My School website and ‘league tables’
The Federal Government’s controversial My School website was launched today. After an initial hiccup, when the site was down this morning, I managed to access it around 10am.
The My School website has been developed by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA).
The website provides detailed information about all the schools in Australia. It uses a new index of student and school characteristics, developed specifically for the purpose of identifying schools serving similar student populations.
ACARA chairman Barry McGaw says this enables schools’ results on national tests to be understood in a fair and meaningful way, and enables schools seeking to improve their performance to learn from other schools with statistically similar populations. (more…)
Switching schools
James and Margaret (age six next week) will be changing schools in 2010.
We’re not unhappy with their current school (Suttontown), just with a decision of the principal regarding their class for next year.
South Australia is unique, in our experience, for allowing children to start school during the year.
In Victoria and Western Australia, children start prep at the beginning of the year if they are old enough at a cut-off point, which I think is around April.
The twins were born in December, which means they qualified for a full year of prep (called reception in South Australia) in any state.
In South Australia, children who turn five during the year start school at the beginning of a term, right up to the final term of the year.
As a consequence, there are new children coming into a class all the time. (more…)
Gifted children
I don’t think state primary schools do enough to encourage and stimulate gifted children.
Letter from the school
A letter arrived from the high school today. It was dated August 10, so it should have arrived earlier, but we don’t check the box more than twice a week and they had the wrong number in the address.
Parents don’t like letters from schools. Normally it’s a bill, or there’s a prospect someone may be complaining about something your child has done or not done.
This one was personally addressed, with three hand-written signatures from the deputy principal, a teacher and a faculty co-ordinator.
Oh, oh! (more…)
Free public education
There is no such thing as free public education in South Australia.
We’re faced with paying $680 to send Kathleen and Michael to high school and a lesser amount for Jim and Maggie to attend primary school.
All up it will cost about $1000 plus more for stationery and excursions.
Juliet organised with the high school for us to pay by instalments, but they still sent us a statement this week threatening legal action if we don’t pay the balance of $540 within 14 days. (more…)
Job interviews
I interviewed six young people today for a career-entry position as a cadet journalist. Experience was irrelevant. The applicants were school leavers, not university graduates.
The required skills were good English, an awareness of current affairs, curiosity and effective communication.
I asked each of them 11 interview questions. They all performed okay during this stage, and it gave me an idea of their personalities. (more…)
Gladigau Park Kindergarten
This is the Gladigau Park Kindergarten class of 2008. Jim is in the front row on the right-hand side wearing mittens. Maggie is in the middle of the centre row.
It’s been a good kindergarten with flexible hours, which helped Juliet get work. It’s not as close as we had in Kalgoorlie, where we just had to walk a short distance down the road, but the twins have been happy there.
