March 2023 Newsletter

Dear Colleagues

I trust that things went well for you and your community on Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday. The Lenten season is a significant time in our Catholic traditions. It is a time of personal and communal reflection to make the world a better place for all.

There has been much happening at the start of this year for the CaSPA Board as you can see in the updates in this newsletter. However, I believe the priority at this time has been my consultation with the Judge from the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) to express the views of Catholic Secondary Principals. The response to the judge and the submission to the ALRC were based on in depth conversations by the CaSPA Directors. Please see the mains pints of the CaSPA Board in the submission paper in this newsletter.

The other key consultation opportunities that are listed in the CaSPA Updates were very much appreciated by the Board. All Directors believe that the practitioner voice is so important in education policy development in Australia.

The Principal voice is so important in the Teacher Workforce issues being experienced by all across Australia. Minister Jason Clare has a plan of action inviting input. This must include triaging responses to the current situation, and planning for the future, knowing the challenges. It requires many areas of education to work together so that outcomes can be achieved.

As we approach International Women’s Day on March 8, may we keep closing the equity gap in this area, and in all areas in our diverse world.

“Creator God, help us live a Lent focused on freedom, generosity, and encounter.
Give us hearts hungry to serve you and those who need what we have to give.”

Blessings to all

Ann Rebgetz - President

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Profiles of all the CaSPA Board are available on the CaSPA Website: https://caspa.schoolzineplus.com/current-and-past-board-members

This year there are almost 50 Beginning Principals in Catholic Secondary Schools. Over the next few CaSPA Newsletters some of our new colleagues will be sharing their profile.

The CaSPA Board once again wishes all of the Beginning Principals every joy and success in their new roles. 

CaSPA Beginning Principal Profile

Name: Narelle Hunt

Current School: Mount St Bernard College

Previous Position & School: Deputy Principal Learning, Marist-Sion College, Warragul Vic

The hope for my current school is: providing quality innovative education in an inclusive, safe and nurturing environment

The Joy of Principalship is: Seeing staff and students build their capacity and thrive.

A Book I would recommend: Discovering Your True North by Bill George

Fun Fact about me: I am most relaxed when I’m choreographing.

My valued Well-Being Strategy: stop and breathe.

Advice for an aspiring Principal: Be open to all possibilities and consider all viewpoint before making decisions.

Inspiring Leadership Quote: “A leader is anyone who takes responsibility for finding the potential in people and processes, and who has the courage to develop that potential.” Brene Brown

What Title would you give to your TED Talk or Book: Be the one to step up.

CaSPA Beginning Principal Profile

Name: Glen Seivers

Current School: St Augustine's Cairns

Previous Position & School:  School: Director of Administration at St Augustine's

The hope for my current school is: Leads the way in Far North Queensland in Boys Education

The Joy of Principalship is: Having some influence over a thriving and welcoming school community

A Book I would recommend: The Talent Code

My valued Well-Being Strategy: Spending time with family and exercise

Advice for an aspiring Principal: Look after your staff and they will look after you.

Inspiring Leadership Quote: The school takes on the personality of the principal.

What Title would you give to your TED Talk or Book: Talent is an overrated commodity

CaSPA Beginning Principal Profile

Name: David Johnston

Current School: Christian Brothers College, Adelaide

Previous Position & School:  Deputy Principal, St Joseph’s Nudgee College

The hope for my current school is: Be the boutique boys’ school of choice in Adelaide with continued academic excellence and outstanding pastoral support.

The Joy of Principalship is:  Being a part of a team who are continually making a difference to a student, a family, or a staff member.

A Book I would recommend:  Legacy by James Kerr

Fun Fact about me:  I grew up on the beach, but my favourite pastime is downhill skiing.

My valued Well-Being Strategy:  Take time to look after you and enjoy time with family and friends.

Advice for an aspiring Principal:  Listen, learn and be prepared to take time to make decisions.

