Learning & Teaching

Term 4

Assessment Update

As the year comes to a close, teachers are very busy assessing how your child has grown in

 their learning throughout the year. It is an exciting time to see your child's growth and help teachers understand how we can better support them individually.  At the end of the year, all Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools must complete two formal types of assessments. They include, one for Reading and one for Mathematics. These assessments are all individualised according to the child's current scale score. Therefore, if a student in Year 3 has a current scale score equivalent to a Year 5 student, then for the first ten questions they will be pitched at Year 5 standard. Depending on how successful they are, the next ten questions might be pitched at a higher level, the same level, or an easier level. Sometimes these individualised assessments can overwhelm a child, especially younger students, as they are exposed to more challenging texts, harder words, more words to read, and even smaller font! So if your child comes home next week commenting that reading or a maths assessment was challenging, this is why. From the information gathered, not only by the SJV Leadership Team and MACS we are able to assess the school's and individual's areas of strengths and areas where there might be set patterns for us to improve in and spend a greater amount of focus on. These assessments are mandated from students Year 2 and beyond.  

The whole school will also be completing a moderated writing task. This will consist of a writing prompt, either a picture or a topic, and students will compose a piece of writing around it. The same prompt/picture will be given to every student across the school, regardless of year level. The teachers then, assess what the students have written and compare them against the Victorian Curriculum 2.0 Outcomes. We report on these outcomes in our school reports.

Mathletics

Congratulations to Logan Semmel 1/2 KK for being this week's Mathletics Superstar. Logan has done an outstanding job with Mathletics throughout the year and is a well-deserved recipient. Well done, Logan!