TERM 1 PRIMARY REPORTS

Dear Primary Parents,

TERM 1 REPORTS – November 2019

We are delighted to share with you your child’s End of Term 1 school report. The children have worked extremely hard this term to achieve so well,  and we could not be more proud of them. Please take the time to read through your child’s Term 1 report with them, so that they can celebrate their learning achievements with you. 

Curriculum Standards

The primary curriculum contains clear expectations in terms of student outcomes in all subjects at the end of each academic year, and these outcomes have been mapped into Curriculum Standards 1 to 6. For example, the curriculum taught in Year 4 is assessed within Curriculum Standard 4. The curriculum taught in Year 6 is Curriculum Standard 6, meaning that the expected Curriculum Standard for the majority of students at the end of their academic year is the standard relating to the year group they are in.

Attainment Descriptors

There have been some changes to the way we are assessing children’s progress in learning this year, and therefore you will notice that the terminology used on the upcoming reports is slightly changed.

Attainment is measured against the appropriate Curriculum Standard for the child’s year group expectations and will be reported using the differentiated terms: Working Towards, Working At and Working at Greater Depth. In exceptional circumstances, a small number of students will achieve at levels Significantly Beyond age-related expectations. However, if your child is working below age expectations they will be working towards a lower Standard which will be shown on the report.

At this point in the year, we would expect the majority of children to be Working Towards their age expected outcomes, as we expect children to be Working At as they reach the end of the academic year. As we are still in Term 1, some areas of the curriculum will not yet have been taught, or consolidated as learning is revisited and applied throughout the year. Your child’s class teacher will be able to talk to you about the progress your child is already making in their learning at the Parent-Teacher Conferences taking place next week.

All teaching is based around the Year Standard, so that children are all exposed to the same learning opportunities for their year group, and supported in order to achieve them. Obviously, some children will need more support, and in these instances, they will have differentiated (personalised) activities, and additional support where needed, however, all learning is focussed on achieving the year group’s standard objectives. Other children may be working at greater depth and therefore activities are differentiated to support greater understanding which significantly stretches them.  Again, your child’s class teacher will be able to discuss this with you next week.

Attitude to Learning Descriptors

Attitude to Learning remains unchanged and will be reported as: Exceptional, Commendable, Improving and Improvement Needed.

Assessment in Discovery Learning

Our concept-based Discovery units of learning are underpinned with knowledge and skills from the UK National Curriculum subject areas of Science, Geography, History, Art and Design Technology. Full details of each unit are hyperlinked to your child’s report. This report will summarise your child’s learning through the skills of: Research, Thinking, Collaboration, Communication and  Self-Management and their conceptual understanding of the unit.

Mandarin Pathways in Learning

Depending on the children’s previous exposure to Chinese learning, or their current attainment in the language, Mandarin, learning is divided into three pathways:

Pathway 1:  Students with no background in Chinese, or prior knowledge of the language, often new to DBIS. Students in Pathway 1 are usually progressing towards the expected standard for their age. 

Pathway 2: Students who have been learning Mandarin as a foreign language previously, and who are making progress at the expected standard for their age.

Pathway 3: Students in Pathway 3 are usually students from a Chinese speaking background, either Cantonese or Mandarin, or students who are generally progressing beyond the expected standard for their age. This Pathway also includes native Mandarin speakers. 

Learning Technology Reporting 

You will see that Learning Technology is no longer included in your child’s Term 1 report. Instead, you will receive a personalised report for your child as soon as they finish each unit of learning. With many of the Learning Technology units being different lengths, as some cover more content than others, each year group will receive between two and four reports across the year at differing times.  The length of these reports will be reflective of the unit length. E.g a sixteen week unit will have a longer, more detailed report than a six week unit.

You will be able to follow your child’s progress in learning throughout each unit of learning through the evidence they share on Seesaw. As the unit comes to an end, you will receive a notification on Seesaw that your child’s report is ready for viewing. This report will be shared with you through the secure parent portal and will be added to the end of year report in Term 3. If you have not yet signed up to follow your child’s learning journey on Seesaw, we strongly urge you to do so. Please do let us know if you need any assistance with this.

Inclusion and EAL Reporting

Children receiving additional support in learning from our Inclusion and EAL Teams will receive an additional report outlining their progress in these specific areas. These reports can be accessed as usual through the parent portal.

We look forward to discussing your child’s learning with you further during the upcoming Parent-Teacher Conferences next week. 

Kind regards,

Susan Walter

HEAD OF PRIMARY