Year 6 Update WK 6

The Year 6 have been completing the I.S.A. examinations this week. Through these assessments we have been teaching them all about exam procedure, rules, etiquette and strategies for success.

The ISA is designed specifically for students in Grades 3–10 in international schools and schools with an international focus, whose language of instruction is English. 

Schools use the ISA because:

• it is not specific to a single curriculum;
• it tests core skills in mathematical literacy, reading, writing and scientific literacy;
• the test material is eclectic, drawing on many cultural and national sources;
• the assessments are designed with the knowledge that more than half of the test takers have first languages other than English;
• it includes writing tasks and open-ended questions to better illuminate students’ thinking processes;
• it provides diagnostic information that can be used at the school, class, or individual level;
• performance on the ISA can be related to international benchmarks;
• they can evaluate the reliability of their internal assessments and confirm that they are aligned with international expectations of performance;
• scaled ISA scores enable monitoring of student performance over time; and
• it enables comparison of the results of their Grade 8 ,9 and 10 students with the PISA results for each country that participated in the latest PISA administration.

The ISA improves learning by:

• measuring individual students’ achievement in order to reflect on and address strengths and weaknesses;
• monitoring an individual’s or group’s progress over time;
• evaluating instructional programs against objective evidence of student performance, to diagnose gaps, and to measure growth in learning between grade levels and from year to year within one grade level;
• comparing subgroup performance (for example, girls and boys; students from different language backgrounds) to see where there may be unexpected results and try to understand them; and
• providing normative data in relation to selected populations to ‘see how we are doing’. 

In September 2015, 193 world leaders agreed to 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development. If these Goals are completed, it would mean an end to extreme poverty, inequality and climate change by 2030.

Our governments have a plan to save our planet…it’s our job to make sure they stick to it.

The Global Goals are only going to work if we fight for them and you can’t fight for your rights if you don’t know what they are. We believe the Goals are only going to be completed if we can make them famous.

In Year 6 we are keeping track of all the amazing Action happening at school and at home. 

Colours Day is coming – 29th September 2017

Our House Captains have been very busy helping to organise, communicate and drive our Colours Day. Please help you children to collect sponsors so that we can make a difference and give back to our wonderful community.