To realise our St Mary’s School Learning Vision ‘To Develop Assessment Capable Students, Teachers, School Leaders and Parents’, it’s helpful if you and everyone involved in our children’s learning has an overview of the process.
Here at St. Mary’s we have constructed plans for our children’s progression through the process. We call them ‘progressions’ and they outline the specific knowledge, skills and attitudes in Numeracy and Literacy necessary to develop expertise in each of the core curriculum areas of reading, writing and mathematics.
As students progress through the school, teachers and parents need to ensure that the learner develops both the literacy and numeracy expertise that will enable them to engage with the curriculum at increasing levels of complexity and with increasing independence.
St Mary’s Progressions in Reading,Writing and Mathematics were revised by Teams of Leaders and Teachers in Term 4 2014, using the MoE’s ‘Literacy Learning Progressions’ the New Zealand Curriculum and the Illustrations of the National Standards. Our progressions provide opportunity for teachers to design ‘ individualised learning pathways’ to meet the specific needs of the learner.
The draft St Mary’s Progressions are now available to students, teachers and parents during Term ONE 2015, as students, teachers and parents share the same language of learning, to develop our ‘Student Centered’ approach to assessment and reporting and foster the partnership between the learner, teacher and parents.
Students will use the St Mary’s Progressions to determine: what they are learning, what progress they are making and what their next learning goals are.
The St Mary’s draft Learning Progressions, are designed to help you as parents support your child’s learning and next learning step.
If you have any questions in relation to the St Mary’s Learning Progressions, Assessment and Student Self Reporting practices, do not hesitate to contact either Janet McCarroll, Anna MacKinnon or your child’s classroom teacher, for help.
The following links may be useful background to support developing your Assessment Capability as a parent.
St Mary’s Curriculum is founded on the school values of Truth, Mercy, Faith and Wisdom and guided by our school vision and the charism of Blessed Anne Marie Javouhey, Foundress of the Cluny Order. Her vision to honour every individual, is reflected in both our culture and curriculum.
The evolving curriculum is designed to foster the skills and dispositions needed for our students to learn and live in their future world.
St Mary’s learners make use of the key competencies: Christ Like, thinking, using language, symbols and texts, managing self, relating to others and participating and contributing to co-construct their learning across all learning areas including Religious Education.
Rich learning experiences are designed by students and teachers based on integrated concepts. Students explore relevant, authentic learning using inquiry processes and problem based learning.
The role of the student is central in learning, assessment and reporting processes at St Mary’s. With the ‘student at the centre’ of all learning and using the St Mary’s Learning Progressions in the core curriculum areas, students develop their ‘assessment capability’, knowing where they are at with their learning, where they need to go next and how to get there.
Learning is personalised, as each learner understands their own learning goals and is able to ‘self-report’ their learning to teachers, parents and peers.
To realise our St Mary’s School Learning Vision ‘To Develop Assessment Capable Students, Teachers, School Leaders and Parents’, it’s helpful if you and everyone involved in our children’s learning has an overview of the process.
Here at St. Mary’s we have constructed plans for our children’s progression through the process. We call them ‘progressions’ and they outline the specific knowledge, skills and attitudes in Numeracy and Literacy necessary to develop expertise in each of the core curriculum areas of reading, writing and mathematics.
As students progress through the school, teachers and parents need to ensure that the learner develops both the literacy and numeracy expertise that will enable them to engage with the curriculum at increasing levels of complexity and with increasing independence.
St Mary’s Progressions in Reading,Writing and Mathematics were revised by Teams of Leaders and Teachers in Term 4 2014, using the MoE’s ‘Literacy Learning Progressions’ the New Zealand Curriculum and the Illustrations of the National Standards. Our progressions provide opportunity for teachers to design ‘ individualised learning pathways’ to meet the specific needs of the learner.
The draft St Mary’s Progressions are now available to students, teachers and parents during Term ONE 2015, as students, teachers and parents share the same language of learning, to develop our ‘Student Centered’ approach to assessment and reporting and foster the partnership between the learner, teacher and parents.
Students will use the St Mary’s Progressions to determine: what they are learning, what progress they are making and what their next learning goals are.
The St Mary’s draft Learning Progressions, are designed to help you as parents support your child’s learning and next learning step.
If you have any questions in relation to the St Mary’s Learning Progressions, Assessment and Student Self Reporting practices, do not hesitate to contact either Janet McCarroll, Anna MacKinnon or your child’s classroom teacher, for help.
The following links may be useful background to support developing your Assessment Capability as a parent.
Here at St Mary’s we place great value on students actively participating and benefiting from assessment and reporting.
A range of assessment tools including,National Standards, PAT, Running Records, GLoSS, JAM, OTJ’s, critical conversations, student led conferences and digital learning stories are used to create a picture of where the student’s learning is at.
All of these tools are shared with the student, used to inform teaching and learning and design next learning steps. These ‘Formative’ assessment tools and practices are identified as one of the most important and powerful ways to improve student learning.
In addition, leading the table of most powerful interventions to make a difference to student learning, is the opportunity for students to ‘self- report’ their progress.
St Mary’s uses ‘critical conversations’ where opportunity is provided for learners to report their progress to the teacher using evidence of their learning and an agreed assessment rubric or criteria for learning.
‘Critical conversations’ foster student agency, self regulation and intrinsic motivation for learning through the reflective process. This process actively engages learners through effective feedback, reflection and sharing criteria in a cyclic process. Students have a clear understanding of what they are learning and how they will achieve success.
‘Critical conversations’ will be captured and collated in digital Learning Stories, shared with parents, providing opportunity for parents to be actively involved in the assessment process.
