Head of School’s Comment

I had the pleasure of attending the launch of a new literacy program by the NSW government this week. This program has been introduced to address falling literacy rates and involves a re-focus in education on developing children’s core skills in their infant years specifically involving phonics.

While many schools have moved between phonics and whole language programs over the years, John Colet School has kept a steady course over the past 30 years. The provision of phonic instruction and the focus on reading fluency continues to be a major feature of our school. The proof of this approach was shown again this week with the release of excellent 2015 NAPLAN results. We do not teach to the test and would not change our approach if our ranking was to dip and rise from year to year, as it does with different cohorts of children. The real proof of our overall approach is in our well rounded, confident and capable students.

While NAPLAN tests are only taken in Year 3 and 5 I would like to congratulate all our teachers, right down to the Infants team. Each year level plays a role in the continued success of our students. Congratulations and thanks are also due to our parents, without your support and guidance of your children this great partnership in learning would not be possible.  

Julian Wilcock
Headmaster