Inspiring Leadership Quote:  “I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.” Ghandi

What Title would you give to your TED Talk or Book:  Inclusion is key.

CaSPA Beginning Principal Profile

Name: Sam Anderson

Current School: St Teresa’s Catholic College, Noosaville

Previous Position & School: Head of College, Unity College

The hope for my current school is: To continue to make a difference in the lives of young people, setting them up to look toward the future with hope, confidence, competence, resilience and a desire to make a positive contribution.

The Joy of Principalship is: working with others to make a difference

Fun Fact about me: I don’t sit still well – I am always looking for something to do.

My valued Well-Being Strategy: Balance, life is a beautiful mess

Advice for an aspiring Principal: Think big, but act within your sphere of influence. Be the difference that you want to see, but do it as a team.

Inspiring Leadership Quote: Be the difference you want to see.

What Title would you give to your TED Talk or Book: I did it my way.

OFFICIAL MEDIA RELEASE 10 February 2023

More meaningful reporting to parents and carers

From this year, parents and carers will get earlier, simpler and clearer information about their child’s NAPLAN achievement based on new, more rigorous national standards.

Education ministers have agreed to change the way NAPLAN results are reported to parents and carers, now that all students are taking the tests online, and with the move to an earlier NAPLAN in March. New proficiency standards with 4 levels of achievement for each year level will replace the previous 10-band structure that covered all 4 levels tested and the old national minimum standard set in 2008 when tests were on paper. The new proficiency standards include a baseline benchmark to identify students who are likely to need additional support.

“These important changes mark a reset for NAPLAN that makes use of the online adaptive tests to deliver better information for parents, carers and teachers,” said ACARA CEO, David de Carvalho.

“The standard for proficiency is set at a challenging but reasonable level. If your child is in the Strong or Exceeding category, it means they have demonstrated proficiency and that their literacy or numeracy skills are where they should be at this stage of their schooling.

“If your child has not yet achieved proficiency, then they will either be in the Developing category or the Needs additional support category. “This is powerful information in the hands of parents/carers and teachers and will enable much more meaningful conversations between them about how our children and young people are developing the foundational skills they need,” Mr de Carvalho said.

“The proficiency standards represent a reasonable expectation of student achievement at the time of testing, with questions in NAPLAN tests based mostly on the literacy and numeracy skills students have learnt from previous years of schooling. The standard will support higher expectations for student achievement and ensure students are gaining the important literacy and numeracy skills they will need throughout their lives.

“One of the issues with the previous national minimum standard was that parents and carers could think that if their child was at that level, then ‘everything is OK’. But it wasn’t. If your child is below the proficiency standard, then being informed that their skills are still developing towards proficiency is important. And it’s also important to know if your child needs additional support.” The new achievement levels are set using the professional judgement of panels of expert teachers. For national reporting, 2023 will mark the start of a new time series, now that all students are online and the tests are being held in March instead of May. The earlier timing of NAPLAN in March rather than May means students will have 2 months less learning time before NAPLAN testing than in previous years. This, in addition to the full transition of all schools nationally to the online assessment that delivers more precise information, makes this the right time to reset the NAPLAN measurement scale so that results no longer have to be equated to those from the paper era. This will mean beginning a new results time series from 2023.

Results from 2023 on will not be directly compared with results from 2008 to 2022. However, a continued focus on students at the lower end of the achievement scale will be maintained by taking historical results into account for baseline benchmarks in the new reporting. Resetting the measurement scale and restarting the time series once all schools are online was a recommendation of the 2020 Independent Review of NAPLAN.

NAPLAN continues to measure student achievement in numeracy, reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation. The new proficiency standard will be included on all NAPLAN reporting including the National Report, the My School website, the reports received by schools and the Individual Student Reports (ISRs) received by parents and carers.

