Issue 15 SJC News 2021

Recently there have been numerous media reports that Victorian students had topped several areas of NAPLAN results in 2021, even though our students had spent the longest period of time in remote learning. Last week, our Year 7 and 9 reports were mailed home to parents, as well as over eighty boys receiving the Year 9 NAPLAN certificate acknowledging that they were either in the top band for Literacy or Numeracy, or they had displayed higher than average learning growth over the past two years.

What did our data broadly tell us?

At Year 7, both our Median and Mean in Numeracy are above the State average, and when compared to all boys in the State it is also higher than average. Our boys Writing data is on par with the State Median, and our Reading is slightly below. However, when compared to just boys, our writing and reading is above average in both areas when compared to other boys in the State. The data did highlight that Language conventions, including spelling and grammar, is an area for greater concentration.

At Year 9, our trend was very similar to Year 7, the boys Numeracy data was well above the State Mean and Median, and when compared to all boys in the State we still held a higher than above average result. The boys Writing and Reading data was above the State average when compared to all boys and once again a trend of language conventions slightly below.

One area that schools find particularly helpful is Learning Growth, and this is measured by how much a student’s results have changed compared to other students in the State that had the same NAPLAN score two years ago. St Joseph's College can be particularly proud of the learning growth between Year 7 and Year 9 in both Writing and Numeracy.

In Writing our boys showed we were above the State average in high learning growth, almost 5% higher, and our Numeracy data was 6% greater than the average high learning growth category, showing significant learning has occurred by many of our boys in these areas. This is a noteworthy achievement, for our boys, given the continuous changes in the learning environment over the past two years, as well as the staff and parents who have guided them through this process.

Congratulations to the eighty-two Year 9 boys whose numeracy and literacy NAPLAN scores put them in either the top band in the country, or showed significant improvement on their Year 7 scores, you have been awarded the Year 9 Certificate of Achievement by Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority.

VCE Trial Exams

Year 12 English, Literature and Language Trial Examinations will occur Friday this week, therefore there will be no Unit 3-4 Subjects running on our final day of term. The Year 12 trial English exam will be marked by an external examiner to provide broader feedback.

All other Year 12 subject teachers have contributed to examination packs which were handed out to students over the past week. The importance of students exposing themselves to examination-style questions and practicing under time conditions is an important process in developing confidence and familiarity, whilst reducing anxiety with the exam process.

Year 12 Revision Lecture Series

The Year 12 Revision Lectures will run online between 20 and 21 September. Thank you to our Mt Sion Head of Learning Mr Brad Smith who has coordinated these sessions through the College. The lectures cover the following VCE Subjects: Physics, History Revolutions, Chemistry, Legal Studies, Specialist Maths, Psychology and Biology.