The purpose of assessment at Galatea School is to improve student learning, to provide information on student learning and to contribute to the effectiveness of learning programmes. Assessment is the ongoing process of gathering evidence for and of learning.
This evidence will be used to give recognition and timely feedback to the learners and all other stakeholders. Assessment will reflect best practice that supports the learner and the teacher in the promotion of student achievement.
How we discover what the students know and have learned
The assessment of a student’s development and learning is an essential component of the curriculum and helps to inform continued development, learning and teaching.
Students are observed in a variety of situations and a wide range of assessment strategies are implemented.
The classroom teachers employ a range of formative and summative assessments that demonstrate student achievements.
Summative Assessment: This aims to give teachers and students a clear insight into students’ understanding. Summative assessment is the culmination of the teaching and learning process, and gives the students opportunities to demonstrate what has been learned. It can assess several elements simultaneously, and informs and leads to improvement in student learning and the teaching process.
Formative Assessment: This provides information that is used in order to plan the next stage in learning. It is interwoven with learning, and helps teachers and students to find out what the students already know and can do.
Formative assessment and teaching are directly linked and function purposefully together. Formative assessment aims to promote learning by giving regular and frequent feedback throughout the learning process.
This process helps learners to improve knowledge and understanding, to foster self-motivation and enthusiasm for learning, to engage in thoughtful reflection, to develop the capacity for self-assessment and to recognise the criteria for success.
There is evidence that increased use of formative assessment particularly helps those students who are low achievers to make significant improvements in their understanding.
Assessment in the classroom includes:
- Collecting evidence of students understanding and thinking.
- Documenting learning processes of groups and individuals.
- Engaging students in reflecting on their learning.
- Students assessing work produced by themselves and by others.
- Developing clear rubrics.
- Identifying exemplary student work and using exemplars as benchmarks.
- Keeping records of test/task results.
How we communicate information about assessment
Reporting on assessment at Galatea School includes communicating what students know, understand and can do, as well as covering the progress that each child has made.
Reporting to Galatea School parents occurs through:
Progress and Achievement Reports:
Our Progress and Achievement reports provide a snapshot of your child’s learning in relation to our curriculum areas, the Key Competencies and our school Core Values.
These written reports will celebrate the individual progress that your child is making in all of the above areas and will give an indication of what their next learning steps are.
These reports are provided twice a year. For our Year 4-8 students that will be at the end of Term two and four.
For our Year 0-3 students that will be at six monthly intervals from the time they begin school.
Parent/Caregiver Meetings with the Teacher (10 mins)
In Term one there is an opportunity for parents/caregivers and teachers to meet. The teacher will discuss with the parent/caregivers aspects such as how well their child has settled into the class and the Key Competencies that they display, such as managing themselves, relating to others or contributing and participating.
This report is not academic in nature.
Student Led Learning Conferences
As part of the ongoing reporting process for the year, teachers and students are very excited to invite you and your child to participate in a Student Led Learning Conference. The Student Led Learning Conference is 20 minutes long and takes place in your child’s classroom.
The children conduct the conference themselves while the teacher is present in a supportive and encouraging role. I am sure you will be proud of your children as they give an insight into their learning journey.
L & P Meetings
These meetings are held between the teacher and whanau. They are held early in terms two and term four. Their purpose is to highlight the learning and progress made to date by the child and to establish what support from home could add further value.
Standardised assessments are used as a part of the whole school assessment policy in an effort to gain as much information as possible about the student as a learner and about the programmes of learning. The types of assessment used in the school are many and varied and go towards making up the whole picture of learning.
Standardised assessments are specifically used for the following reasons:
- To inform teaching.
- To provide information that shows growth over time.
- To provide longitudinal data for whole school data analysis.
- To inform decisions about programmes.
- To allow teachers to determine those students whose basic skills fall outside the normal range expected for students of that particular age. This information is used alongside other assessment information to determine those students who will access support programmes, or those who may need Individual Learning Plans.
- To form part of the process of reporting to parents.