NAPLAN INDIVIDUAL STUDENT REPORT

The numerical NAPLAN bands and the national minimum standard will be replaced by the following 4 levels of achievement:

• Exceeding
• Strong
• Developing
• Needs additional support.

The descriptors for each category will make it clear to parents what their child’s literacy and numeracy skills are at the time of NAPLAN testing, and support discussions with their school on their child’s progress.

Student reports will continue to show the national average and the range of achievement for the middle 60 per cent of students in their year level, allowing comparison of a child’s achievement against these measures. Detailed information on the knowledge and skills being measured in each NAPLAN assessment will be made available on the NAP website. NAPLAN 2023 From 2023, NAPLAN tests will be held in Term 1, allowing results to be returned to systems, schools and parents/carers earlier in the year.

ACARA Media line phone: 0414 063 872 email media.contact@acara.edu.au

10 February 2023 NAPLAN Update

Since 2019 Education Ministers have been considering a range of changes to NAPLAN and ACARA has been working on implementation plans for those changes. These changes include bringing forward the testing. From this year, tests will be undertaken in March instead of May. Updates confirmed by Education Ministers today mean that the report parents and teachers receive will be easier to read and will provide clearer information about how a student is progressing.

Now that the tests are undertaken fully online, reporting can be done earlier in the year with parents and schools scheduled to receive individualised reports in July 2023. Benchmarks will be more meaningful and clearer to reflect the personalised online tests that students undertake. They will be set against a challenging but reasonable standard of literacy and numeracy expected for the child at the time of testing. Ministers agreed in 2019 through the National School Reform Agreement to introduce proficiency standards for numeracy and literacy assessed by NAPLAN. These new standards will give teachers and parents better information about what a student can do.

The names of the new standards are based on advice from ACARA’s First Nations Australians Advisory Group and parent bodies. They are Exceeding, Strong, Developing and Needs additional support. These will be accompanied by detailed descriptions that are useful for teachers and families. The descriptions will be developed by a panel of teachers. They will simplify reporting, replacing the current 10 NAPLAN bands and national minimum standard, allowing parents and carers to know at-a-glance whether their child is where they need to be in literacy and numeracy, which are skills that underpin all other learning. These will provide parents and schools with easy to read information about what they mean for a student’s strength in literacy and numeracy.

The statistical benchmarks for the new categories of achievement will also be confirmed by teachers with relevant experience. These updates to NAPLAN mean that students who need it can get more targeted support from teachers and parents, recognising that NAPLAN is only one of many ways in which schools track student progress. Ministers also agreed that individual jurisdictions could work with ACARA on the feasibility of comparative or research studies utilising data from previous time series.

Enquiries: emmsupport@education.gov.au

CaSPA will provide the opportunity for a member of an affiliated State or Territory Association to be involved in Social Action. It is hoped that through involvement in this program the Association member will have the opportunity to engage in a community project that may otherwise not take place.

The Social Action funding gives witness to the teachings of the Catholic Church by supporting those who are in need or marginalised.

Nominations for the funding are due to CaSPA by 1 April. Please use the link below for the Nomination Form https://caspa.schoolzineplus.com/introduction

CaSPA will provide the opportunity for a member of an affiliated State or Territory Association with an opportunity to be involved in Professional Learning.

This year CaSPA is offering the fully funded opportunity for 2 Principals to attend the ICP Convention which will be held in Finland in September. It is hoped that through involvement in this program the Association member will have the opportunity to engage in professional learning that may otherwise not take place. This Scholarship gives witness to the social teachings of the Catholic Church by supporting those who are in need or marginalised.

The rationale for the Professional Learning Scholarship is that CaSPA and its Corporate Partners are aware of the difficulties individual Principals can face particularly in rural, remote and low socio-economic contexts.

Please use the Professional Learning Application Form which is on the CaSPA website under “Awards” and nominations are due by 1 April 2023. https://caspa.schoolzineplus.com/caspa-leadership-development-scholarship