From the Acting Principal
Welcome to Term 2. I am very proud to be here at Norwood and have had a wonderful 1st 2 days. Recently I have been Acting Principal at East Launceston, Trevallyn and West Launceston Primary schools and am looking forward to getting to know another 500 children! During my short time here I have been very impressed with how our children follow the school values of being Responsible, Respectful and Resilient.This has been particularly evident as they have introduced themselves to me and offered to show me around the school.
This term we welcome Nicole Moir to our Norwood team. Nicole is the Acting School Business manager and joins us from Evandale Primary School. We have a number of new families who have joined us and we know they will settle in to our school and enjoy being a part of our community.
I am very much looking forward to the term ahead and being part of Norwood Primary School.
ANZAC Day
Our school was well represented at the ANZAC Day march last Thursday, thank you to those who were able to attend.
National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN)
NAPLAN commenced in Australian schools in 2008. Each year, all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 participate in common national tests which assess:
- Reading
- Writing
- Language Conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation)
- Numeracy
The tests will take place between 14th – 24th of May.
The benefits of participating in NAPLAN testing:
- NAPLAN tests the skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life such as reading, writing, spelling, grammar and numeracy.
- NAPLAN results provide valuable information on how your child is progressing against national minimum standards of literacy and numeracy skills expected for each year level.
- The NAPLAN tests provide you as parents with an individual report that shows your child’s results and a comparison of your child’s performance against all other Australian students in their year level.
- Teachers use the NAPLAN results to determine your child’s areas of strength and where future focus is required and how best to provide support or extension activities.
- School teachers use the online NAPLAN Toolkit to analyse your child’s results. The Toolkit provides detailed information right down to the individual question with links to teaching strategies.
- Principals, senior staff and others use NAPLAN results to inform school planning and to allocate resources and support including informing decisions around targeted programs and initiatives for individuals and groups.
The best way you can assist your child is by helping them to feel comfortable about the nature and purpose of the tests, and assure them that the tests will give them an opportunity to show what they have learned in class.
For more information about the national tests, please visit the national NAPLAN website at: http://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/naplan.html
Mrs Rachel Brown