Year 1 News by Melinda White

Moderation in Year 1

This afternoon, the Year 1 teaching team is moderating student work for the semester. This is a rigorous process because we want to ensure we are all on the same page with our assessments and marking.

It’s also a wonderful time to reflect. There’s lots of cheering at moderation when we see how far the students have travelled with their progress. Even if a student hasn’t passed a subject, there’s still learning that’s happened. You can make progress and overall, be a D or an E. 

When we look at student assessments to figure out the final overall mark, we do something that’s called “on balance judgement”. This is what all schools do, using the Australian Curriculum.

Overall, on balance, where is this student mostly sitting? That’s what we look at. If you don’t pass one thing in a semester, it doesn’t mean you don’t pass everything overall.

You can attain a Sound level of achievement for English and have difficulty with independent reading. In English we assess writing and speaking and listening, as well as reading. Many students have strengths in one or two areas of English and need more help with the other area in English.

You’ll receive your child’s report early next term, but for now, take this time to speak with your little one about how they think they are going at school. What are they proud of? What is something they can do now, that they couldn’t do before? What’s something they find tricky, that they need to persist with to improve?

Our Year 1s are all a bit weary and making those considered, thoughtful choices is tricky right now for so many. Let’s help them remain successful to the end of the semester by celebrating the growth and the journey!