Clevedon School ~ National Standards Update May 2010
All NZ schools are now required, under the new Ministry of Education guidelines . . .
“to report to students and their parents on the student’s progress and
achievement in relation to National Standards. Reporting to parents
in plain language in writing must be at least twice a year.”
The New Zealand Curriculum suggests a range of achievement for each year level and a rate of progress. National Standards set out what can reasonably be expected of most students by the end of the designated period or year.
While there is no specific requirement for the format of these reports, here at Clevedon School we already have good practices in place providing ~
· A drop in Report with Learning Goals, and a ‘What must I do’ section, issued in the first term.
· An interim (mid year) report showing the student’s progress towards the learning goals which were made at the beginning of the year and which also identifies the student’s next learning steps.
· An end-of-year report which is the culmination of a year of goal setting, planning, reviewing and reflection on the part of the student, and the teacher. This is a statement that sums up the year, celebrates what has been learned and sets the framework for the next year.
We believe reporting should:
benefit students involve students be suited to the purpose
support teaching and learning goals be planned and communicated be valid and fair.
Here at Clevedon School we have been moving in the general direction of the new approaches for some years now, and so there are only a few changes that we have made to our student centred focus on Reporting Student Progress and Achievement.
1. We have re-aligned our Levels Expectations and Overall Teacher Judgements to better match the new requirements.
2. The Drop In Report form now includes some written statements and appropriate benchmark assessment data, along with student goals, and a section called ‘How you can help at home’, geared to each 2 year grouping. The report indicates current learning objectives and next learning steps, and in most cases they are student generated and teacher moderated.
3. The Mid Year Report – for Three Way Conferences - is also written and student generated, and show progress to date, has a column for Next learning steps, and advice about extra support being provided where necessary.
4. The more formal and long standing End of Year Report is currently being modified slightly to show year end Achievement against the National Standards levels (at Well Below, Below, At or Above) along with Overall Teacher Judgements (OTJ’s) and written comments in plain language, sharing both current attainment and Next Steps. These are then used to initiate goal setting in the new year.
5. We are now also required to provide OTJ’s at the anniversary of the Years 1, 2 & 3 student’s time at school.
6. Three senior classes this year have commenced a Digital Learning initiative with e-Portfolios, electronic goals, evidence of work, personal reflections and teacher feedback and feed forward being key components of this approach. One of the more significant aspects of this work is that parents can see instant results, give feedback, and even check on home learning tasks etc.
7. We continue to set, monitor and evaluate Student Achievement Targets and report these to the Community, BOT and MOE annually.
8. We are also continuing to inform the wider community about the National Standards and their implications for teaching, learning and reporting at Clevedon School.
For more detailed information go to the Ministry website ~ http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/National-Standards
or our school website ~ http://www.clevedonschool.co.nz/WebSpace/101/
where there is also a link to a pamphlet – “How well is my child doing?”
http://www.minedu.govt.nz/~/media/MinEdu/Files/Parents/YourChild/HowWellIsMyChildDoing.pdf