From the Deputy Principal

Progress Reports

Child progress reports will be available to parents later this term. Reports will be in their usual midyear format but printed copies will no longer be sent home. Copies of reports will be available on the St Paul Lutheran School App to all families at the same time, or via the St Paul Parent Portal which can be found under the ‘Contact Us’ tab on the school website. 

For families of Reception children, information about accessing the App and portal will be sent home in early Week 7. If you have any questions about accessing this information, please contact a member of our admin team

Progress reports are an important check point for families in terms of gauging child growth. But as teaching and learning evolves to account for, and encourage new skills and dispositions required for future success, our understanding of achievement, success, feedback and assessment also needs to progress. 

Most of us went to school at a time when student assessment and success was based on a paradigm of accountability. Teachers and schools proved they were good by meeting a very set criteria and model for assessment; tests and exams. Education was a cyclical process of curriculum delivery and student recount. Throughout this process, a child's success was clearly defined by percentages and university entry and an entire generation (or more) of children had a very clear notion of how ‘smart’ they were. Unfortunately this archetype is still very much an influence on the practice of schools and universities, but the world that awaits children outside this model has changed. 

A simple grade or mark does not give the true, detailed story of what is taking place in the classroom. As the focus of the teacher turns more to the process of learning than the product, feedback on a day by day, lesson by lesson basis rather than grading, becomes the teacher’s priority.

Children will be mindful of reports going home and anxious about the follow up conversations at home. It is easy to focus on the grades in these conversations but this dismisses the hard work and progress of children. If we can demonstrate to children that we value their effort prior to the report coming home, we might learn a lot more than what the grade can tell us.