In fact, the school principal says the Year 7 and 9 students are ready to be tested any day of the year thanks to Brisbane Catholic Education’s (BCE) focus on students being ‘assessment capable learners’ all year round.
And they’re helped in this by a bespoke ‘writing tool’ developed by Brisbane Catholic Education.
The BCE writing tool enables teachers to collect writing samples from students across a variety of subjects, before they’re assessed against eight criteria and cross marked by a variety of teachers.
Siena Catholic College School Principal Dr Michael McCarthy said the tool enables teachers across all curriculum areas to champion the growth and development of macro and micro literacy skills ensuring students are improving in all subject areas, not just English.
“Our students have always done well on NAPLAN and part of our success is due to Brisbane Catholic Education’s Writing Analysis Tool,” Dr McCarthy said.
“Every day our school is creating assessment capable learners; it is imbedded in our school’s curriculum.
“This means when NAPLAN or exam time rolls around, our students feel a lot more confident, knowing they can perform to the best of their ability, because the necessary skills have been embedded in everyday teaching and learning.
“We can determine the progress of each student across the year with the tool’s offering of specific feedback data for teachers, students, and parents, which informs how we meet the literacy learning needs of our students.
“This is why we champion the BCE Writing Analysis Tool across all subject areas at our school, ensuring our students are able to meet the literacy demands of each subject in the Australian Curriculum at every stage of the teaching and learning cycle.”
Brisbane Catholic Education’s Head of Education Marisa Dann said the BCE Writing Analysis Tool was created specifically for its’ students.
“Instead of cramming, Brisbane Catholic Education schools focus on good first teaching year-round,” Ms Dann said.
“All year our students practice with bespoke tools, like the BCE Writing Analysis Tool, which focuses on preparing students for great writing in every subject.
“The tool helps our students and teachers become more conscious of skills and dispositions you need for learning, which benefits students in all exam situations, not just NAPLAN.”
For more information about Siena Catholic College and to enrol click here.