Rural school ditches laptops to make huge gains in NAPLAN
This isolated country school in southwest Victoria made their Year 9 students pack away their laptops during English, and the improvements in writing were phenomenal.
YEAR 9 students at Apollo Bay P-12 College have made huge gains in NAPLAN writing by putting away their screens and reverting to old-fashioned pen and paper in English classes.
The school’s Year 9 progress also bucks the statewide trend for stagnant growth at Year 9 level in NAPLAN.
“We wanted our kids to put their laptops away and pick up pen and learn to write again,” said principal Tiffany Holt.
“That was a conscious effort. The two teachers involved in Year 9 English are passionate about writing themselves, which also helped.
“It took a bit of persistence and there was a bit of push-back at Year 9 level, as you can imagine. Finally the kids got the point.”
Ms Holt said she was “pretty happy” with the group’s success – with 66 per cent of Year 9s achieving above-average progress and 41 per cent in the high-growth category.
In addition to ditching the laptops, she said last year’s Year 9 class of 28 students had the benefit of two teachers. The class was split into smaller groups to allow more quality instruction.
“We put our best teachers where they needed to be,” Ms Holt said. “But it wasn’t these are the high achievers and these are the ones that need support.
“We basically worked on what were good groups of kids. For different tasks, they swapped groups. So all the kids had the opportunity to work with the two individual teachers and different students.”
A Victoria Department of Education spokeswoman said there was concern about the lack of progress in Year 9 NAPLAN across the state.
“We know there is more we need to do to lift Year 9 performance,” she said.
“That’s why we are introducing certificates to be awarded to Year 9 students who excel in NAPLAN or significantly improve their results, to recognise excellence, learning growth and keep students engaged.”
At Apollo Bay, there is little worry because they know their approach is working.
In addition to growth, the Year 9s overall score in writing was also impressive.
The Year 9s average of 582 in writing is on a par with Year 9s at independent schools including Gippsland Grammar, where the same year level averaged 581 in writing, Emmanuel College in Warrnambool, which averaged 583, and it’s a step ahead of the illustrious Geelong Grammar, where Year 9s averaged 577 in writing.
Apollo Bay P-12 has 285 students, from Prep to Year 12, and is the only school in the small coastal town in southwest Victoria.
“My theory is that our students don’t miss out on a thing,” Ms Holt said. “We are quite isolated and remote, but my approach is that we will provide these kids whatever they want.
“Whatever the kids want to study when they get to VCE, we will find a way to make that happen.
“We do things a little different there, lots of outside work and we try to make our environment as relaxing as possible
“Our teachers are passionate about making sure the kids aren’t isolated. We will go to the Nth degree to get our kids to Melbourne, to see exhibitions, performances.”
Despite removing technology from English classes, Ms Holt said she had not taken the same approach across all lessons because “our kids will be digital citizens and they need to learn to use it safely and wisely”.
She said while some parents were in favour of getting rid of technology all together, she did not think that was appropriate.
“It is all about balance. There are times when your kids will need technology for survival. And there are also times they won’t.”
She said while she was proud of the writing progress in NAPLAN, she was determined to continually improve teaching and learning in all areas across the school.
“I do support NAPLAN … because it does clearly identify gaps in kids’ knowledge and abilities, however it is just one form of assessment.
“In order for us to really develop kids’ skills and ability to learn properly, we should be using many forms of data.
“It is just about making sure that as a group we put the student at the centre of everything we do.”
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