Principal News

Assessment at Tahuna

Kia ora koutou e te whānau,

The next three weeks are a very important time at Tahuna. We have a number of exciting activities, including South Zone and Otago Athletics for our athletes, and the end-of-year cultural show for our thespians on the 13th of November at the Kings/Queens Performing Arts Centre.

Academically, the teachers will be busy looking at assessment data this coming week, and during the week of 3-7 November, your child will take part in three assessments. A maths online test, a reading online test and a paper reading test. Along with all of the othe assessment data and observations the teachers keep these results will help inform the end-of-year report comment.

The test are not "high stakes tests" but it is important that the students take them seriously and try their best. We are not advising that they need to do any extra study, but it would be a good week to make sure they are going to bed early and are ready for a day of hard work at school.

The tests are not designed to create anxiety, but that is essentially the nature of a test and is an important part of the learning process, and something that they will only come with more pressure as they grow older. Parents should be mindful of this and watch for changes in mood or behaviour.

We carefully analyse the data we collect, and I look forward to sharing the results with you in our final newsletter of the year, which is only 6 weeks away. Where did the year go!

Next year, you will hear the term "SMART Test". The SMART test is a new Ministry-mandated test that all schools will use twice a year. The Ministry have stated that it "will replace e-asTTle (our current online test that we use), have up-to-date technology and be aligned with the National Curriculum, enabling twice-yearly assessment of reading, writing, maths, pānui, tuhituhi and pāngarau." My understanding at this stage is that the results from this test will be on your child's mid and end-of-year report.

Finally, thank you to everyone for your support on Thursday. Industrial action is never something we wish for, and we hope that a resolution is found soon.

Kā mihi nui

Simon Clarke