boat patiently waiting for a creature as big as a bus.
It is alive, it is massive and it lives in the sea.
I am waiting for it to jump out of the water and if it does I would be amazed and have goose bumps and I would be standing back.
When it breeched out of the water, from the blowhole came spurting water.
Do they really have a blowhole?
Charlotte Ranchod
Jiayi (Kitty) Huang and Rose Miller prepare their perspectives as part of the Year 1 writing exercise.
