National Standards and Student Portfolios (Years 7 and 8) – Student portfolios are again being completed this year in Years 7 and 8. These provide a comprehensive record of each student’s learning accompanied by teacher feedback. Portfolios help to provide students, parents, and teachers with the right sort of information to set goals and improve the learning that is occurring both at school and at home. The portfolios will be sent home with students at the end of Term Two for parents to see. Please note that the mid-year report on National Standards will be included with the student portfolios.
REACH – All Year 9 and year 10 students are part of the REACH academic programme at Aquinas College. This programme operates a little bit like a ‘mini NCEA’ where each subject contributes points towards a grand REACH total. The type of certificate awarded at the end of the year depends on the total number of REACH points that have been earned through assessments during the year: Certificate of Excellence 160 points, Certificate of Merit 120 points, Certificate of Achievement 80 points, Certificate of Completion 40 points.
Each REACH assessment is worth a maximum of 4 points. Points are awarded as follows: 4 points Achieved with Excellence, 3 points Achieved with Merit, 2 points Achieved, 1 point Working towards Achieved, 0 points Insufficient evidence of achievement.
Reports – The mid-year junior reports will be emailed home during the week ending 23 June. These will contain a record of REACH assessment results. By now we would expect students to have somewhere between 60 and 80 points. Do follow up on how your child is going.
NCEA Student Progress – We are now around half way through the senior academic year and all students should be making sound progress on internally assessed Achievement Standards and many courses will be moving on to the externally assessed aspects of the course. Mid-year senior reports are coming out in the final week of the term and should provide useful information on how students are progressing towards the achievement of their academic goals in 2017.
Please note that all students can check on their academic progress by logging into the Aquinas portal.
Key Dates for Your Diary:
Student Led Conferences Years 7 and 8 – Tuesday, 1st August has been set down as the date for the Year 7 and Year 8 student led conferences. These provide an opportunity for parents/caregivers to meet with their child’s home room teacher to discuss academic progress in the first half of the year and to work together to set goals for the second half. More information will be communicated to you via the Year 7 and Year 8 teachers. Please contact Mr Shem Banbury (Year 7/8 Curriculum Coordinator) if you have any queries: sbanbury@aquinas.school.nz.
Parent Interviews Evening Years 9 – 13 – Two evenings have been scheduled for parents to meet with teachers. These nights are:
– Tuesday, 1st August 4:00 – 7:30pm
– Thursday, 3rd August 4:00 – 7:30pm
The evening provides parents with the opportunity to meet their child’s teachers and discuss their progress and goals for the rest of the year. Appointments for the evening will be able to be made online.
Options Evening – The Aquinas College Options Evening is scheduled for Tuesday 15th August 7:00pm till 9:00pm in the School Administration Block. The night has been scheduled in order to allow parents and students the chance to discuss potential subjects with subject specialists at Aquinas College. It is a valuable opportunity to gain their opinion on which subjects will best suit your child into the future. Mr Mikaere Smith, the Careers Advisor at Aquinas College, will also be available to meet with parents.
If you have a child who will be in Year 10 or above in 2018 then you should consider attending this evening.
