“I never lose, I either win or I learn.” Nelson Mandela
It is autumn and reporting season again. Some of us look forward to these changes: autumnal coloured leaves, winter clothes and warming food; in spring it is vernal buds, butterflies and longer evenings.
Reporting in schools often reflects the change of season to autumn and then spring. Faces in schools also reflect this season. Teachers wear alternately harrassed and relieved faces. Students wear anxious and expectant faces. Parents wear surprised and reassured faces.
While some may look forward to these seasons with a sense of achievement, a part of the journey has been completed, others see only deadlines and revelations of ‘not there yet’ moments.
Reporting is an opportunity for both teachers and students to acknowledge and record accountability, progress (feedback), growth, and future planning (goals) formally. Reports are one opportunity to launch new and effective goals. Semester reports can highlight short term goals and yearly reports can be used to determine and foster long term goals.
In 2019, we began a review of our system of reporting, consulting with teachers and parents across the School. Naturally, views varied but feedback from parents included some common themes. Parents told us they want teachers to be direct and specific about a girl’s relative strengths and weaknesses. They also sought specific suggestions about how to improve and wanted to see the girls directly involved in setting goals to achieve this.
It has been noted by researchers that the purpose of education is not to sort students – it is to grow students. Teachers are there to coach and mentor, but with ranks and grades only, teachers turn into judges. We can show the unique abilities of students in many ways, without just stratifying them.
As a result of this research, changes were introduced into the Semester 2 reports in the Junior School last year and similar changes will be made to the written reports issued at the end of this semester for Years 7 - 10.
Achievement and progress will be more concisely presented as bullet points. Each subject teacher will clearly indicate the milestones your daughter has attained and those still to be reached. Your daughter’s tutor will address her specific learning results, her wellbeing, involvement in co-curricular activities and future directions for her school life.
At the end of this semester, each student will examine carefully her report and set personal goals for the coming semester. Her goals may be academic or pastoral. We want to encourage students to self-reflect and coach them to identify how their actions led to their grades. The next step is to set quality goals for self-improvement, mentored and monitored by her tutor. There will then be an opportunity for your daughter to discuss her report and her goals with you and a subsequent meeting involving parents, student and tutor to discuss the next steps in learning. These meetings are optional and will be scheduled as a Teams meeting on Monday, 12 July between 2:00-5:00pm, so please save the date. Tutors will follow up with their students during Semester Two to assess the progress made towards their goals.
This holistic approach to reporting leads to students who are focused on their personal best, on meeting or exceeding standards, rather than achieving a better grade than the student next to them.
Our intention is that students reflect on and take responsibility for their growth in each aspect of school life with the support of their teachers and tutors. We are confident this move to focus reporting on the whole girl will contribute positively to all aspects of her personal growth and development. We want to develop strong, confident and resilient young women who are supported to manage and direct their own learning and progress. We are convinced that this reformed reporting process which does change from a static record to a reflection and projection process will benefit our students. We will be seeking your feedback on the process once we’ve completed a full year’s reporting cycle but in the meantime I hope that you find the new format of reports both useful and informative.