Assessment and Reporting

Assessment

Assessment in Middle School grows naturally from the courses of study students undertake in each subject and provides information about student learning.

Assessment tasks assist students to further develop their skills, knowledge and understanding by providing feedback. Feedback is clear, helpful and accurate, providing students with information on their level of performance for particular tasks and their level of growth in the skills, knowledge and understandings in particular learning areas.

Assessments of various types are made with reference to an established set of criteria. Every assessment task in Middle School is explained to students in class and is documented under Assignments in CANVAS - our learning management system. This information also includes the criteria by which the task is assessed.

Tests include the number of marks allocated to particular parts or questions. 

As well as formal assessment activities, teachers and students gain new insights about their learning from a range of activities during lessons, formative assessments and as part of real world learning.

In cases where students have special learning needs, assessments can be modified to meet appropriate learning outcomes for the individual.

Reporting

Reporting takes several forms. Teachers engage in discussion with individual students about their learning, providing strategies which the student can employ to further improve their level of achievement. Parents may also contact Mentors or specific subject teachers with questions or concerns about a student's learning and progress. 

In addition, teachers use CANVAS which provides feedback to students and parents about progress.

Parents can access student summative task results and feedback and any other progress results from teachers on CANVAS using their parent login. However, we encourage parents to access this information with their child, on the student's own device, to support ongoing conversations about the student's learning, to reflect on tasks and to set goals for future learning. 

To support the three-way partnership between students, parents and teachers, we recommend parents talk with their child on a weekly basis referencing CANVAS for key due dates, feedback and advice. Our formal structure for reporting to parents is as follows:

Semester 1

Meet the Mentor is held early in Term 1. Parents and House Mentors discuss student progress during the initial weeks of the year. 

Interim reports focussing on the Observable Learning Continuum are emailed in Term 1.

Parent Student Teacher (PST) meetings are held across Terms 1 and 2.

Feedback on summative tasks is available on CANVAS throughout the semester.

A link to the Semester 1 Report is available in July and contains a student reflection, Mentor comments, a summary of the summative task grades as well as an Observable Learning Continuum which indicates student learning behaviours.

Semester 2

In Term 3 House Mentors meet with students to review Semester 1 and set learning goals for Semester 2.

Interim reports focussing on the Observable Learning Continuum are emailed in Term 3.

Parent Student Teacher (PST) meetings are held towards the end of Term 3.

Feedback on summative tasks is available on CANVAS throughout the semester.

A link to the Semester 2 Report is available in December and contains a student reflection, Mentor comments, a summary of the summative task grades as well an Observable Learning Continuum which indicates student learning behaviours.