The last week of term has come around so quickly.  It has been another busy term with lots of school and community events with most importantly lots of learning.  I hope that all of the students have a great break and use the two weeks to recharge the batteries and take some time out before the last term of the year.

The calendar has been updated to include some important dates for the end of the year.  We will trial a new format for the end of year mass and awards ceremony.  This year it will be held during the day on Thursday 12^th December at 12 noon.  It will be followed by a simple bbq which will be provided by the Community Council.  By giving families plenty of notice it is hoped that those with work commitments may be able to rearrange their schedules in order to attend.  Our end of year lay will take place the following week on Tuesday 17^th December at the Adelong S&C club commencing at 6pm. 

We are very excited to announce that Mrs Baxter is expecting her second bub next year.  We congratulate Jac, Brad and Izzy and wish you all the best for your growing little family.  Next term we will advertise for teaching positions for 2020.

Naplan results went out last week and next term staff will be analysing the data.  Whilst Naplan is a tool that the government uses to track student progress nationally, it is one assessment tool that is a snapshot in time – one test on one particular day.  Students can become anxious during test conditions, the test format was online this year and was not free from incident, all of these things should be kept in mind when looking through your child’s Naplan results.  There are some great tools that staff will be using to gain a clearer picture of how we are tracking as a school, year levels and individual students and their growth.  Daily assessment tasks, conversations, conferences, work samples and class discussions paint the bigger picture of student achievement and how they are progressing.  Often systems and governments can place a heavy emphasis on Naplan results rather than using it as a tool to gain a snapshot of how we are travelling or to look at the processes used in learning rather than just the results.

It was fantastic that there were many areas that our school performed above the state average – Year Three numeracy, Year five numeracy, writing and spelling – a great achievement.

Have a great week and holiday and I look forward to seeing you all in Term Four.