Good morning!
End-of-year reports were posted last Friday and should be arriving early this week. End-of-year reports are a celebration of the year that has passed and a record of your child's progress at this moment in time. Celebrate the good news with your child and make a plan together to address any concerns the report may raise.
Its timely to remind ourselves of a few notes in relation to reports...
1. Each child is an individual, with their own strengths, challenges and experiences. Each child deserves the dignity of being allowed to keep their own story for themselves. While there may be elements of the end-of-year reports for your child that you are either proud of or dissatisfied with, it is not appropriate to share the report with those outside of your immediate family and particularly not with other families who have children the same age. The report reflects the progress and experiences your child has had this year; that is all.
Reports are sent in advance of the end of the school year so that parents and guardians can have an opportunity to question perceived discrepancies so if there is something on the report that you believe to misrepresent your child, get in touch with us and we will talk it through together.
2. There can often be a misconception in relation to marks on the end-of-year report and it can be useful to clarify that. The marks 1 to 5 represent a spectrum. The expectation is a 3. A mark of 3 means that your child is doing just fine, doing just as expected, and is bang on track. We would expect approximately 60% (or 3 out of every 5) of children to be awarded a mark of 3 in any given area. Only those children performing above the expectation would receive a 4 and very few (approx 5% or 1-2 per class) would receive a 5. Similarly, only those children performing below the expectation would receive a 2 and very few (approx 5% or 1-2 per class) would receive a 1.
These marks are not a measure of how your child is performing in relation to their ability. It is a mark of how they are performing in relation to the expectations of the curriculum.
3. This year we have taken part in a research project to standardise the next set of standardised tests for schools. This is an important piece of work and will support the assessment and learning of children for years to come. We are pleased to support the broader educational experience in Ireland in this way.
Because of this, standardised test results for children in 1st, 3rd and 5th classes will not be available until the autumn. Standardised test results for children in 2nd, 4th and 6th classes are given on the end-of-year report, as per Department of Education requirements.
4. Where we are aware that a child's parents/guardians live in separate homes and we have addresses for both homes, we posted an end-of-year report to each home. If you have moved home during the last year and did not let us know of your new address or where a parent lives at a different address to the child, please inform us of that second address so that we can send a copy of your child's report to you. Legal guardians are entitled to information about their child's educational progress, whether they have custody and/or access or not and we endeavour to keep all guardians informed.
I hope you enjoy reading the reports. I will be in touch again later in the week with a newsletter and book lists for the coming school year - I know that these are being distributed later than usual this year. However, let me reassure you that we have similarly extended the expected pay date for school expenses to late August. Thank you for your understanding and patience.
Have a great week.
Caitriona.
End-of-year reports were posted last Friday and should be arriving early this week. End-of-year reports are a celebration of the year that has passed and a record of your child's progress at this moment in time. Celebrate the good news with your child and make a plan together to address any concerns the report may raise.
Its timely to remind ourselves of a few notes in relation to reports...
1. Each child is an individual, with their own strengths, challenges and experiences. Each child deserves the dignity of being allowed to keep their own story for themselves. While there may be elements of the end-of-year reports for your child that you are either proud of or dissatisfied with, it is not appropriate to share the report with those outside of your immediate family and particularly not with other families who have children the same age. The report reflects the progress and experiences your child has had this year; that is all.
Reports are sent in advance of the end of the school year so that parents and guardians can have an opportunity to question perceived discrepancies so if there is something on the report that you believe to misrepresent your child, get in touch with us and we will talk it through together.
2. There can often be a misconception in relation to marks on the end-of-year report and it can be useful to clarify that. The marks 1 to 5 represent a spectrum. The expectation is a 3. A mark of 3 means that your child is doing just fine, doing just as expected, and is bang on track. We would expect approximately 60% (or 3 out of every 5) of children to be awarded a mark of 3 in any given area. Only those children performing above the expectation would receive a 4 and very few (approx 5% or 1-2 per class) would receive a 5. Similarly, only those children performing below the expectation would receive a 2 and very few (approx 5% or 1-2 per class) would receive a 1.
These marks are not a measure of how your child is performing in relation to their ability. It is a mark of how they are performing in relation to the expectations of the curriculum.
3. This year we have taken part in a research project to standardise the next set of standardised tests for schools. This is an important piece of work and will support the assessment and learning of children for years to come. We are pleased to support the broader educational experience in Ireland in this way.
Because of this, standardised test results for children in 1st, 3rd and 5th classes will not be available until the autumn. Standardised test results for children in 2nd, 4th and 6th classes are given on the end-of-year report, as per Department of Education requirements.
4. Where we are aware that a child's parents/guardians live in separate homes and we have addresses for both homes, we posted an end-of-year report to each home. If you have moved home during the last year and did not let us know of your new address or where a parent lives at a different address to the child, please inform us of that second address so that we can send a copy of your child's report to you. Legal guardians are entitled to information about their child's educational progress, whether they have custody and/or access or not and we endeavour to keep all guardians informed.
I hope you enjoy reading the reports. I will be in touch again later in the week with a newsletter and book lists for the coming school year - I know that these are being distributed later than usual this year. However, let me reassure you that we have similarly extended the expected pay date for school expenses to late August. Thank you for your understanding and patience.
Have a great week.
Caitriona.
RSS Feed