Learning and Curriculum

St Joseph’s School is participating in the Premier's Reading Challenge is an annual statewide initiative for state and non-state schools and home-educated students up to Year 9, and children enrolled in an early childhood centre or program.

The challenge is not a competition but aims to improve literacy and encourage children to read widely for pleasure and learning. Children and students can participate in the challenge within their school, early childhood centre or as individual readers (home-educated students or students whose schools are not participating in the program).

For Prep — Year 9 students to successfully complete the challenge they must read or experience an allocated number of books based upon their year level during the reading period.

Children and students who complete the challenge will have their efforts recognised through the receipt of a Certificate of Achievement.

A recording sheet will be coming home with your child this week and you can also find a copy of the record sheet in your email inbox.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE ABOUT READING

This is an important message about reading! This year staff have been working very hard to train in a new type of reading assessment called DIBELS. This new program will be implement across the Diocese in 2025.

What is Amplify - DIBELS ® Data System? How can staff use it to support your child’s reading?

DIBELS ® (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) is a suite of procedures and measures that assesses the acquisition of early literacy and reading skills in students from Prep to Year 8.  Short fluency measures are administered at regular intervals to monitor student progress in the development of skills related to general reading outcomes. These measures allow for tracking of improvement and early detection of students at risk of not achieving reading proficiency.  Amplify is the database that collates and stores the statistics from the DIBELS ® assessment pieces.

This school makes decisions about what eLearning experiences best meet our students’ needs. Whilst the Catholic Educational Office provides some of the online resources used, it is sometimes necessary and beneficial for students to utilise services provided by third-party web-based providers. 

Your school plans to utilise the third-party web-based services, Amplify - DIBELS ® Data System, to aid your child’s learning. For your child to use these resources, the school will need to register them as a user. Amplify (which operates DIBELS ® Data System) is a private company that hosts its data outside Australia in the United States of America. This means that personal information given to the company, or data created in relation to your child whilst using DIBELS ®, will be stored on servers that are not based in Australia.

Important Information

In order for the school to register your child, the following information will need to be disclosed to Amplify:

• Student identification code; e.g. C123456
• Student first initial of first name and surname; e.g. Tim Smith (tsmith)
• Year level
• Class name
• School code

It is intended that your child’s registration with Amplify - DIBELS ® Data System will remain current for 12 months. Once registered, your child’s usage of DIBELS ® will be tracked; reports will be created by the school staff for monitoring of literacy skills development, feedback and decision making about your child’s learning.

The collected personal information about your child will be used and disclosed by authorised Catholic Education Services employees (including staff at this school) for the purposes outlined in this form. The collected personal information may also be used or disclosed to third parties where authorised or required by law. This information will be stored securely. If you wish to access or correct any of your child’s personal information or discuss how it will be dealt with, please contact the school in the first instance.

Please ensure that you have checked you email and replied to the parent slip to indicate your choice of consent. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email me on tbarber1@cns.catholic.edu.au.