Next week Year 7 and 9 students will bring home an information booklet about the National Assessment Program – Numeracy and Literacy. This contains details of the assessment program and how you can support your child. Please ask your child to hunt around in their school bag so this information does not get lost! If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact the school.
Dr Liz Criddle
Deputy Head of Secondary
Last year our Head of School Mr Titlestad sent parents an outline of “The SEQTA Experience for Parents”. Following is information about Assessments:
Assessments
· The assessment schedule is developed at the start of the year. Lower school students are to have the entire semester of assessments visible to parents and students. Year 11 and 12 are to have the entire year’s assessments visible.
· Assessment titles in SEQTA include the weighting and clear labels that are succinct.
· Task sheet/assessment description and marking guide/rubric are added at an appropriate time.
· Marks for summative assessments are made visible within three weeks of the assessment being finalised. Marks are not released during term breaks because it is best for the teacher to be available to discuss the assessment with students at the time of marks being released.
· If there is more than one class, all marks are made visible at the same time.
· Exam marks are not released until the end of the exam period.
· Formative assessments can be visible in the MarksBook with a weighting of zero, and do not generally have a specific teacher feedback comment.
· Assessment feedback will be placed in the MarksBook on a regular basis. This provides ongoing information about progress throughout the year.
Deputy Head of Teaching and Learning, Dr Liz Criddle, has welcomed our two new members of the Duncraig secondary Curriculum Leaders team. Mrs Pippa Travaglione joins the school community as Head of Learning Area – The Arts, and Mrs Sarah Cooke as Careers Advisor.
“Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.” – Romans 15:7
In this week’s whole school assembly, we congratulated 2017 students who achieved great results in their chosen pathways, and congratulated current students in other areas of achievement in our school. I spoke about an Australian who has been recognised for their personal (and team) excellence, Professor Michelle Simmons our Australian of the Year. I talked about how Prof. Simmons thought at a young age about all the things that people didn’t really expect her to be able to do. When she surprised other people, she started thinking: ‘there must be other things that people don’t expect of me, let me find out what they are’. I asked our school community what you might be able to achieve, what difference you might be able to make in order to surprise me, surprise your teachers, and do the unexpected.
Other peoples expectations can be challenging, they can make us re-think our perspective. My expectation for us all this year can be summed up in one word: Excellence. I want you to achieve excellence for yourself at school. I talked about deciding what excellence means for you. It could mean that you are giving your best, and that you are working out what you can achieve. It could mean – getting an extra three percent in a test, creating an object that has that little bit more of your creativity in it, working at a friendship that is not going so well….. Achievement is different for all of us.
We celebrated Year 12 students who have all taken completely different pathways after leaving school. All needed to have their own understanding of excellence and the belief that they could achieve the unexpected. Your pathway is uniquely yours, and your idea of excellence is yours. I encourage you to start the year well, to support your peers and encourage them, and to keep excellence as your goal. Have an excellent year!
Dr Liz Criddle
Deputy Head – Teaching and Learning