| From the Principal - 17 February 2009 |
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Twelve weeks from now, all students in Year 9 in our school and across Australia will undertake a range of literacy and numeracy tests on the same days. Students will have their skills assessed in numeracy, reading, writing, spelling, punctuation and grammar.
Much has been made of the less than favourable results of Queensland students in the press and there is not doubt that at our school we are working towards an improved performance in 2009. It is important to recognise that outstanding individual achievements on the tests have been averaged across all students’ efforts. The majority of our 2008 Year 9 students’ performed above the National Benchmarks in Literacy and Numeracy. There is no doubt that other states have higher performance expectations and are applying a higher standard when measuring the literacy and numeracy achievements of their students. For our school, the challenge will be to incrementally lift our performance standards in these key areas as quickly as possible.
The national tests assess student achievement in literacy and numeracy in much the same way as has been done in the past. The test formats and the type of questions will be familiar to students. Our students will have opportunities to work on in-class literacy and numeracy tasks similar to the test examples, as well as working through the 2008 Test Paper. Through this preparation, we are endeavouring to ensure that our students are ‘test prepared’ and not concerned by the formality of this style of assessment. Each of these national tests will provide information on how individual students and groups of students are progressing and, in addition, will provide support for improvements in teaching and learning.
Parents and carers can best assist students by making them feel comfortable about the nature and purpose of the tests. Their children can be assured that the assessments will give them an opportunity to show what they have learned in class over the full extent of their years at school.
Test Dates for 2009
May 12 – Language Conventions (45 min) and Writing (40 min)
May 14 – Reading (65 min)
May 15 – Numeracy (40 min X 2 – Calculator allowed and non-calculator test)
Important Dates
Feb 23 - Year 11 and 12 Study Day
Feb 25 - School Photographs
Alan Whitfield, Principal |
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