Parent Workshop
#1
How to help your child, Learning And
Support, Best Start Assessment
Welcome to Sherwood Ridge
Public School
The school’s motto “From Each their Best” underpins all that we do.
At Sherwood Ridge Public School our inclusive environment will
support staff and parents to work together as a learning community
in order to give our students the knowledge, skills and experiences
to achieve their personal goals and lead successful lives in the 21st
Century. It is a partnership between home and school.
Our Core values of Learning, Community and Respect along with
our school’s expectations of Be safe, Be respectful and Be a learner
are embedded in all that we do.
How can you help your child?
Practise and apply new skills and knowledge
• Play games; card games, I spy, board games
• Home reading; read every night, can read to
different people
• Embrace Technology; creative and educational apps
• Integrate their learning into your home activities:
shopping, cooking, newspaper, road signs, bus
timetables, menu, letters, invitations
Show that you value education –
Engage in learning
Let your child see you reading
Show interest in their school life
Engage in school events
Give books as presents and show your
child how to care for them.
• Encourage your child to make use of the
local and school libraries.
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Provide experiences as a base for
learning
• Read to your child
• Audiobooks
• Provide experiences to relate new learning to;
places, people, events
• Provide various opportunities for talking; meal
times, shared activities, phone
Celebrate learning
• Encourage curiosity and a love of learning
• Let your child teach you
• provide an audience; watch performance, read
their work, publish – put it on fridge, have them
show family/friends
Best Start: Kindergarten Assessment
• To provide information that supports teachers in meeting
students’ individual learning needs;
• To provide parents and caregivers with feedback on what
their child can do, and how they can best support their
child’s learning; and
• To assist the monitoring of student learning throughout
the school years.
Providing feedback to parents
• Best Start written reports will be sent home to parents on
Friday12th February 2016.
• Interviews will be held for parents on Thursday 25th &
Friday 26th February 2016 to discuss the report.
Best Start Assessment
The Best Start Assessment will assess a student’s school
entry skills and understandings in literacy and numeracy.
Literacy
Reading text
Writing
Speaking
Comprehension
Concepts about print
Phonics
Phonemic Awareness
Numeracy
Counting (numeral recognition and
forward number word sequences)
Counting as a problem solving
process
Pattern recognition
Best Start Assessment
Classroom teachers will observe and record student responses. Most
tasks will be completed individually, though some may take place within
small groups. Teachers will ask a series of questions to gather
information about children’s early literacy & numeracy knowledge.
For example:
To assess a child’s understanding of a text read to them, the teacher
may ask the student to retell what happened in the story in their own
word and in numeracy, to see how far a child can correctly count, the
teacher may ask them to start counting. The child will be asked to stop
when the teacher gets a sense of how well they can count.
Assessment Schedule
The students will be involved in four assessments throughout the year
 Term 1
Thursday 28th, Friday 29th February and Monday 1st February 2016 - Initial
assessment
Kindergarten students start school Wednesday 3rd February (week 2)
Report distributed week 3
 Term 2 week 1
Teacher observations
 Term 3 week 1
Formal assessment. Report distributed week 3
 Term 4 week 1
Teacher observations
When will the Assessment take place?
Students will be provided with assessment times over three days.
Thursday 28th, Friday 29th February and Monday 1st February 2016.
Appointment letters will be sent home via mail December 4th. ALL
Kindergarten students will then start school on Wednesday 3rd February
2016
For more information please contact the school on 8824 3333 or visit the
Best Start website:
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/beststart/index.htm
.