PAT

In the next couple of weeks ALL students at St Kevin’s will be participating in 2 standardised assessments.  What is a standardised assessment?  It’s pretty much an assessment (usually by an external authority) that requires all participants to answer questions in a uniform way.  Additionally, standardised assessments require uniform delivery of the assessment.

At St Kevin’s, across the school, we use ACER PAT as one of our tools to evaluate student learning in Mathematics and in Reading.  Teachers then analyse the results to see if students are meeting benchmarks, showing growth across their schooling years and to reflect on their own pedagogy (teaching practice).

TTFM

A HUGE thanks to all those who have completed the Tell Them From Me survey so far.  We are currently at only 18% of our parent population completion. Come on everyone that is low even by Queensland standards… As we roll onto nearly 90% double vaxxed in NSW surely at St Kevin’s we can aim for a 70-80% completion of our survey.  Hopefully it isn’t that painful!  And don’t forget once you have completed the survey if you can please send me an email kim.hogan@mn.catholic.edu.au and we will enter you into our draw for $150 Family Entertainment voucher.  If you have completed the survey and forgotten to email me, please do so. Remember there are 2 opportunities for each family (Mum and Dad).

This feedback is very important to our ongoing school improvement.

Basketball

This term we were again successful in securing a Sporting Schools grant.  We have engaged Newcastle Basketball to coach our students twice per week for 5 weeks.  Their coaches deliver an excellent program and students have enjoyed getting out and playing sport with each other this week.  The skills and small games that the children participate in build both core skills, teamwork, resilience and getting along. Ask your child what skills they learnt this week (HINT: they did a lot of work on dribbling this week and their basketball stance!).

God Bless