Learning, Teaching and College Operations
Ms Jodie Connell - Deputy Principal
I wish to acknowledge the enormous amount of work our staff have put in during Semester One. The professionalism and work ethic displayed has been amazing. It is not only the teachers who ensure all our students are successful learners, but the many educational support staff, and school administration staff who help in the background and go about completing their work with pride and generosity to ensure the students have the opportunities that they do.
Congratulations to the Year 10 and 11 students on their efforts with the end-of-semester examinations last week. The students showed resilience and determination in tackling these important assessment tasks. I hope the students were able to use some of the tips given earlier in the year by Elevate Education, and that the students have reflected back on the way they approached this period and can identify strengths and opportunities in their study habits for future examination periods.
End of Semester Reports
Teachers are currently working on completing the end of Semester Summary Reports.
Reports for all students will be available at 4 pm on Friday 24th June.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact your child’s Homeroom Teacher or Classroom Teacher via email.
Accessing Reports
Step 1 – Log in to PAM
Step 2 – Click on any student
FROM THE DEPUTY PRINCIPAL—LEARNING AND TEACHING
Step 3 – Click on any of the available report to download and view the report.
PAM (Parental Access Module) can be accessed via the following:
Or
www.pam.mackillopleongatha.catholic.edu.au
Or via the College website
Parents can choose to either download a copy of the report and save it to the home computer or print a copy. If accessing these reports causes some difficulties then please contact the school to discuss options.
If you have misplaced or have forgotten your PAM Code please email the Office info@mmcrc.catholic.edu.au
Formative Assessment
Providing Formative Assessment is one of the best ways for us to help students learn. It is a process in which both teachers and students collect information from the assessment and use it collaboratively to plan for future academic success. It looks at what students have learned, haven’t learned, and gives us an idea of ‘where to from here’.
Researchers have found that good use of formative assessment strategies in class can add an extra 6 months growth in learning during a year of teaching. Therefore, it is an exceptionally powerful tool in promoting student achievement. However, Formative Assessment is only successful if students understand the outcome they’re looking to achieve, the standard against which the work is assessed, and the ways in which they can improve (Jarvis, 2020).
Formative Assessment can happen both formally and informally (sometimes just via a classroom conversation!). This is why we refer to Formative Assessment as assessment for learning. Comparatively, Summative Assessment (assessment of learning) is how we measure outcomes against a set of criteria at the end of a learning period. On the learning continuum, both Formative and Summative have their place as measures to understand the growth of each student.
As parents, there are a number of things you can do to help promote a Formative Assessment mindset at home.
- Go to PAM regularly to see what assessment your child has undertaken.
- Look at the feedback provided on PAM together with your child - what can your child make/say/write/do. What are they ready to learn next? What do they need to do to improve their work?
- Refer to the assessment instructions - have all components been completed?
- Reach out to your child’s teacher - communication between home and school is crucial in helping your child understand that you are a team.
- Check-in with your child whilst they are working and ask clarifying questions like ‘what are you working on?’ or ‘tell me how you’re going to find out the answer to this one!’
- Encourage your child to engage with self-assessment.
This term break, we encourage students to look after themselves and recharge after what has been a long semester. Your child needs the time to focus on their physical and mental health.
We look forward to seeing everyone back at the College on Monday 11th July.