Secondary Newsletter No. 16

As we approach the final two weeks of the semester, teachers and students have been engaged in different forms of assessment to provide teachers with as much evidence of learning as possible prior to completing semester reports. Semester 1 reports will be sent home on Wednesday, December 12 and they will contain grades and comments.

Lost and Found
The Secondary Office lost and found box contains a range of items. Please ask your child to collect these from Ibu Riana. Anything unclaimed by December 7 will be discarded. Please see the photo for some of the items.

 

MYP News

Assessments, assessments, assessments

I’m sure your child is coming home and diligently working on their “tons of assessments” which they have due this month. It is that time of the year when us teachers have reports to write and just need that ‘one more piece of evidence’ to help decide on the final achievement levels to award. As you are aware the MYP grading system works by assessing four criteria for every subject. Each criterion is out of 8, the IB final grades are given on the scale of 1-7 and, in order to get this grade, all four criteria are added up to get a total out of 32 (4×8=32). Therefore, if a student does not have an achievement level for any of the criteria, or we have not set an assessment in a certain criterion, then we cannot award students with a final grade using the 1-7 scale. This will show on their reports as an N/A and we want to avoid this at all costs. Also the more data we have, the more information this provides to objectively decide where your child is realistically at.

Here is a Science example:

So there you have the 1-7 scale and how it is awarded. Just remember, every assessment your child writes, us teachers have to mark it….

– Michele McLay, MYP Coordinator

CAS Corner – 3 on 3 Basketball
With the starting initiative coming from one of my friends from Grade 11, 3 on 3 Basketball practices have been planned and organized. This afterschool activity is run only on Tuesdays from 3 to 4pm, where kids that come are taught the right techniques that are needed in professional games of basketball that they can use in the upcoming basketball season. This activity has greatly impacted me as I am learning to be able to teach others, have patience and at the sametime collaborate with my partners that run this activity. This activity had a great interest in kids around the school from last year, this has lead to a greater variety of kids coming to play and learn how to play basketball with us this school year. Overall this had a really good impact on kids as they learn to be able to communicate with other kids in school, have discipline, self management and of course it helps them to improve themselves over all as young athletes.

CAS Outcomes:
Identify your own strengths and develop areas for personal growth
Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience
Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

– Daniil Uryupin Grade 12

Counselor’s Corner
Our Parent Session on December 10th will focus on Helping Kids Cope with Stress. The session will include practical tips for parents on reducing stress for kids as well as an introduction to mindfulness and how mindfulness can be taught to students of all ages to help them help themselves in times of stress.

– Rachael Gerbic, School Counselor

Grade 10 Sharing of the Arts
As the first semester draws to a close, we would like to invite parents to join us in celebrating the artistic achievements of Grade 10. The work of the Visual Arts students will be exhibited in DWAR (room in the library) from December 3 through to the 14th and a Music and Drama performance will be held in the MPR on Tuesday December 4.

– Secondary Arts Department

Attendance Trends
Please note that students are expected to be in attendance at school up until and including the last day of term, December 14. Learning is expected to continue right through until the break. There was a spike in lateness yesterday due to the inclement weather and below are the trends for attendance and lateness for Term 2.

Grade 11 exams completed!
Wednesday, 28 November saw the Grade 11 students successfully complete their first formal DP examination session. The exams gave the students a valuable insight into DP exam practices and what to expect on their final exams in May 2020. Overall, this was a positive experience with many of the students coping well with the demands of the exams and everyone arriving punctually.

In the coming week, if not already, students will spend at least one lesson analysing their exam performance with their teachers. John Hattie in his book Visible Learning highlighted that providing timely assessment feedback to students is one of the the top factors that positively influences student learning. However, it is also important that students act upon this feedback and therefore they will reflect on their strengths and areas for improvement in all of their subjects. Students will add their comments to their student reflection sheets along with strategies to try and overcome their areas for improvement. Hopefully this will result in further student growth and academic success. Well done so far Grade 11s.

– Matt Wood, DP Coordinator

Enjoy your weekend and the week ahead everyone.

– Ross Ferris, Secondary Principal