Pedagogy and Academics

From the Assistant Principal: Pedagogy and Academic Leadership

The Real Lesson of Assessment Season

“The biggest effects on student learning occur when teachers become learners of their own teaching, and when students become their own teachers.” 

John Hattie

As we move into assessment season across the College, this idea feels especially timely. While it’s easy to see assessments as a string of due dates, grades, and the familiar hum of highlighters in overdrive, at their heart they’re a moment of shared learning. They give students and teachers the space to slow down, clarify what’s been understood, and identify what still needs attention.

For students, this period invites a more deliberate reflection: What strategies are helping me learn? Which concepts am I confidently applying? Where do I need to adjust my approach? These kinds of metacognitive questions matter just as much as any final mark. When students articulate their thinking, ask for guidance, and examine the choices behind their work, assessment shifts from a single endpoint to a habit of learning they’ll use long after school.

For staff, it’s a season of purposeful professional noticing. They draw together evidence of growth and common misunderstandings to see more clearly where instruction needs to move next. And in the steady rhythm of marking and feedback, teachers refine their practice: adjusting program sequences, strengthening resources, and critically reflecting on their own gaps to sharpen next year’s teaching.

Across our junior and senior school, assessments take many forms: investigations, written papers, performances, practical tasks, and other collaborative work — and this is an area we will continue to prioritise as the capacity of AI grows, making simple knowledge-replication tasks increasingly redundant. This variety ensures students can demonstrate understanding in ways that align with real thinking, not rote recall.

As always, our focus is on accuracy, fairness, and representing each student’s best learning.

Assessment season isn’t just about measuring progress; it’s about building the habits that underpin strong learning - persistence, reflection, risk-taking, and the quiet satisfaction that comes from effort genuinely earned.

Mel Pedavoli

Assistant Principal: Pedagogy and Academic Leadership