2. What do we aim to achieve?
Firstly Port Broughton Area School wants to
provide a quality reporting system to parents that
informs them clearly of how their students learning
is progressing.
Secondly Port Broughton Area School wants to
support its teachers by providing a quality report
proforma that represents an acceptable work
load.
Any changes made will be implemented for term
1 2013.
3. What will happen to the
information collected today?
Inearly term 3 primary staff will undertake
a similar review process of the R-6 reports.
The parent information will be used during
this time so that primary staff can consider
parent concerns/recommendations when
making decisions about reporting at R-6.
4. SACSA & The Australian Curriculum
From semester 2 2012 PBAS will be reporting against
the Australian Curriculum in:
Maths and science (R-7)
By the end of 2013 PBAS will be reporting against the
Australian Curriculum in:
Maths, science, English and history (R-8)
All other subject areas will be reported against the
South Australian Curriculum Standards and
Accountability Framework (SACSA).
5. What does the Education
Department expect?
Schools must provide two written reports per year
that report on all areas of learning.
A written report refers to a report which can be from 1
page up in length and could include (or not) blocks of
writing, continuums, tick boxes etc…..
Schools must use plain language.
The mid year report should reflect learning to that
point.
The end of year report should reflect learning
across the whole year.
6. What does the education
department expect?
Reportsmust be based on the 5 levels A-E or
their word equivalents.
Your child is demonstrating excellent achievement of
A what is expected at this year level
Your child is demonstrating good achievement of what is
B expected at this year level
Your child is demonstrating satisfactory achievement of
C what is expected at this year level
Your child is demonstrating partial achievement of what is
D expected at this year level
Your child is demonstrating minimal achievement of what
E is expected at this year level
7. Our current R-6 process
Term 1
Class teacher decides what will go home to parents.
Take home books/portfolios are generally sent
home providing work samples and teacher
comments. Some staff provide the opportunity for
parent teacher interviews.
Term 2
A written report goes home Friday of week 8 with
parent teacher interviews scheduled for week 10.
Term 3
Parent teacher interviews.
Term 4
A detailed written report goes home Wednesday
week 9.
8. Major parent concerns with current
system and report formats?
Major Concerns
I know what the class is doing I want to know what my child is doing. Common view
held by those at meeting.
In mid year report I skip over generic comments and go to personalised information
(math, English, overall comment). Common view held by those at meeting.
Student comments waste of time – common view held by those at meeting.
Put in explanations of A-E grades. Do teachers understand the current A-E system (as
stated in slide 6?) . A parent had it told to them just recently (by a teacher from
another school) that an A is one or two years levels above. This is not what DECD
expectations are in regard to grading.
Inconsistencies between comments and grade – if a child receives a ‘Satisfactory’
for grade but the comment keeps using the word ‘Good’ there is a mismatch in
terminology and this confuses parents. Are teachers using the word equivalents to
just to give a result but then forgetting about the terminology within the comment
itself?
9. Report Formats
Examples
Spend time looking through examples provided.
Spend time individually taking in the different formats.
Talk to others about what you like, dislike, don’t understand
Using post it notes record:
Positives (GREEN)
Negatives (BLUE)
Questions you may have (PINK)
Link comments to a specific report i.e. I really like….. on
report 4
10. What did parents like from the
different formats
What parents liked
Easy to read displays each subject clearly user friendly. Report 1
Easy to read. Report 1
I like the one line overview of what has been taught. Easy to read. Report 1
I like the use of the explanation of A-E grades. Report 2
Achievement per aspect of subject is good (breaks down subject into sections and allows me to
see strengths and weaknesses within a subject). Report 3
Detailed content of each subject. Report 4
Like the idea of school values. Report 4
Well presented easy to read can easily identify specific area of learning. Report 4
Key improvement focus for each subject is good. Report 5
11. What did parents like from the
different formats
What parents liked
Like the reading nights in summary. Report 6
Like page 2 referring to personal development. Report 7
Good review of all subject areas. Report 7
I like how this is all relevant to each child – no general comments. Report 7
I like the way our reports(PBAS) are set out, just need to make the comments more personalised.
