How Girls Learn Best
Throughout a school year, it is important to regularly stop and reflect on the year so far. The pause allows us time to identify areas to focus on and to celebrate achievements.
While we have quickly arrived in August, so much has already happened in Barbreck, and our girls have achieved well. Barbreck continues to strengthen its reputation across a number of educational areas. This week, I would like to pause to reflect on our academic performance.
In my previous Blue Ribbon article, I shared our Years 3 and 5 NAPLAN results. These recent results highlight our ability to consistently educate girls to a high standard.
| Year Level | % of girls in the Strong and Exceeding bands across all five tested areas |
| 3 | 85% |
| 5 | 87.7% |
| Year Level | % of girls in the Strong and Exceeding bands across the key learning areas of Reading, Writing and Numeracy |
| 3 | 95% |
| 5 | 90.3% |
This week, the State and National NAPLAN results were released. Across Australia, media outlets are reporting a decline in literacy and numeracy rates. The ABC reported one in three students are failing to meet basic requirements. However, at St Catherine’s our students continue to achieve higher than national averages.
In fact, at St Catherine’s our Years 3, 5, 7, and 9 students are close to, or exceeding the national averages for Year levels two years above their actual grade.
| Year 3 | Reading | Writing | Spelling | Grammar & Punctuation |
Numeracy |
| STC | 490 | 471 | 455 | 485 | 473 |
| Victoria | 417.7 | 422.9 | 407.9 | 417.4 | 413.4 |
| Australia | 404.1 | 415.9 | 401.4 | 408.8 | 403.8 |
| Year 5 | Reading | Writing | Spelling | Grammar & Punctuation |
Numeracy |
| STC | 562 | 533 | 522 | 583 | 568 |
| Victoria | 504.8 | 496.1 | 491.6 | 504.1 | 497.3 |
| Australia | 492.1 | 484.8 | 486.5 | 498.4 | 489.1 |
| Year 7 | Reading | Writing | Spelling | Grammar & Punctuation |
Numeracy |
| STC | 594 | 612 | 574 | 601 | 603 |
| Victoria | 545.3 | 552.3 | 541.3 | 541.1 | 545.5 |
| Australia | 535 | 540.2 | 540 | 536.7 | 539.8 |
| Year 9 | Reading | Writing | Spelling | Grammar & Punctuation |
Numeracy |
| STC | 616 | 642 | 592 | 645 | 626 |
| Victoria | 573.2 | 584.7 | 568.5 | 558.4 | 571.1 |
| Australia | 565 | 573.9 | 566.9 | 555.3 | 565.3 |
These results are incredibly pleasing but not surprising. At St Catherine’s we know how girls learn best. These results are a testament to our robust educational programs and the expertise of our staff.
Every Year level that advances through our School is different, with different strengths and areas of interest. The consistency of our NAPLAN results from Year level to Year level demonstrates the impact our Teaching for Thinking approach has on our students. All our girls are taught to think deeply and be curious within their learning, rather than only rote learning large amounts of content. Our Barbreck girls are taught how to apply their knowledge and skills to complex tasks. While quick recall of information is a skill, it is the ability to transfer and apply knowledge to new situations that develops a highly skilled learner capable of achieving personal best results.
Our parents know their girls are in good hands when they enrol at St Catherine’s! We congratulate the girls and their teachers on these exceptional results.
