Galilee Newsletter

Leadership and Management

Semester One Reports

Last year, the School Improvement Team consisting of staff, students and parents, worked collaboratively to improve the structure and design of the Student Reports.  The aim was to better communicate student achievement to families.  We asked for feedback following the publication of the reports by sending a Survey to all families.  The results indicated that most families preferred the new format that was used.

Some of the comments described the new reports as:

  • Streamlined format and very easy to read and understand.
  • More personalised feedback- showed areas of excellence and where improvement was needed.
  • I felt I received a greater understanding of where my son was academically with his core subjects.
  • Easy to understand.
  • Logical flow, charts are a great simple way of seeing progress.
  • Reporting to specific measurable outcomes is a great way to provide feedback. At a glance you know where your child needs assistance and it is specific.

Staff are currently in the process of writing the checklists of skills that will be assessed and reported on for the Semester One Reports. 

 

How will the Report be structured?

The Report will have the following features and content:

General Comment

A General Comment that is a personalised paragraph about the student, written by their classroom teacher.  The General Comment explains the students achievements for the semester based on the Victorian Curriculum as well as their ability to work individually or in teams, make and maintain friendships and respond to situations with resilience.

 

Victorian Curriculum Progress Page

The Victorian Curriculum 'dots' page shows the students achievement against the Victorian Curriculum.  This section will indicate where the student sits in relation to the Victorian Curriculum, in all subject areas taught. The table will indicate if their achievement is at standard, below standard or above standard for their level of schooling. The table will also indicate growth since the last school report. 

 

Learning Areas

Each Learning Area (Religious Education, English, Mathematics, STEAM, Italian, Digital Technology, Visual Art, Performing Arts, Physical Education) will begin with an Overview explaining the learning experiences that students were involved in for that particular subject. 

 

After the Overview, The Victorian Curriculum 'dots' will appear, indicating the level of student's achievement against the Victorian Curriculum that was taught within the learning area.

 

Next, there will be an Achievement Standards Table that will break up the learning area into achievement standards. The table will indicate the achievement standards that the students have been assessed on for the semester. Students will be marked against each achievement standards on a five point scale. The scale will indicate the degree to which the students has grasped the achievement standard. The  columns on the five point scale will be labelled: Not Evident, With Teacher Assistance, Meets Standard, Meets Standard at a High Level and Works Beyond Standard. The aim of the table will to be to give parents more information about the level of achievement within learning areas. Please note that if a student has been absent for a long period of time an achievement standard may indicate N/A. This is because the student was not present for the teaching, learning or assessment of this particular achievement standard.

 

Finally, there will be a table that will indicate the effort and behaviour of the student within the learning area. This table will appear for each learning area.

 

What will be different?

This year, we will introduce a page in the report for the Capabilities.

 

The four capabilities in the Victorian Curriculum F–10 are:

  • Critical and Creative Thinking
  • Ethical
  • Intercultural
  • Personal and Social

The capabilities are a set of discrete knowledge and skills that are taught explicitly in and through the learning areas, but are not fully defined by any of the learning areas or disciplines.  In other words, the capabilities are not separately taught lessons.

 

The Capabilities page will have an Overview, the Victorian Curriculum 'dots' table and an Achievement Standards Table.  A Work Habits table featuring Effort and Behaviour, will not appear on the Capabilities page.