Reporting to Parents
This session, as part of our school improvement planning, we have focused on improving the way we monitor and report on pupil progress. As part of this, we have made changes to the way we report to parents and have amended our practice to incorporate:
- Opportunities to view pupil’s classwork at Parents’ Evenings
- Parent consultation meetings
- Opportunities to support school / class events
- Blogging
- SMS texts
- Opportunities to view pupil performances
- Regular newsletters
- Homework Diary comments
- Interim report (November)
- Sharing Success – Certificates / Stickers / Copies of work sent home
- Homework tasks detailing curricular content
- Glow – digital Learning
Recent consultation at our November parent’s night, as well as discussions with parent council members and staff outlined some changes which might help to improve our end of session reports issued in May. Our new end of session reports aim to be more personalised and meaningful to parents so do let us know what you think by previewing the revised format below.
Each child is different and has their own individual strengths and weaknesses and pupils are taught in a way which suits their individual needs regardless of age and stage.
Summative Assessments are carried out to confirm progress and provide evidence of competency.
Day to day, teachers will use a wide variety of assessment strategies. The most effective method widely used at Netherton is Formative Assessment. This type of assessment is not about giving marks out of a total but gives pupils feedback on targets achieved and points for action to improve the next time.
Teachers also may use other forms of assessment e.g. observations, particularly useful when pupils are engaged in practical tasks or play. Learning outcomes provide a good measure to note progress against, bench marking can establish a level of competence, baseline assessments establish a starting point for a course of learning and mind maps, topic files and presentations all provide valuable evidence of progress.
In addition, we encourage our pupils to be knowledgeable about targets and to begin to self assess their own and other work. This is done through co-operative working with a strict framework of social and positive skills to be used to give feed back. This is an area of strength for our school. In Writing, we refer to this work as “conferencing” and our work is used as an exemplar to other school of good practice. It is a real source of pride to pupils and staff to see just how skilled and supportive pupils are to each other in their drive for improvement in this area.
The school also participates in the National Assessment Survey which enables our government to collate a picture of standards across the country. We also use some external testing which provides further data for analysis to improve our teaching of individual pupils.
We retain Learning Logs as valuable evidence and teachers write reviews and plans for action four times a year through Class Forward Plans which the Head Teacher monitors. Within these plans, there is a high emphasis on attainment and pace of work.
Any enquiries about progress are welcomed and we report formally twice a year through reports and consultations as well as by request.
