2013 Annual Review

GENERAL REPORT MS NATALIE SMITH DEAN OF STUDIES AND PLANNING

achievement gaps. Building a data culture in the School where data is used with discernment, as one part of the overall picture of students is vital. It enables teachers and educational leaders to continually engage in discussions, to share understandings from the data gathered and to modify their professional practice to improve students’ learning outcomes. The School is proud to acknowledge the 2013 Year 12 student cohort whose results were outstanding. They reflect the efforts of students and staff and thepositive, rigorous yet holistic, approach to education at Girls Grammar.

Results of standardised testing are often used by the media to ‘rank’ schools ... such a practice is not educationally sound as it places too much importance on a single testing instrument … results should not be viewed in isolation; however, if used thoughtfully, the results can provide data regarding the learning needs of students, both as a group and as individuals. The value of this testing then lies largely in the potential of the data to inform teaching practice in a very specific way (Euler, 2013). As Bowgren and Sever (as cited in Catalyst , 2012) maintain, when teams of teachers engage in the interpretation of student data, they are able to generate solutions to

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BRISBANE GIRLS GRAMMAR SCHOOL 2013 Annual Review