As a pool owner, it’s your duty to ensure your pool is at its peak performance. That means investing in high quality pool surfaces such as fiberglass, vinyl-lined or concrete pools; each provides advantages and drawbacks so it is wise to carefully weigh all available choices before selecting one that’s the best fit for you.

Some may view their ideal pool as an oasis, with waterfalls, hot tubs and geometric designs. Others prefer more contemporary options with clean lines and geometric shaped. Whatever your taste may be, custom-built pools offer numerous advantages – the first being how it will be used; second is what level of maintenance commitment is possible: concrete is great if you like taking care of things yourself while fiberglass or vinyl lining may be the better choice if that’s how you like to relax in the water!

Sydney is famed for its collection of ocean pools. Notable examples are Bondi Icebergs pool on Instagrammable Bondi Beach; Palm Beach’s rock pools; movie stars and moguls often vacation here; as well as McIver’s Ladies Baths where Olympic athlete Evelyn Whillier trained for 1936 Berlin Olympic Games – McIver’s Ladies Baths in eastern suburbs has female-only pools!

But this summer has brought its own challenges for iconic swim scene, with construction of an $86m pool at North Sydney’s Mt Druitt beach delayed and its opening date extended until late 2024 or early 2025. This project has been beset with council infighting, claims of pork-barrelling, lack of transparency and criticism by health organisations and heritage groups; furthermore PriceWaterhouseCoopers predicted it will go over its $100 million budget.

Kylea Tink, independent federal member for North Sydney and one of two allies who voted against it 23 times has expressed disappointment with how the pool project has been handled and has asked the Local Government Ombudsman for action to be taken against its development.

She believes the issues began in April when an inner-city project received a $10m grant meant for regional and remote women’s sports – pre-election cash injection that quickly ramped up its timeline and management structure, shifting it into higher gear while distorting governance processes. “It’s not the bread and butter of local councils to undertake $60-70m projects,” she points out, and instead led to what she labels a vanity project that has now cost them $670 million in total; blame being put forward include political agenda including optics ahead of a council election taking place this September – while her opponents find her words confusing – who respond by calling them out as absolute bollocks!

Data SGP serves to provide teachers, administrators, parents and students with essential information regarding student achievement and growth. This data helps guide classroom instruction and plan for future student learning while also helping districts determine which students require additional support to reach proficiency and which are already on track for it.

Student Growth Percentiles (SGPs) are calculated based on trends in historical student performance data. Unlike traditional assessment reports, SGPs measure how students have improved over time compared with academic peers rather than being tied directly to any one test or year. Individual Student Reports for math and ELA, as well as NJ SMART Student Growth Percentile Profiles provide access to these rankings for grades 7 through 12 students.

Student Growth Potential (SGP) is calculated by comparing current performance with that of their academic peers using up to two years’ worth of MCAS data. A statistical procedure called quantile regression identifies percentile ranks by norming performance relative to its academic peers on a normative scale and providing their percentile rank.

Students with similar MCAS score histories are placed into academic peer groups. A comparison is then made between their test scores for this year and an average of their previous Student Group Placements in their subject area; if these two values are close, their SGPs will also likely be similar; otherwise if their MCAS histories differ or they weren’t in similar academic peer groups during previous MCAS administrations, their SGPs may vary.

SGPs are calculated based on two assessments by students: their current assessment and at least one from an earlier testing window (fall, winter or spring; not necessarily with their school year in mind). Each year SGPs are revised and adjusted in response to various factors including changes to state standards, individual student performance on past exams and performance of similar students statewide.

At the bottom of each student report and in their Student Growth Percentile Profile in SMART system is shown the current SGP for that student, while school/district and student group SGPs are displayed graphically with each bubble representing one school/district or student group with its size indicative of how many students make up that group; their position on the graph indicating mean SGP for that particular group.

SGP graphs provide districts, schools and parents/guardians an effective way to visualize student progress toward meeting state standards. A variety of resources exist to assist educators with understanding what’s included on a student growth graph and use it effectively when making instructional decisions – visit our SGP District and School Resources webpage for videos, webinars and additional information regarding this tool.