Curriculum 

In case you missed it in our last newsletter, over the next few weeks our Assessment and Reporting team will be sharing theory and practice around student growth and assessment. The purpose of these entries is to build a greater understanding of the myriad of factors that teachers consider when assessing and planning for future learning for each child within their class. 

Our first instalment featured in the Wellbeing section of Week 4's newsletter: 

Learning Doesn’t Always Happen in a Straight Line

And it detailed the varied growth paths of students, and the typical steep incline in the early years and plateau in the middle years.

This week ... 

How teachers share learning growth at BBPS

At BBPS, there are a number of ways in which we communicate student learning growth with parents. These include:

End of semester reports. End of semester reports are shared with families twice a year (end of term 2, end of term 4) and give parents an insight into what students have been taught (through the English, Mathematics and Inquiry curriculum statements), what they have achieved and personalised areas for improvement. As mandated by the Department of Education, end of semester reports are also required to communicate student learning growth. This is done through the inclusion of teacher judgements based on a five-point scale (well below standard, below standard, at standard, above standard and well above standard) as well as an indication of progress since the curriculum area was last reported on. In the image below, the first circle with the number in it indicates whether the curriculum area was last reported on 6 or 12 months ago and the second black circle represents the student’s current level of attainment.

Three Way Conferences. Three Way Conferences provide students, parents and their teacher an opportunity to meet and share learning celebrations from the semester and to reflect on next steps for learning. Students and teachers are often given the opportunity to share work samples, which give parents an opportunity to physically see the learning growth which has taken place over the course of two terms.

Three Way Conference bookings have opened and parents now have the opportunity to book a 10 minute time slot to meet with their child’s teacher. Three Way Conferences will be held on Tuesday 10th June 2:30-5:30pm, with teachers offering an additional morning or afternoon session which features in their conference cycle. If you haven't already, please access the booking link via Compass.

IEPs and IEP meetings. Students with an identified disability, learning disorder, or who are working well below curriculum level will be placed on an Individual Education Plan (IEP), decided by the class teacher in communication with leadership and the family. For those students on an Individual Education Plan (IEP), the IEP document itself and termly meetings give parents, teachers and students an opportunity to acknowledge achievement and recognise a student’s progress towards achieving the goals outlined. IEPs are shared with families termly via Compass. 

Informal check ins. Teachers always welcome informal check-ins, whether that be in person, over the phone or via email as a means of communicating student learning growth. As per our Communication Policy, if you anticipate a more lengthy conversation, please make a time to meet. We want to be able to give you our full attention, and when students are in the classroom our priority and duty of care must be with them. 

Open afternoons/days. These opportunities, such as the recent Education Week open classrooms, give parents and visitors an insight into the learning that happens at BBPS. These are planned to directly link with the classroom curriculum program, and teaching teams will share and invite families in via Compass when the opportunities arise. Our Art Show is due to take place early term 4, another great opportunity to celebrate our students’ hard work in the art room this year. 

Coming up in Week 8 - how we track growth, respond to different student needs, and the new Maths reporting system

Our Grade 2 students have been looking at text-to-text connections