Assessments

Catholic schools in Western Australia are committed to monitoring student progress to ensure that students are provided with the best teaching possible. Schools use a proactive and sustainable approach to the collection and analysis of a range of information on student achievement, academic, spiritual, social and personal development.

In addition to this, they also participate in state-wide, national and international assessments as a way of monitoring the progress of students, schools and the system. 

The Assessments in which schools participate include:

On Entry Assessment Online Interviews (OLI)

The main purpose of the On-entry Assessment Program is to provide teachers with information about the skills and understandings that a child brings to school in Pre-Primary. Conducting this assessment early in the year ensures that your child’s teacher has information about the current skills and understandings of each child to assist in the planning and development of targeted learning programs that address the needs of each individual and identify children who may require early intervention or extension. This approach is supported by national and international research into the early identification of students’ literacy and numeracy skills.

For further information refer to the Department of Education.

Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement

The Survey is administered to year 1 and 2 students. The systematic observation tasks help teachers to observe, through a series of tasks, young children’s early literacy behaviours. The observation survey provides easy-to-read accounts of individual progress made by students between two specific points of time.

Early Numeracy Interview (ENI)

The Early Numeracy Interview is an assessment tool consisting of a series of hands-on assessment tasks where students demonstrate mathematical understanding and preferred strategies for solving increasingly complex tasks. This assessment is used by teachers in a one-on-one interview situation to determine students’ existing mathematical knowledge in relation to points of growth. Analysis of the responses provides teachers with powerful information to use when planning to meet student leaning needs.

Reporting

All schools regularly monitor, evaluate and report on each student’s achievement.

Teachers exercise their professional judgement when monitoring students’ progress and determining grades/levels for reporting, consistent with the school’s assessment policies and the School Curriculum and Standards Authority reporting policy.

Teachers are encouraged to use a variety of tools and resources to support them to assess student achievement. These include but are not limited to annotated work samples, reflection sheets, diaries or scrapbooks, rubrics, sample assessment items and student/teacher journals.

In addition to formal reports in the nine learning areas, opportunities are provided throughout the year to inform parents of their child’s progress:

• Term One: Teacher/parent Interviews: Weeks 7-9
• Term Two: Report
• Term Three: Teacher/parent Interviews: Weeks 8-10
• Term Four: Report