Professional learning is a regular feature in schools and staff recently undertook an excellent presentation by Shane Chapman from NESA about consistent allocation of grades in Years 7 to 11.  The session was highly engaging and allowed staff time to openly discuss and debate current practices and consider ways we can improve student outcomes.

An aspect of assessment that is to become a focus at the College is to provide greater evidence to students about how to succeed.  One way of doing this is to provide samples of past work or exemplars that students can access in order to see just what the task is and what is being expected of them. This strategy supports students in a very practical way and demystifies assessment.

This commitment to providing samples for students will be happening, and is already occurring, across departments in the months ahead. In Year 8 Religious Education classes for example, students are completing a task that asks them to create a YouTube style blog to discuss a covenant from the Old Testament. To help students know what they could do, classes have been shown two examples. The feedback from teachers has been that students were able to discuss and identify which sample was better and why and the activity created some excitement about what students could make and how they envisaged approaching the task themselves.

Year 7 Humanities classes have received a recent task that requires students to research an aspect of Ancient Rome that demonstrates Roman innovation and invention. One part of the task is to build a diorama, the second part is to complete two paragraphs about the topic.  Students have been provided with images and captions (see below) to encourage discussion about what their diorama will need to meet the set criteria. They have also received a sample of A Grade paragraphs and C Grade paragraphs as well as questions asking students to identify what the A sample contains that the C sample does not. It will be exciting to see how students respond to this support. The early signs are very positive. Please expect to see some samples for assessment tasks shared with your children in the weeks and months ahead.