Reporting to parents
The staff at Mount Ousley Public School pride ourselves on knowing our students and how they learn. We work closely with parents and students to share learning achievements, set goals for future learning and celebrate successes.
Each year, in term 1, we hold parent teacher interviews. These allow us to establish relationships with parents and discuss student learning, social and wellbeing goals. These goals are revisited throughout the year and new goals are set once original goals are achieved.
Teachers are highly skilled in using formative assessment techniques and practices to ascertain where students learning is up to and where they are headed to next. These formative assessments are used in conjuction with summative assessements to enable the writing of semester reports.
Half yearly and yearly reports are delivered to parents digitally via School Bytes in terms 2 and 4. They provide parents with information on how their child is progressing in all key learning areas as well as their social development and application to learning.
In term 3 our students showcase their learning and teach their parents/carers during our student led conferences. These conferences provide students and families with the opportunity to come together in the classroom to explore learning and discuss goals. It is a fantastic opportunity not to be missed.
Our teachers use a variety of strategies to assess student learning. These include observing work in class and looking closely at tasks throughout the year.
Twice a year, teachers formally assess a student’s achievement based on the outcomes described in the syllabus of each subject. A written report using the common grade scale is sent home in the first half of the year, usually near the end of Term 2, and again in Term 4. This gives a clear picture of your child’s learning.
Assessments
We provide detailed information to students about what we expect from them throughout the year and how their work will be assessed. Students have a number of formal assessments throughout their schooling.
- Best Start – a mandatory, one-to-one assessment that identifies a student’s literacy and numeracy skills at the beginning of Kindergarten.
- National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) – reading, writing, language conventions (spelling, punctuation and grammar) and numeracy tests for students in Years 3 and 5. The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) holds the tests in May each year. Results and student reports are released in August.
- Validation of Assessment for Learning and Individual Development (VALID) – online diagnostic science assessment for students in Year 6.
- Some students may elect to sit the opportunity class or selective high school placement tests. For more information, visit selective high schools and opportunity classes.