At All Saints Primary School, assessment and reporting about student progress and achievement occurs regularly throughout the school year. Assessment and reporting processes play a strategic role in moving student learning forward.
Assessing Learning
Why do we assess learning?
Assessing student learning is an integral part of the school classroom. It improves learning and informs teaching. It is the process through which teachers identify, gather and interpret information about student achievement and learning in order to improve, enhance and plan for further learning.
What learning do we assess?
The Australian Curriculum defines the knowledge, understanding and skills that students are entitled to learn each academic year in the achievement standard for each learning area. The achievement standard determines the learning intentions and the success criteria that teachers plan for their students. Teachers monitor student progress for both formative and summative assessment purposes and look for opportunities to provide and receive feedback to move learning forward.
Formative assessment (Assessment for learning)
Formative assessment allows students and teachers regular opportunities to monitor learning. Students engage in a variety of embedded formative assessment tasks so teachers can 'check in' on student progress regularly throughout a lesson or series of lessons.
Teachers use formative assessment information to provide clear and specific feedback to each student to assist them to understand what they need to do to move their learning forward.
Summative assessment (Assessment of learning)
Teachers must also make judgements about student learning against the achievement standard for summative reporting purposes. The purpose of summative assessment, or assessment of learning, is to judge the extent and quality of student learning at a point in time. Teachers use a range of assessment tools to make summative judgements about student learning including student/teacher consultation, focused analysis of work samples and teacher observation.
Reporting Learning
Consistency of Teacher Judgement in Reporting
The use of Australian Curriculum achievement standards as a common reference point for reporting to parents should contribute to national consistency in reporting. To support consistency of teacher judgement, teachers engage in moderation discussions with colleagues at All Saints Primary School and from other BCE schools over the year in order to confirm their judgements about students' achievements against the achievement standard.
Twice-Yearly Reporting – The Written Report
The purpose of twice-yearly reporting is to provide parents/caregivers and students with a summary overview of achievement and progress for the current reporting period. This report summarises evidence of student learning about how the student is achieving, provides feedback about the quality of this achievement and provides direction about where to next.
Reporting involves a professional judgement made on a body of evidence about a student's progress and achievement against the curriculum. These judgements are made against the achievement standards of the Australian Curriculum when reporting on those learning areas that have been published.
This report uses a Commonwealth Government mandated A-E reporting framework. Student achievement at All Saints Primary School is described using this 5-point scale:
- Well below expected standard
- Below expected standard
- Achieving at expected standard
- Above expected standard
- Well above expected standard
Reporting Student Progress Throughout the Year
Reporting is a process, not simply a report card. No single method, such as a twice-yearly written report, can be left to carry the whole burden of reporting student progress each year. At All Saints Primary School, we believe the most effective reporting occurs when various approaches are used throughout the year. Parents are also encouraged to contact their child's teacher at any time throughout the year to discuss their child's learning at a time convenient to teachers and parents.
The following is an overview of the reporting process that is currently used at All Saints Primary School.
Term 1
Years Prep - 6 Parent/Teacher Welcome Evening (early in term)
Year Level Overviews will be available at the end of Week 2
Work Samples – May be sent home throughout the term.
Open Classrooms at the end of each Class's liturgy or assembly item.
Term 2
- Parent/Teacher interviewed – offered via Parent Teacher Online
- Year Level Overviews will be available at the end of Week 2
- Work samples – May be sent home throughout the term.
- Years P - 6 formal written report – End of term
- Open Classrooms at the end of each Class's liturgy or assembly item.
Term 3
- Year Level Overviews will be available at the end of Week 2
Parent/Teacher interviewed offered - as required
Work samples – May be sent home throughout the term.
Year 3 / 5 NAPLAN student report to be forwarded home – Generally, end of term.
Open Classrooms at the end of each Class's liturgy or assembly item.
Term 4
Year Level Overviews will be available at the end of Week 2
Work samples – May be sent home throughout the term.
Celebration of Learning and Open Classrooms
Years P - 6 formal written report – End of term.
Open Classrooms at the end of each Class's liturgy or assembly item.
