From the Principal
Testing our assessments
Like parents and grandparents everywhere, the recent period of lockdown has focused many of us on children’s learning. My granddaughter, even at eight months, is busy learning all the time and her concentration is quite incredible. Testing the viscosity of porridge on different surfaces, trying out the range of her vocal chords and measuring whether or not an object can fit into her mouth keep her totally absorbed.
How children construct their knowledge of the world is central to education, to teaching and to assessing how well that learning is progressing. We know every child is subtly different in what they are even attracted to explore, how quickly they move on to the next thing and what lessons they need to repeat over and over again. We also know that what adults think children should learn and what they find interesting only sometimes coincide; the wrapping is invariably more interesting than the carefully chosen, educational toy…
Following a directive from the government to vary the compliance requirements for schools, we have the opportunity to discard the obligatory five-point-scale for this semester’s reports, and having parents more than usually involved in helping their children manage their classes remotely, we are very eager to learn from families; simple things such as what really worked for your child, what they loved, what was really hard, what did they find boring? Also, what surprised you and what have you learned about your child – and about yourself as a teacher.
This opportunity is especially satisfying, as Preshil has always been at odds with the simplistic assessment that can be summed up by the preferred scale of A, B, C, D, E. Definitive labels completely diminish the complexity and ongoing journey that is learning. They invite comparisons and set children up for a race that is completely counterproductive to the undisputed relationship between confidence and success. Losing that confidence as a learner early in childhood can mark a child out for a lifetime of self-fulfilling failure. Preshil’s five-point-scale satisfies our compliance obligation but avoids the competitive comparisons beloved by politicians. It is incomprehensible to me that adults continue to accept and promote this form of assessment. So! Here we are at a moment in time where we can gather a much more rounded and nuanced understanding of each child from the perspectives of teachers, parents and the children themselves.
While there is a general relief among adults that children will be returning to school, to their teachers and to their classmates, we are also aware that some children have found the online environment very difficult to connect with and have struggled with this sudden change. For other children they are now comfortable in this new normal and may have loved being home with family in a different routine altogether. Regardless of these differences, a return to school represents yet another change.
At Arlington, our shared aim will be to support the wellbeing of all our children as we continue to navigate this time of turbulence and unpredictability.
Our optimism and pleasure in welcoming the children back on site will be underpinned by a set of agreements to ensure we are doing all we can to safeguard children and adults. These will need to be rigorously adhered to and we will be looking to parents to support us with hygiene and distancing arrangements.
Most importantly, everyone at Arlington is dependent on the shared responsibility to ensure that no-one comes onto the campus who has contact with infected persons, or who has cold or flu-like symptoms. Any children who do exhibit these symptoms will need to go home and we seek your understanding and support in ensuring the School remains a safe place for all of us.
Marilyn Smith
Principal