Headmaster's
Message
It's Report Time!
Many students and parents are looking forward to receiving their 2021 Semester 1 Academic Report from the hard-working teachers and academic leaders who are currently labouring to produce them. I am forever thankful of BMGS teachers, for their commitment to their students and to the improvement that high quality feedback can bring about in a young person’s life.
As a teacher of Year 7 Technology, I remain very focused on my students and on Semester 1 outcomes. With my other hat on, however, I have turned my attention to Semester 2 and beyond as I work with teachers and academic leaders to design the next generation of BMGS Reports.
As with all change at BMGS, as we plan we seek to re-ask all the fundamental questions in case the answers may have changed. On what are we required to report? On what should we report? What do teachers want students and parents to know? What do parents need, and wish, to know? What is the most efficient and effective means of communication; one that respects the very busy lives of teachers? If you have a perspective on this most important of topics, please consider completing this survey and I will consider your perspective as we continue with our design.
Some components we anticipate will remain the same and some we are considering changing, partly to increase consistency between the Junior School and the Senior School and partly to provide better information to students and parents.
We plan to keep reporting on Student Learning Outcomes by assessing the degree to which a student has attained the three goals of School-based learning. They are the acquisition of knowledge and understanding of course content, the attainment of competence in the skills and processes required by the course and taught in the course, and the ability to apply both knowledge and skills to new and/or challenging situations. To indicate levels of achievement the School uses the Common Grade Scale published by the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA).
We are considering replacing an assessment of Effort with a report on Engagement in Learning to focus on the frequency at which students demonstrate appropriate levels of organisation, application, focus, cooperation and reflection.
We are also considering reporting on a student’s demonstration of growth in the Character Traits and Learning Behaviours we know to be central to their development, both as a person and as a learner. For these assessments, Teachers and Senior School Tutors will use Growth Descriptors that indicate a student’s level of awareness of, attitude towards and phase of growth in relation to each trait or behaviour. The Growth Descriptors derive from the School’s bespoke approach to Growing Dispositions; underpinned by the Affective Domain of Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Whilst we plan to maintain a very personal comment from Junior School Classroom Teachers and Senior School Tutors that captures the essence of a student’s engagement in School life, we are considering replacing the course based comment with more focused individual statements that summarise specific Areas for Improvement and Recommended Parent Actions. We believe that much of that which a teacher writes in a comment can be stated in other ways in the Report and in ways that facilitate more specific engagement.
Finally, parents will be interested to know that we are considering moving towards continuous reporting in the years to come. This modern approach to reporting capitalises on the capacity of our new state-of-the-art School Management System, negates the Semester Report and provides information at parents’ fingertips when they need it.
The future is almost upon us and it looks very exciting!
Mr Ian Maynard
Headmaster