RJHS Newsletter - Term 3, Issue 4

KORERO FROM FRASER

Our beautiful, mild weather last week lulled us into a false sense of a slightly early spring. However after a wet start to the week we will take brisk, fine weather any day! I am really glad our AIMs sports teams have had improved weather after a wet and arctic start to it.

As promised in earlier eNews bulletins, I want to share a range of achievement data from our Semester 1 modules. Previously I have shared achievement data from the areas of literacy and mathematics. However, a real strength of our school is the diverse exposure and opportunities students receive from Year 7 to receive quality instruction and experiences in all learning areas. We are so lucky to have staff who have real expertise and subject knowledge that support so many quality learning experiences.

In this issue I want to share just how well our students are achieving in the learning areas of Digital Technology and Social Sciences. Both of these learning areas are mandatory for all students in Years 0-10 and as mentioned we are super lucky to have staff with real subject expertise in these areas.

In Semester 1 the Social Science staff covered two strands in the learning area, ‘Continuity and Change’ and ‘Economic World’. Achievement ranged from 74% of a year level cohort through to 91% achieving at or above the expected level of achievement across both strands. As a benchmark comparison we have the National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement (NMSSA) where achievement benchmarks are gathered at Year 8 across NZ. The last time this was done was in 2019 and nationally, 45% of female students and 30% of male students were achieving at level 4 of the curriculum (expected level) compared to 85% (average across both strands) and 79% for our school. This shows the quality of the teaching team and the quality programmes we are offering in this learning area.

Depth of thinking is also a focus for us as a school and we had around 85% of students achieving at multistructural or above in SOLO levels which is also very pleasing.

Digital Technology is a relatively new learning area across NZ and it is an area where we are very lucky to have a range of expertise with students needing to develop skills in this area for future learning and opportunities in and beyond school. We have noticed a consistent improvement in Digital Technology achievement levels over the last two years as we have developed our understanding of the new learning area and the needs of the students. Our cohort achievement levels are 87% (Y7), 94% (Y8), 76% (Y9) and 86% (Y10). This achievement and consistent progress is most pleasing also. There is not yet any NMSSA data in the area of Digital Technology unfortunately.

An area where curriculum leaders are delving more deeply into the data is making comparisons between low literacy and achievement versus achievement in their learning area. In both Social Science and Digital Technology, our data suggests that while a portion of low literacy students struggle in these learning areas, the majority of them are experiencing solid progress and achievement. This success in their learning is super important for them in developing their confidence in their own ability to learn and ultimately supports the development of their literacy skills as well.