Taroona Primary School Association
C/- Taroona Primary School
104 Channel Highway,
Taroona TAS 7053

Dear Parents,

At last night’s Taroona Primary School Association meeting, the following motion was proposed and carried:

“The TPSA encourage parents with children at Taroona Primary School to remove them from the 2015 NAPLAN testing in response to the Government’s unwillingness to negotiate in relation to the budget cuts”

Why This Motion? This motion was proposed in direct response to the State Government’s public declarations that it will no longer negotiate with the state teachers/AEU, will not consider alternatives to axing 266 frontline staff and insists “the caravan has moved on”. We firmly believe that this is not the case and that the teachers/AEU want to continue negotiations and reach a settlement. Furthermore, this is what the parents of our school want as this is in the best interest of all state schools and all state school children.

What does this motion mean? The TPSA cannot and will not force any parent to remove their children from the NAPLAN testing program and we will always respect the right of parents in this regard. We do strongly encourage it however, and we will provide you with the necessary information / updates as the May testing date for grade 3,5 and 7 approaches so that you can make your decision at that time.

Why do this? We believe that the Government’s budget cuts are outright wrong, unqualified and will be highly detrimental to our school and other state schools across the state and they will have a negative impact on the educational outcomes provided to our children. We, along with thousands of others have voiced our concern to the Government and have been told that they are not interested in listening to us nor will they enter into any further negotiations. Therefore the only way to bring them to the table is to take this action. By removing thousands of children across Tasmania from the NAPLAN results, the national dataset will be rendered worthless in respect to its chief aim – facilitating a comparative evaluation of student performance nationally – and this action is therefore more likely to give this dire issue a profile at the Federal level and re-enforce our firm opposition to the planned cuts.

Why is the TPSA doing this and not the teachers? The teachers are not allowed to suggest this action, promote this action nor prevent our children from attending NAPLAN tests – we respect this. The only people that can make this decision are the individual parents of each child. The school association, remembering that it is made up of every parent of the school, provides the critical mass to make this protest worthwhile and to get our voices listened to.

What about monitoring my own child’s progress next year? There are lots of tools already in place at school that our wonderful teachers use to monitor our children. NAPLAN is just one tool of course with the added benefit of being able to compare across the country. We believe that the teachers at our school will fully support us in our actions to support them and will be happy to provide continued and additional feedback on our children’s progress (some would argue that this is more relevant anyway).

Will the teachers stop teaching towards / preparing our children for NAPLAN? No. No. No. The teachers are obligated to teach to the Australian Curriculum and will continue to do so. We don’t want any action that we take to have a negative effect on our children and therefore we will obviously support this. By continuing to prepare for NAPLAN, all children are still learning the Australian Curriculum, it allows those parents deciding in May not to remove their children at that stage to take the NAPLAN tests. It also prepares all of the children should the government finally listen to the community and negotiate a settlement.

But isn’t the removal of NAPLAN testing a potential negative effect on my child? This is not ideal, and most parents would prefer to be able to also compare our children’s and school’s performances across the country however the impact of less teachers / support staff, increased class sizes, more composite classes and reduced program offerings at our school will have a far more wider-reaching negative effect on our children.

What about other schools? Now that this motion has been adopted by the TPSA, we will forward this to other school associations and the TASSO (Tasmanian Association of State School Organisations Inc). We believe that they will table it at their emergency meetings across the state starting next week (Southern Meeting: 9th Dec at Campbell Street PS @ 6.30pm – All Welcome). We hope that all schools also adopt this motion so that we can try and make the government listen to the community.

What outcome do we want? We still want the government to re-enter negotiations with the teachers/AEU. If they cannot resolve the differences between the two parties, engage an independent body to arbitrate and accept their findings.

What do I tell my child? You are probably already having / or soon will have discussions with your children on the changes at school, especially when they become aware of their teachers leaving the school, support staff being removed from class, being moved into mixed classes for next year and having more children in their class. Each child is an individual and you are the one best qualified to know how much to tell them. Please remember that removing your child from the testing is not compulsory, you don’t need to finally decide until May and whatever decision you make now or in May, this doesn’t affect what or how your child is taught at school.

More Information / Any Questions? We hope that the above information is helpful in understanding the rationale behind this motion and gives you some answers to any immediate questions. If you have any concerns about this at all, or would like to seek clarity, please don’t hesitate in contacting the undersigned. I will also be in the basketball court outside the GP room on Thursday at 2.45pm should you wish to ask any questions in person.
Stefan Stimson Taroona Primary School Association