Reporting to Parents
Watsonia North Primary School uses a multifaceted approach for reporting student learning progress to parents. Here, we outline those components.
The central pillar of our approach is continuous reports. In a typical learning program, our students regularly complete rich assessment tasks that are designed for them to independently show their skills and understandings in an area of learning. The tasks are open-ended so students at all stages of learning can access them.
Once it’s completed, teachers assess the piece and make a judgement about the skills and understandings it shows. We then report this progress to parents via Compass and by providing samples of that work for viewing, often through See Saw.
The purpose of continuous reports is to provide timely information to parents about their child’s progress, rather than parents waiting until the end of a semester to receive results. Up to seven pieces will be reported on per term.
A second pillar is end of semester reports. These are the traditional school reports that many parents will be familiar with. Watsonia North Primary School reports will contain a description of the content taught, a written comment about the child’s learning and attitude, an indication of the child’s behaviour and effort and most importantly an indication of the child’s attainment of the skills and understandings outlined in the Victorian Curriculum.
In addition, parent-teacher conferences are held twice a year. Meet and Greet conferences are held in early February and provide an opportunity for families to share important information about their child with the classroom teacher. A second round of conferences is held in July, providing an opportunity for parents to discuss their child’s progress and set goals for learning for the rest of the year.
Furthermore, our teachers invite parents to meet with teachers as needed, to discuss any matters that ‘pop up’ during the year. Parents are encouraged to book those meetings via email.