Secondary Interim Reports
On Thursday 16 March, our Secondary Interim Reports opened to parents in the Parent Centre of myTintern. These reports indicate to parents and students’ progress so far in each subject prior to parent-teacher interviews. The achievement levels indicated by teachers reflect a student’s performance in assessment tasks so far this semester.
Secondary School Parent-Teacher Interviews
Last week we held the first of three Secondary School Parent-Teacher Interviews on Tuesday 21 March and this week two more evenings will be held on Tuesday 28 March (tonight) and Wednesday 29 March. Bookings for each night close at 10am on the day of the interviews.
Teachers are instructed to request an interview if a student’s progress is awarded ‘Low’ or ‘Very Low’, but they often also request interviews with other students as well for a range of reasons. If a teacher does not request an interview, then that field in the Parent Portal will contain ‘Optional’. Parents, of course, may request interviews with any of their child’s subject or pastoral teachers regardless of whether a request is made by the teacher.
Parent-Teacher Interviews – Student Involvement
This year we are strongly encouraging our secondary students to attend these interviews to be part of a three-way conversation about their own learning. This has always been the case in the Senior College and we find this is a great opportunity for students to feel a part of the reflection – goal setting – self-evaluation feedback loop and ask questions on how they are going and how they can improve. We find this is a good way to build student confidence, accept responsibility for their learning and for students, parents and teachers to engage in open and honest dialogue.
We formally extended this invitation to our Middle School students and were very pleased with the numbers of families that took up the opportunity on our first evening. We hope to see this continue this week at the last two evenings.
Year 8 Progressive Reporting Trial
For Years 7, 9, 10, 11 and 12 the Interim Reports will award levels of achievement, as per previous years, against a set of Indicators in:
- Academic Progress
- Preparation for Learning – Student organisation, homework completion and bringing correct materials to class
- Participation in Learning – Student engagement and participation in learning activities in class
- Attitude towards Learning – Student’s mindset and approach to learning in general
Each student will receive a rating from Very High, High, Satisfactory, Low or Very Low for each of these by matching the student’s achievement with a matrix of descriptors for each Behavioural Indicator.
For Year 8 parents we are trialling some changes to the Interim Reports which we hope will improve the information teachers can offer parents and students and to track progress across a semester rather than only at Interim and Semester Reporting times.
Year 8 students’ Interim Reports will not include an overall Academic Progress achievement level but will receive a letter grade for any major summative Assessment Tasks that have been completed and marked prior to the publication of the reports. The Year 8 Interim reports will continue to have Behavioural Indicators the same as the other year levels.
Year 8 teachers will then progressively enter grades for major assessment tasks across the semester as they are assessed and returned to students. These will appear on the portal in the same place as our Interim and Semester Reporting and show the letter grade awarded for those tasks. Year 8 parents were sent an email to outline this process.
The publication dates for these Year 8 Progressive Grade Reports for Semester 1 are:
Thursday March 16 at 10am – with Interim Reports
Friday March 31 at 5pm
Friday April 28 at 5pm
Friday May 12 at 5pm
Friday May 26 at 5pm
Friday June 9 at 5pm
Monday June 26 – with the publication of Semester Reports
Please be aware that some assessment tasks are cross-marked with other teachers from a year level team and tasks therefore may not be ready to be returned for up to a fortnight after completion by students. Teachers will communicate with students regarding return dates. Subjects with less periods per cycle, and who may also have missed some due to Athletics day or camp, may not have completed any major assessment prior to Interim Reports whereas other subjects may have completed several. In the former cases, only Behavioural Indicators will appear on the Interim Report. Task titles will only appear if grades have been entered.
I will send out a brief survey seeking your feedback on this trial at the end of Semester 1, but please feel free to email me directly with feedback or suggestions.
I hope that our reporting and Parent-Teacher evenings have proved useful in understanding your child’s progress to date and will assist in strengthening the partnership between family, school and student that is so crucial to effective learning and growth.