Report 8
I like the layout. One column for what they are learning and one for student progress. Report 8
Really like this layout, is easy to read and relevant to the child. Report 9
Easy to read. Quick glance to see how child is doing. Report 9
Simple, easy to read. Individual topics for each subject. Areas of strength and areas to develop.
Report 9
12. What parents didn’t like from
the different formats
What parents disliked
Need detail of specific areas of learning referred to for individual student. Report 1
Need a few more personalised comments about the student. Report 1
Too much to read under each subject. Report 2
Too much information about the curriculum not the student. Report 2
Explanation of each subject not necessary. Report 2
Difficult to read, too much detail of class work, not individually informative. Report 2
Looks complicated hard to follow. Report 3
Too much information per subject. Only need overall comment on the whole subject. Report 3
Has too much writing would be better with more tick boxes. Report 3
Doesn’t tell you anything about how individual is going. Too general. Report 3
13. What parents didn’t like from
the different formats
What parents disliked
Too many tick boxes – not enough individual comment on each subject. Report 4
No overall teacher comment. Too much writing in tick boxes makes it confusing just have a space to
insert Excellent, Good etc. rather than have them all written on the report which takes up space making
the report cluttered. Report 5
Not individualised, no teacher comment. Report 5
Hard to read, too busy. Report 5
No comment from teacher. Report 5
Needs more information. Report 6
Not enough detail for each subject. Student comment – delete. Report 6 (and other reports that have a
student comment section.
Grading system confusing. Report 6
Not enough information about each subject. Report 6
Not enough info on individual child. No explanation of what the grade means. Report 6
14. What parents didn’t like from
the different formats
What parents disliked
Time consuming for teacher. Report 7
Comments too general. Student comment is a negative. Report 8
Only comments on English and maths not other subjects. Report 9
15. What sort of information do you
want in a report?
A school report should clearly inform parents of
the progress their child is making at school.
Content
What are the key things you want to learn about
your child from their school report?
16. What did parents want the report
to tell them about their child?
Child’s achievement
Child’s effort including attitude &
application
Child’s strengths
Child’s weaknesses
Performance in relation to school values
(they all liked Wallaroo’s Values page)
17. Where to now?
Nick will collate/keep the data.
A time will be made to present this
information to R-6 staff for discussion.
A further time will be made to continue the
review process with primary staff.
The aim – to develop a better report format
for parents for 2013.
18. Summary
PBAS structure good just needs some slight modification
and improvement re generic comments.
Comments need to be personalised.
Student comment a waste of time and space (all thought
this).
Reduce comment size ie key focus area – maybe two
sentences then have tick boxes to impart majority of
information.
Minimum information on content maximum information on
student.
Grade and comment consistently match.
A-E explanation should be on reports so parents are very
aware of what ‘Excellent’ etc. represents.
Editor's Notes
Term 1 – I don’t think both should be a formal requirement (part of our policy) for staff to have to undertake a parent teacher interview process and send home/organise take home portfolios. I do think in whatever goes home there should be a note saying parents are welcome to organise a parent teacher interview at any time.Term 2 – Is this too late? Parent teacher interviews at the end of term 2? Should they be term 1?
Create a Positives, Questions and Negatives. Have post it notes for parents to write down these and then stick them up.Have a discussion about these positives, questions and negatives. What aspects of each would you take to create a report that you think would inform you well about your child’s learning.Write on post it notes and place in the correct place on poster card.
Using post it notes get 4 key things each parent wants.Ideas if stuck ‘for example’How is my child going? – attitude, subjects, strengths, weaknessesIs everything ok or should I be concerned? – compared to others (is this important?), doing her bestHow can my child learn better? – school, parent, child’s rolePut on sticky notes as individual statements and place of poster card.
