Dear Parents/ Guardians,

A GREAT TERM 2
As we come to the end of Term 2 I realise that a great deal has been achieved at Corpus Christi by both the students and Staff. Quality teaching and learning is taking place and we move to the formal reporting period that will reflect this. The Staff have been very busy marking assignments and classwork in preparation for these.

Half Yearly Reports and P/T/S Interviews
I ask that all parents read the Half Yearly Reports of their children and discuss the
contents with them. Whilst schools have changed dramatically since you attended,
research is clear that students with parents that take an interest in their child’s
learning and progress, perform better.
Year 7 – 10 parents will also have the opportunity to discuss the reports with the
Staff in the first week of Term 3. These discussions should be in two halves. The first
describing where your child is presently in their learning journey and the second
discussing ways forward to attain improved results.

Social Media’s Negative Impact on Reading Skills
Lately there has been much written in educational circles about the effect of social
media on young adults and teenagers and their learning. A by-product of the surge in
social media usage by young people has been a decrease in their reading capacity.
The flow on from this has been an impact on the writing capacity of students. The
research has found that those who regularly read have a better vocabulary and
writing ability.

PISA and the Importance of Reading
PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) is one of the international
assessments of the National Assessment Program (NAP). The NAP is part of a
national strategy to monitor and report on student achievement, in a comparable and
consistent way. It is useful to note that PISA data can tell us much about student
progress across multiple subject areas and it can show factors that impact individual
achievement.
One common finding in PISA tests in recent years is the exceptional importance of
reading and how, if regular, it can enhance student learning outcomes.

Daily Reading
While there is a multitude of factors that can impact achievement (e.g. the quality of
instruction, access to learning resources and contextual family information), there is
an extremely strong correlation between the time spent reading each day and
learning growth and achievement.

In the most recent PISA test data, an analysis of close to 200,000 students, revealed
that there was a very strong connection between reading engagement and reading
performance in all 32 countries examined.
Students who were in the habit of reading regularly, read diverse texts and regarded
reading as valuable, had higher scores on PISA’s combined reading literacy scale
than other students.

Of particular interest was that a student’s ‘level of reading engagement’ was found to
be a more significant factor than gender or socioeconomic status. Students with high
reading engagement scored significantly above the international average on the
‘combined reading literacy scale’. Therefore, students by taking the initiative with
reading, could and can overcome traditional barriers to achievement.

So, what does this mean for us?

Students at Corpus Christi read regularly in their English classes BUT we know that
if students read every day for at least 20 minutes SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT
can result.
Reading is enjoyable. Reading widely ensures that balance exists in a person’s life
and that we don’t miss out on gaining greater general knowledge required in our
lives.

Twenty minutes of reading every day can extend a student’s vocabulary
considerably, but it can also enhance learning engagement, literacy skills and
positively impact on a student’s capacity for critical thinking.
Students have access to many physical books from our School Library and they also
have access to a broad array of digital texts. I prefer an actual book that I can take
around with me, this is a personal choice and digital platforms have a broad and
diverse range of material. So, regardless of the format, let's encourage reading!

We wish all families a wonderful winter break and a safe and happy time away from
school. See you all on Monday day 21 st July.

God bless