What a great term!                                                       17 September 2021  

Prior to 2021, the school’s best NAPLAN results were in 2019 (and we thought they were unbeatable). This year’s results are similar or higher to those. 

Schools have received initial NAPLAN reports that compare us to other schools in six Assessment Areas, in both Year 3 and 5. LPS students scored significantly higher than other State schools in 11 of the 12 areas; and scored higher in the 12^th area (Year 3 Grammar & Punctuation).

In the five areas reported to parents (Reading, Writing, Spelling, Numeracy, Grammar and Punctuation), 96 - 99% percent of LPS students scored higher than the National Minimum Standard.

Importantly, the learning growth of our Year 5 students is tracked by NAPLAN, based on their Year 3 NAPLAN results. In every NAPLAN area, Year 5 LPS students:

• exceeded the expectations for the numbers of students who have made High Growth since 2019; and
• exceeded the expectations for the numbers of students who have made Low Growth since 2019, with very few students in this category.

On the surface, remote learning appears to have had little, if any, negative impact on our Year 3 and 5 students’ learning outcomes in these areas. Of note are the school’s exceptional Reading outcomes, which surpassed the 'unbeatable' 2019 results.

Although we await the full data set from DET, we are obviously delighted to receive these results and look forward to sharing more details. Preliminary 2021 NAPLAN data aligns with our own school data, including Tutor Learning Initiative tracking.

Congratulations to all our staff for their role in maintaining and improving the school’s high NAPLAN outcomes, with the much-appreciated support of parents during LFH.

Individual NAPLAN results have been posted, so Year 3 and 5 families, please check your letter boxes in the coming days. 

So what's happening next term?

We wish we knew! There has been much commentary in the media about what should or might happen, without any information for schools yet from the Chief Health Officer or DET. It's important to be realistic about the near future and hopeful about the longer term. Of course, when we know anything new, we'll email parents.

In the absence of any firm decisions, we are planning for LFH when school returns (and hoping we're wrong!).

This has certainly been our most challenging Lockdown, purely because of announcements that impacted a few days at a time, in contrast to the longer-term announcements used in 2020. We have appreciated parents' feedback and positive suggestions. Thanks for letting us know that some families just loved a 3 day schedule - that was purely a result of government announcements - while others preferred 5 days at once. 

After considering your feedback, we will trial a third alternative LFH plan for Weeks 1 and 2 (if needed) and then ask parents via a 'Pulse Check Survey' to vote for their preferred option early next term. This LFH program will still be familiar and predictable, but tweaked, and also include our staff's insights on what's working well. Asking families to vote for their favourite option is then the fairest next step for everyone. 

Our community is in a different place after 18 months of moving in and out of LFH and we recognise how much we've all learned. Although we may not find the perfect model for over 500 families' work schedules and other commitments, we're still listening and refining. 

If you're new to the school, we last reviewed LFH in July last year, using parents' responses to make some important improvements. You can still see that survey, and what we changed after responses from 332 families, here. That seems ages ago now. In contrast, the October Pulse Check will be brief and very specific. 

We plan to publish Week 1 of LFH over the final weekend of the school holidays. We'll email you when it's online and have more to say about this in Week 1. 

Have a wonderful break. And a huge thanks to our fantastic staff, who will no doubt recharge offline during this well-earned holiday.

Most importantly, stay safe everyone.

Kim