NAPLAN UPDATE

The NAPLAN 2021 assessment will be completed by Year 3 and Year 5 in an online format on Monday 11 May- 13 May 2021 as communicated in the last newsletter.

In additon to Naplan Online, St Brigid's has been selected by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) to participate in this year’s NAPLAN 2021 Equating Study.

Each year a small number of schools participate. Year 3 and Year 5 have been selected to complete the Numeracy assessment in paper format. This will be completed the week before the NAPLAN online assessment. The purpose of the Equating Study is to enable the results for the NAPLAN tests to be reported on the same NAPLAN measurement scales from one year to the next.

Your child’s involvement and the results from this study help ACARA ensure that parents, teachers and schools can rely on NAPLAN results and be confident that the information is valid and comparable. Please be assured the equating test is not about testing your child; your child’s results are not reported.

For more information about the NAPLAN Equating Study, please see the attached Parent/Carer Information document.

TIPS and TRICKS to support your child with Literacy

Literacy involves students listening to, reading, viewing, speaking, writing and creating oral, print, visual and digital texts, and using language for different purposes in a range of contexts. Each newsletter edition, I will aim to provide some handy tips and tricks to add to your toolkit so that you can best support your child's literacy and numeracy development. This week I will outline how you can support your child with speaking and listening activities.

Kindergarten - Year 2

Regularly talking and interacting with your child extends their language and listening skills, and helps grow their confidence with language. Include your child when discussing everyday activities such as grocery shopping, gardening, cooking dinner, collecting mail from the mailbox, doing housework, and travelling in the car or bus. Outings can also provide a world of new vocabulary. Discussion during outings can enrich your child’s understanding of the world. Outings might include going to the park, the zoo, a shopping centre, museums, libraries and art galleries. Other fun activities can include:

• Share rhymes, poems and songs. Encourage your child to join in
• Share and talk about family histories and family photos
• Look at picture books or art books. Ask your child to describe what is happening in the pictures and make up stories together
• Collect cardboard and other household items for your child to build with. Ask your child to describe what they are building
• Look at ‘junk mail’ and talk about the things for sale
• Listen to simple radio programs or podcasts together and discuss the content
• Play vocabulary games with your child such as, “what’s the opposite of ….?” and “what’s another word for….?” 

• Try to ask your child specific questions about their day. A general question like “how was your day?” will likely get a single-word response of “good.” Ask specific questions like “what is the book you are reading in class about?” or “what did you do at lunchtime today?”
• Involve your child in your discussions about the day’s events or current events. Ask their opinion. This helps them understand different perspectives and increases their vocabulary.
• Show a genuine interest in your child’s reading, writing and viewing of all types of texts.Talking about texts can create meaningful discussions. It will also help your child to see them as important.
• Show interest in topics your child is studying at school. These can be a great springboard into discussions.
• Encourage your child to discuss their everyday problems and feelings
• Read several articles together on the same issue to get different opinions. Then discuss the different opinions.
• Have a debate on a topic, with you and your child taking different sides of the issue.
• Discuss news and current events to enrich your child’s understanding of the world.

• Questions you might ask when discussing a news story or current event include:

  • What do you think caused the event?
  • How do you think this will affect people?
  • Is it fair?
  • Why do you think people, think that/do that?
  • What do you think will happen next?
  • What could fix the problem?

FOR THE STUDENTS... TONGUE TWISTER CHALLENGE

Tongue twisters are phrases with similar sounding words. They support language development, boost vocabulary and are alot of fun especially when recited with family or friends.

Challenge Early Stage 1 (Kindergarten) and Stage 1 (Year 1 and Year 2): can you beat my time? I can recite the following tongue twister in 2.38 seconds.

Six slimey snails slid slowly seaward

Challenge Stage 2 (Year 3 and Year 4): can you beat my time? I can recite the following tongue twister in 6.14 seconds.

Betty Botter bought a bit of butter but the bit of butter was too bitter,
so Betty bought a better bit of butter to make the bitter butter better.

Challenge Stage 3 (Year 5 and Year 6): can you beat my time? I can recite the following tongue twister in 11.02 seconds.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where’s the peck of pickled peppers that Peter Piper picked?