Kia ora koutou
It has been a busy term with illness plaguing staff, students and myself. We appreciate all the parents who have been proactive in keeping children at home when they have been sick.
For myself battling getting back to health, my priority tasks have been reading student mid-year
reports for the whole school, and catching up with the normal running of the school. The deputy
principals have picked up the student report editing and curriculum level checking, to allow me to
read for content only. Reading student reports is a highlight, as it gives me a story about each child and how school works for them. I have loved reading student reports and seeing their success stories in student learning journeys. Student reports go out today for parents. We will finalise our parent teacher interview dates, during a holiday management meeting, to be ready to send the booking process out to parents early week one of next term.
New student assessment tool
This term our staff have worked on implementing a ‘new to us’ assessment tool called easTTle. The two curriculum areas that we have focused on are reading and maths.
e-asTTle and assessment for learning
The e-asTTle assessment tool was designed to provide reliable and valid assessment information for you and your students to enhance teaching and learning. It supports the shift in best educational practice from an emphasis on assessment of learning to assessment for learning.
The purpose of every e-asTTle assessment is to determine what a student knows now and what they can learn next. e-asTTle helps by providing scores and information that can be used by teachers, students, whānau and school managers to better understand the students progress and make decisions on how to support their learning.
The data we collect throughout the student’s time at Maungatapere School will be able to be
accessed by any school they transfer/transition to in the future. We have feedback from secondary
schools, that e-asTTle data is highly valued and enables them to accurately support and place them
within their school.
We have begun using this tool for both reading and maths with Y3-Y8 students. The short tests can
be designed for the specific areas of focus within the curriculum i.e. Maths (statistic/measurement/number). Tests are done on ‘Chrome Books’ and are marked automatically, which takes out any variance in teacher judgement or knowledge. The results allow teachers to do many things. It creates reports on individuals and groups, showing strengths/achieved/to be achieved/gaps, at specific levels and reports if the child is below/achieving/or exceeding their age level (concepts to that effect). What has stood out with maths in particular, is that it is giving accurate achievement levels with the ‘other strands’ of maths other than number knowledge/strategy. This term has been the first term of implementation. It has gone very well. We still have more to learn as teachers and a school, but feel it is a very positive move for the school with reading and maths assessment and learning. This tool importantly identifies the areas students need to learn next. It lists resources and links to planning to support teachers targeting their teaching. Teachers use a number of means to assess. This is just one of them.
During this process of implementation, staff have worked to adjust the school reports to show
achievement levels, to match the words used to describe those levels. We have not changed the report format structure, but you will see a ‘tweak’ in the way levels are shown. The whole staff worked on this process, we hope it remains clear to parents when you read the midyear reports going home. This staff process has certainly moderated the teacher process for making achievement level judgements accurately across the school. This should mean consistency in reporting at all curriculum levels.
Jonathan Van Campen had his last day with us today. We had a staff dinner last night, as part of our ‘wishing him the best’ process and a few secret squirrel things in the planning as I write this on
Wednesday afternoon. On behalf of his class, our staff and community we thank him for his
contribution to Maungatapere School. He will be missed.
Mrs Nicky Taylor and Rachael Murray take over the teaching of Room 6 for next term, with Whaea
Rachael teaching the last week of this term.
Regards
Terry
