Some Assessment Feedback

It’s been Assessment Time here at Breens for the past while. The assessments that our students have been doing have been extremely helpful in identifying strengths and areas for support in their learning.
The students have carried out assessments in reading, spelling and maths. They are now armed with a lot of information and feedback from their teachers about their assessments with which to attack their learning!
Teachers are also using the data to have conversations with their students around learning and achievement. Knowing where each student is at with their learning, as well as their personal learning styles and interests makes it possible for our teachers to design programmes to meet the needs of each student in the class.
I have also started doing some personalised learning conversations with our Year 8 students. I will eventually meet with each student in the school which is quite an undertaking but is proving to be very interesting and rewarding.
So far, a lot of the feedback that I have gotten from the Year 8 students I’ve spoken to has been around their reflections on their achievements in Year 7. The next step for us now is to look at working towards Year 9. I have been working with the students to analyse the data around their assessments and each of them has said that they enjoy knowing where they are at and having an input in planning their next steps of learning.
Reading has also been mentioned at these meetings. A lot of the Year 8 students identified reading as an area they want to develop. Reading is a strong learning focus this year at Breens and it good to hear from the students themselves that we’ve identified an area where they can see they want to work.
The students are doing a lot of talking about their learning and the next steps they want to take. They are identifying and debating the success criteria for what they are learning and we are seeing an ever-increasing input from our students in leading their learning. Long may it continue!