TEACHING AND LEARNING COORDINATOR

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Welcome back to Term 4! I hope all families have had a refreshing and relaxing break.

In 2019, NAPLAN will be administered online. Year 3 and 5 students will complete NAPLAN online next year. Year 5 will need to do the writing component online while Year 3 will do their writing test using pencil and paper. The NAPLAN writing test is not about handwriting skills or keyboarding skills. There are variations in how fast and well a student can type, just as there are variations in how fast and well a student can write by hand. We must also note that online features such as grammar and spell-check are disabled during NAPLAN testing. Students will get about 5 minutes to plan and 45 minutes to type their writing piece.

Students do not have to be able to touch type successfully to complete the test. However, certainly our students have had more experience with writing by hand than they have had with typing.

Therefore, in order to offer our students the best chance at success with all of their work we do suggest that you encourage your child to practise typing on a computer (laptop or desktop PC) at least once per week. Please do not encourage them to do this on an iPad or tablet as this is not the way they will be sitting for the writing test.

Tips for Learning to Type

1. Schedule time each week: Try to slot in a 30-minute session each week for working on keyboarding. Some people prefer to do a few minutes each day. Whatever the case, make it regular.
2. Include tuition and practice: At home follow a mix of formal tuition in typing (like finger placement) as well as practice time.
3. Parental Support: Parents are encouraged to support their child to practise their keyboard skills at home too.
4. Students can track their progress: You may be amazed at how quickly your child will progress once they have some regular typing sessions. We don’t want to constantly assess but it’s worth checking on their progress! Some programs have inbuilt tests or they could use something like https://www.typingtest.com or https://www.typing.com/typingtest
5. Celebrate: Don’t forget to stop and reflect. Celebrate your child’s achievements. You might even want to tell their teacher about their great progress, so you can write a note in their Homework Booklets.
6. Make it fun! Luckily, learning to type doesn’t have to be a chore. There are lots of online resources and games that our children will probably love.

Suggested Websites

Typing Club
typing.com
Typetastic
ABCya!

Thank you for your ongoing cooperation and help.