Semester Reports

Commonly Asked Questions

What is a ‘Progression Point’?

As the name indicates, ‘progression points’ are points of progress along a continuum of learning. At the end of each level of school, the Victorian curriculum has an expected standard that describes what skills and knowledge students in that year level, should typically have. The progression point indicates where students are in their learning journey for mastering those skills and the content knowledge. A student will be marked along a continuum to indicate how close they are to mastering the standard, or if in fact, they have knowledge and abilities that are beyond that standard. 

How are students’ progression points decided on?

Teachers use a number of pieces of information including written assessments, work books, observations and online assessments to gather as much information as possible about student knowledge and understanding. Each week, teams of teachers meet together to discuss student assessment and plan for the next steps in learning for the students. At these meetings, facilitated by me as the Leader of Curriculum and Pedagogy, the teams moderate the work samples against the expected standard and decide together the point on the continuum they deem each student to be. At several points throughout the semester, all teachers meet together to moderate work samples across the year levels. This enables them to ascertain in a team environment, whether students are below or above year level expectations.

How well do students have to show their ability?

Mastery of knowledge means students are able to demonstrate their skills and understanding consistently and independently. Teachers use their assessments to determine mastery before deciding on progression points.

Do students always progress at the same rate?

The short answer to this is ‘no’. For a multitude of reasons, progression along the continuum of learning is often not consistent for each student and varies widely between students. A student may make 12 months progress from one report to another or perhaps show no progress. No progress does not mean they have not learned anything. More likely, it is that they have not mastered the skills sufficiently to move them to the next progression point. This can be particularly evident when students move from one ‘stage’ of schooling to another. (Stages being Foundation, Year 1–2,  Years 3-4 and Year 5-6).  

If you have any questions about how to read and understand your child’s report, please feel free to meet with me either before or after your parent / teacher meeting time next week.  My email address is lrobbins@shtatura.catholic.edu.au.

LORETTA ROBBINS: Leader of Curriculum and Pedagogy