Curios of the week #92

Clippings, endnotes and other ephemera

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At Clarendon, our junior campus caters to Early Learning through to Year 4, whereas our senior campus caters for Years 5-12. This is unusual. Children in Years 5 and 6 are classed as primary school children in Australia, which is one reason why we recently unveiled our new playground at our senior campus. However, this arrangement means that at the end of Year 4, we have a graduation ceremony. Jen, my principal, and I were there to hand out pennants and graduation certificates, and listen to the students as they told us what we would see them doing in the future.

It was wonderful, as you can probably imagine.

This week’s Curios include TIMSS results, a lawsuit, Welsh weather and much more.

Podcast of the week

While I was at the cognitive load theory conference, I rose early one morning to record an episode of The Report Card podcast with Nat Malkus.

It was a bit of a blur and I could remember little about it after the recording. However, I have listened back to part of it and I think it is one of the better interviews I have taken part in, even if I do mention the early nineteenth century when I mean the early twentieth century. I discuss my recent survey results that you can read about here and here, I speculate a little on the woes that afflict education and I briefly discuss cognitive load theory.

Results of the week

Australian students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 complete NAPLAN assessments in literacy and numeracy. We have had our own results for some time, but this week they were released on the MySchool website. This makes them available to journalists and allows some comparison to be made.

There are five measures per year across four years, making a total of 20 measures. In 2023, our students were ‘well above’ students from similar background on 17 of these measures and ‘above’ on three. This year, they were ‘well above’ on 19 and ‘above’ on one. Of particular importance is the fact that 99% of our students sat these assessments compared to a national average of 95%.

We are not in education to generate results. We are in this profession because we want to make a meaningful difference in children’s lives. However, to do this, we need to teach them English and maths really well and results like these are an indicator that we are on the right track.

The publication of results prompted a number of articles in the press. Julie Hare of the Australian Financial Review focused, naturally, on the financial angle, noting our strong results and calling our fees ‘relatively modest’. They are modest compared to some independent schools in Melbourne, but we are still well aware that they represent a significant contribution from our parents for which we are privileged.

Noel Towell and Alex Crowe of The Age listed us as among a group of ‘proven performers’.

Conference of the week

If last week was about the cognitive load theory conference in Sydney, this week was characterised by a very different kind of event.