Reporting on achievement at Amesbury School

Nga mihi nui ki a koutou - greetings to all of you

Improving achievement - the teaching and learning/assessment/reporting/programming cycle

Last term we tested and assessed students using our national standards matrices which have achievement indicators in reading, writing and maths. Early this term teachers met with parents and students to consider their children's achievement and to set achievement and learning goals. These goals, and the next steps as indicated by the matrices, were taken into account as teachers planned students' learning programmes. For example, fractional knowledge in maths was low across the student body, so this term there has been a focus on improving students' knowledge of fractions and ratios and proportions. We have seen some significant improvements as a result. However, there is still further work to be done in this area of maths.

As term 2 draws to a close, we are currently in the process of collecting achievement data again. Over the last couple of weeks the teachers have been busy doing running records, AsTTle writing testing and maths testing. This data from testing and evidence from students' work will be used to update the reading, writing and maths matrices (highlighted in a different colour so that parents and students can clearly see improvements made) and will be used significantly to inform the teaching and learning programmes for term 3.

Though I have not seen all testing results yet, in general, the testing is pointing to some significant          improvements in achievement. While we attribute some of this to our differentiated and personalised learning programmes (for example, some students received a specialised maths programme which was in addition to their normal maths programme) we also feel that some of it has to do with the fact that students have started to settle in and are beginning to find their feet in a new school. It is well known that transition to a new school can impact progress for a period of time. Some students can take up to six months before they begin to make progress again after a change in school. However, in general, students make that up and, in time, show no disadvantage because of the move. The implementation dip is a well known phenomenon in business and education. When you implement change there is an initial dip in production or achievement followed by rapid improvement, settling down to steady growth. This has been the experience of other new schools - the implementation dip followed by rapid improvement in achievement. I believe that is what we will see at Amesbury School.



Our second reporting round will take place week 2/3 next term. This will be emailed out to you, or in the case of Harakeke Hub, a link to online documents will be emailed out. This report will include three documents: the updated matrices - which show your child's achievement in relation to the national standards - and is our most comprehensive and significant assessment and reporting tool, a summary report in which we meet our legislative requirement to make a statement about your child's achievement in relation to the national standards and the updated Personal Learning Treaty. Your child's most recent running record result, AsTTle Writing assessment result and Numpa Testing results will be included in the Matrices.

For us, the most important aspect of this assessment cycle is to have quality data from which to plan learning programmes that meet the individual needs of students. From this data, we are going to be very deliberate about identifying students who are not achieving to expectation and developing Individual Education Plans for them. These will be reviewed frequently with parents, with more frequent assessments being done to ensure that the plan is working for them and that they are making accelerated progress.

For all students, further data will be collected towards the end of term 3 - however, this is likely to cover the other strands in maths, other genre in writing, involvement in the arts, intercurltural competencies etc.

In term 4 after a solid period of core curriculum teaching and learning, the final data in reading, writing and maths will be collected, collated, analysed and reported on. Obviously there will be some variations in this testing regime. For example, new entrants will be assessed much more frequently to ensure they are making progress.

Although this cycle of assessment will continue next year, the nature of the reports will change. Last year I spoke about creating an online reporting tool - a "living report" - which parents and students will have access to all the time and to which evidence of learning will be attached. I mentioned that it will also be able to be used to create a personalised homework programme that is specific to the needs of each child etc and it will have many other useful features that will enable parents much more of a window into their child's learning.
The creation of this software programme is underway. However, it is a big piece of work and we want to get it right - so it will take time. More on this later.

Our attention so far has focused on developing processes for reporting on reading, writing and maths. However, we are aware that education must have a broader focus than this. Over the next couple of terms, we will be considering how we report on key competencies, other curriculum areas such as the arts, science etc.