NAPLAN 2020

Dear Parents / Carers,

NAPLAN assesses literacy and numeracy – important skills that each child needs to succeed in school and life. The NAPLAN tests are designed to help us make sure students are on track with their literacy and numeracy development. Students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 participate in NAPLAN tests for reading, writing, conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy.

Between Monday 23rd March and Friday 3rd April, our school will participate in NAPLAN Practice Tests, which are designed to give students, teachers and systems an opportunity to practice administering and participating in the online testing environment. The practice tests consist of a Writing Test for Years 5, 7, & 9, and an Omnibus Test (a combination of reading, conventions of language and numeracy) for Years 3, 5, 7 & 9. As this is intended to practice participation, the questions are not equivalent to NAPLAN testing in May, and no results are available from the Practice Tests.

To see the types of interactive features of NAPLAN Online, visit the public demonstration site.

If you have any questions about NAPLAN Online, please contact your child’s teacher.

For more info:

•       How to support your child during NAPLAN
•       Watch a video that explains NAPLAN Online
•       Subscribe to ACARA’s monthly parent newsletter, Parent Update

Kind Regards 

Mrs Katie Thompson

(NAPLAN Co-ordinator for Sacred Heart)

Safe On Social - Parent Resources

We hosted Kirra Pendergast from Safe on Social this week and she spoke with our primary students (Year 4, 5 & 6), our secondary students (Year 7, 8, 9 & 10), staff and then our parents. Her key message was to keep ourselves, our students and our children SAFE on Social Media and her presentations were age appropriate, real and honest.  

The topics she covered in these student and parent/community presentations included:

• What you signed up for - we explain terms and conditions of use and what they mean.
• Keeping personal information private.
• Online stranger danger (online grooming).
• Ethics for when posting and sharing photos.
• Child exploitation/pornography, sexting, sextortion and image-based abuse (age appropriate).
• Creating a positive digital footprint and curating your online image.
• Cyber-bullying, online harassment, what it is and what to do.
• Legal responsibilities.
• Privacy settings.
• Online gaming safety.
• Strategies to build resilient digital citizens.

Kirra also covered the most popular social media apps being used in our school, such as Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Tic Tok and others (after discussing with the students what they are using in the first 5 mins of the presentation) - what they are, how they work, security and privacy tips for safe usage.

We have a special offer that is available to all families in our school. Kirra has just launched a brand-new online safety program for parents and school students called “The Safe on Social Toolkit”. How do you access this site:

• Visit her site at safeonsocialtoolkit.com
• The annual subs are $97 per year (with a 20% discount using the access code sacredheart
• You will get access to all her cheat sheets, 50 videos, webinars and any questions you have will be answered via email. 

Mrs Katie Thompson