St Francis of Assisi Primary School - Calwell
PDF Details

Newsletter QR Code

120 Casey Cres
Calwell ACT 2905
Subscribe: https://stfranciscalwell.schoolzineplus.com/subscribe

Email: elc.stfranciscalwell@cg.catholic.edu.au
Phone: 02 6292 4500
Fax: 

Principal's News

Dear Parents and Carers,

Yesterday was a significant day in our Australian Catholic calendar when we joyfully celebrated the feast day of St Mary MacKillop. St Mary MacKillop, also known as St Mary of the Cross, holds a special place in our hearts as Australia’s first canonised saint, and her legacy of dedication to education and care for the marginalised continues to inspire us all.

We extend our heartfelt wishes to St Mary of the Cross MacKillop College as they celebrate their patroness's feast day. We hope this day was filled with blessings, joy, and a renewed commitment to following in St Mary MacKillop’s footsteps, embracing her values of compassion, perseverance, and faith.

We held our first Open Community Council Meeting of the year on Monday night, with good representation from the school community. Several parents were present at the meeting, and I thank them for their ongoing commitment to the school community. Our next Open Council meeting will be held on the 28th of October at 6 p.m.

Tell Them From Me (TTFM) Survey

The Tell Them From Me (TTFM) survey tool went live to our families on Monday via Compass. You would have received a Compass message from me inviting you to please take some time to complete the survey. The survey is the same tool used last year and is an opportunity for the school to gather valuable data about our core business as a school, the Teaching and Learning of children. The survey is completed by teachers, parents, and students in Yrs. 4-6. The data gathered from this survey is used to inform our school improvement agenda and evaluate progress on our strategic goals. Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback. The survey is open until 29th August.

NAPLAN- Yr 3

In week 1, parents of Year 3 students received their NAPLAN reports. Student achievement in NAPLAN is reported using proficiency standards for each assessment area Numeracy, Reading, Writing, Spelling and Grammar/Punctuation. The standards are set at a challenging but reasonable expectation of what students know and can do at the time of testing. There are 4 proficiency levels: 

  • Exceeding: the student’s result exceeds expectations at the time of testing. 
  • Strong: the student’s result meets challenging but reasonable expectations at the time of testing. 
  • Developing: the student’s result indicates that they are working towards expectations at the time of testing.
  • Needs additional support: the student’s result indicates that they are not achieving the learning outcomes that are expected at the time of testing. They are likely to need additional support to progress satisfactorily.

As a school we have begun our analysis of this cohort data and I am happy to report the following initial observations of data trends in our 2024 Yr 3 cohort:

  • Our students exhibited extremely high levels of Proficiency in Writing, with 97% of our students in the strong and exceeding proficiency bands and having the lowest percentage needing additional support.
  • We have continued our trend of reading excellence, with 28% of our students in the exceeding proficiency band.
  • Our numeracy results showcase a well-distributed performance with a significant portion exceeding expectations and a majority (63 %) at strong proficiency.
  • Areas of continued focus include Grammar and punctuation, and Spelling which shows higher percentages of students in the developing stage (28% and 31%, respectively).

These results are an aggregate of our school’s Yr 3 cohort data, and we will await further analysis of how they compare to the ACT and national mean. I will provide more observations from the Yr 5 data set in the Week 5 Newsletter.

A note that NAPLAN is a snapshot of one day in your child's life and is not the be-all and end-all of educational performance. At SFA, we utilise various assessment processes and procedures to measure academic achievement and growth. These are triangulated and cross-referenced to give a more accurate picture of a student's progress. Please celebrate this report with your child and be proud of their achievements.  

Key Leaders’ Day

Today, parish priests, school principals and Religious Education Coordinators are gathering for our annual Key Leaders in Religious Education Day. Our keynote speaker is the journalist Greg Sheridan, a frequent contributor to The Australian newspaper.

Blessings and best wishes

Sean Rutledge

Principal