Gaonomics

It’s the last week of school for the school year 2008/2009 in Tenby International School, so my daughter received the end of the year progress report this week. 7 pages of detailed and elaborated information about what the students are expected to be able to do in each subject and whether they are working towards expected year group level, working at expected year group level or working above expected year group level.

Each subject is given a number from 1 to 4 (1 = excellent, 2= good, 3= satisfactory and 4 = needs improvement) which indicates how the children approach the subject in terms of how diligent they are, and therefore doesn’t reflect how the children do academically, which I like as the focus is on learning and the progress the child is making and not on how good or bad they are.

At the end of the progress report on page 8, the student’s teacher gives a description of the children’s performance and the activities they have been involved in as well as some personal comments about the child’s unique qualities and characteristics and how well they have done, which shows that the teacher really makes an effort to look for the children’s positive traits and highlight these in the report. And in the case of my daughter the description is spot on.

As a parent I truly appreciate this detailed description of how the teacher sees and experiences my daughter, because it confirms my own impression of her and it makes me feel good that my child’s teacher takes the time and efforts to get to know her properly and to highlight the good things about her. This is ever so important, because only when the teacher understands the child, her strengths and abilities and also weaknesses etc., will the teacher be able to motivate the child and support her progress and learning, help her in the areas where she needs help and so forth. For me this brings about trust in the teacher’s and the school’s ability to give my daughter a good all-round education with respect and interest for her as an individual.

I also like the fact that the report spells out in details exactly what my daughter is expected to be able to do in each subject and whether she is working at the expected year group level. In this way I am able to see what she is learning, what she is able to do, what she needs to work at improving, whether she lives up to the expected year group level and to follow her progress in details. All this enables me to support her more in subjects where she needs to improve, as I know exactly what it is, she needs to work at.

Lastly I have to say that I admire and appreciate the teacher’s effort in evaluating my daughter’s abilities in such details, which must have been very time-consuming considering that each teacher has to evaluate 25 students. I sincerely think the teachers deserve the recognition and compliment for an excellent job done.