Foundation–10 Assessment

NAPLAN student reports

The NAPLAN 2018 reporting packages included:

• a covering letter
• a confidential report for each student who participated in the NAPLAN 2018 tests for schools to distribute to parents/carers
• an instruction sheet with information on accessing NAPLAN Writing test images.

The Individual student report brochure (pdf - 265.14kb) for parents is available from the VCAA website.

As in previous years, student reports include information such as:

• individual student results for all NAPLAN tests on the 10-band National Achievement Scale
• an indicator for each assessment area showing the national average and the middle 60% of national results
• a written description for each assessment area identifying the types of skills assessed
• a summary table describing the skills and understandings students are likely to demonstrate in each of the bands.

Each 2018 ISR also provides an indication of whether the student completed each test on paper or online.

Speechmakers bring diverse perspectives and experience

2018 PESA State Finalists (L–R) Caitlin Grieve (runner-up), Susan Malikoff, Samuel Roach (winner),
Jade Vergara, Karmil Nguyen and Alessandra Negline.

Samuel Roach (St Kevin’s College) has taken out the Victorian State final of the 2018 Plain English Speaking Award (PESA), held on Wednesday 25 July 2018 at the Treasury Theatre. Caitlin Grieve (Ballarat Grammar) was the runner-up.

Samuel and Caitlin were two of six inspiring students who took to the stage. Samuel encouraged a new kind of relationship between adolescent boys and their parents. ‘Guide us, inform us, and demand of us your expectations. And I promise you, we will rise to them,’ he told the audience.

Caitlin explored farming for the future, including the possibility of a protein-hungry world turning to entomophagy (insect-eating) and the laboratory production of synthetic meat. Caitlin lives on a lamb farm and was thrilled to bring another regional perspective to the competition.

‘Regional and rural students have the same opportunity as our city counterparts to compete in PESA,’ she said.

‘We can bring a diversity of perspectives and life experiences to our speech, which are special and unique to the areas where we live and go to school.

‘I found my topic relevant not just to my family and home life but also to the question of how we meet growing demands in the region and in developing countries. This fuelled my passion to speak,’ she said.

The other speakers were Susan Malikoff from Warrnambool College, who discussed the global garment industry; Alessandra Negline from Loreto Mandeville Hall, who spoke about the roots of gender inequality; Karmil Nguyen from Suzanne Cory High School, who asserted that domestic violence is more than just a women’s issue; and Jade Vergara from Waverley Christian College, who discussed the Australian organ donation system.

Transcripts of the six finalists’ speeches are online.

Last year’s PESA State champion, Fergus Dale, was on hand to speak about his post-PESA experience. Fergus, who brought a rural perspective to his speech last year about ‘The disregarded identity of regional Australia’, has taken a gap year to work at an outdoor education centre and pioneer-style farm on a 160-hectare property on the Upper Mitta Mitta River, north of Omeo.

Fergus credited his PESA experience as providing the skills he uses to moderate conversations between the hundreds of young people who visit the mountains where he now works.

The capacity to present a compelling and coherent argument remains an attribute much valued in the community and especially by employers. This year more than 180 students competed in a series of regional finals across Victoria. The students who made the PESA final showed outstanding ability.

One finalist, Susan Malikoff, reflected that the best thing about the experience was ‘finding other secondary school students with a passion for public speaking. Exploring issues we are passionate about through public speaking I found that we shared so much, regardless of whether we came from the city, regional or rural Victoria,’ she said.

Samuel was presented with a personal trophy donated by the Australia–Britain Society (Victoria) and a book voucher donated by the English-Speaking Union (Victorian Branch). St Kevin’s College will house the PESA perpetual trophy for the next year as an acknowledgement of Samuel’s achievement.

Samuel represented Victoria in the national final in Darwin on Sunday 12 August, which was won by Justin Lai from Sydney Boys’ High School.

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