Spotlight On: Next steps in learning - Junior School Reports

5 August 2022

BY MRS ANNI SANDWELL

This article first appeared in Queenwood Weekly News on Friday 5 August, 2022

With Junior School Parent/Teacher meetings this week, School Reports have been a regular topic of conversation within and among our families. School Reports are received by parents with mixed feelings – delight and pride if their daughter is performing well and concern if their progress is not as expected.  There is a similar response from the girls, particularly in the middle to senior years of school, often keenly attuned to their parents’ perception of success. A Stage 3 student informed me last week she was eager to read her report after her parents returned from time away, hoping they would be proud of her efforts and achievement. Parental feedback can significantly affect the way students see themselves as learners and individuals.

Queenwood School Reports are a point-in-time, formal, succinct, periodic chronicle of each student’s effort, achievement, and engagement in School life.

Our Junior School reports include:

  • Course Description – what has been taught during the semester
  • Grade – which indicates how well your daughter is progressing against the curriculum standard requirements for each key learning area using a five-point ‘A-E’ scale, in the Junior School; from Outstanding to Limited. Please note, ‘Sound’ indicates that your daughter is achieving at the expected level against the NESA standards, when the report was written
  • Effort and Engagement – how the student is working in this key learning area
  • Strengths – skills mastered
  • Goals for Learning – next steps identified in learning
  • Approach to Learning – work habits and attitudes
  • Student Reflection - a personal recollection written by the student outlining challenges faced, accomplishments made, activities enjoyed, and goals established – this provides parents with an insight into how their daughter sees herself as a learner.
  • Class Teacher Comment – a summary of the report

Significant work has taken place ‘behind the scenes’ in 2022 to ensure that School Reports are a point in time, component of the feedback process (supported by work samples/evidence of learning) and provide authentic details for parents about their daughter’s learning at School.  This year we have focused on embedding reports into the whole feedback process about student learning. The reports:

  • Include and extend information provided at the beginning of year Parent/Teacher Information meetings, Meet and Greet the Teacher sessions and term by term curriculum overviews
  • Are informed by multiple modes of continual (formative) assessment (oral, written, practical tasks and anecdotal records) and are supported by evidence of learning, shared regularly with parents through, for example an online portfolio (Seesaw) and hard copy work samples
  • Incorporate each girl’s participation in the myriad of cocurricular activities known (through extensive research) to be beneficial to academic progress and wellbeing Murray and Cousens, 2018ACER, 2002NESA
  • Are timely and regular (end of each semester) and convey information which should open purposeful learning conversations between parents and teachers, both following School Report distribution and as part of ongoing dialogue between home and school, as well as within the home
  • Focus on the next steps for your daughter as a learner and an individual person

The partnership between home and school is of paramount importance if the information provided in reports is to enable students to confidently make personal gains.

I commend our students for their hard work and engagement at School and encourage them all to focus on their next steps in learning. In planning for Week 3 Parent/Teacher Interviews, we were most grateful that whenever possible parents opted to meet their daughter’s teacher face-to-face (respecting necessary COVID-19 protocols). Should you find that you did not have enough time in the Parent/Teacher interview, please ask to arrange a subsequent meeting. We encourage parents to share details of the discussion with their daughter so she can see we are working in partnership. It is also recommended that parents reflect on what they can do at home, based on the discussion, to enhance their daughter’s progress at School.