The Learning Page

What Is Testing Week?

The last few days have made up 'Testing Week' at SMPS. Testing Week occurs each term.

In the world of education, assessment is often split into two categories.

1. Formative Assessment: This is the practice of gathering and interpreting information about student learning as it is happening in class. Formative assessment helps teachers know where students are at in their learning so that they can adapt your teaching to meet the needs. Examples include:
   1. Drawing a concept map in class
   2. Asking students to articulate their reasoning in relation to a question
   3. Answering a maths question on a whiteboard during the lesson
   4. Quick quizzes
   5. Writing a sentence or two about what is being learnt
2. Summative Assessment: This is used to evaluate a student's development of knowledge, skills and understandings at the end of a set time. At SMPS, this usually occurs at the end of a unit of work or the end of term. Examples include:
   1. Unit assessments
   2. Most assessments shared in Student Dashboards, including DIBELS, Star Reading, Essential Assessment, etc.
   3. A standardised test such as PAT Reading

Formative assessment occurs in every lesson of every day. Summative assessment is the main focus in Testing Week. 

We make sure that families receive the outcomes of all summative assessments. It is important to us that families receive their child's results and that this is done in a clear and transparent way. Results are shared through Student Dashboards each term. At the moment, our staff are busy entering and analysing student results in time for Dashboards to be published in two weeks. We have seen amazing progress and can't wait to share it with families soon!

Variety of Learning

There is always such a wonderful variety of learning captured in our newsletter. Please take the time to flick through each page and see what is happening. Sometimes a family's main insight into learning may be through tasks that are shared digitally on Seesaw or Teams, however there is so much more to our days than device-based tasks. We try to capture the richness of our days regularly through the newsletter and school Facebook page. This week's newsletter includes:

• Examples of student writing
• Students displaying their knowledge via dioramas, art and videos
• Students playing sport against other schools
• Invisits and excursions
• Students discovering insects in the garden
• Lots more!