Assessment and Reporting

Assessment

Assessment is integral to the learning process and is thus an essential element in the success of the educational programme. Assessment is the gathering of information about student performance and is used as a tool to identify what students know, understand, can do, and feel at different stages in their learning process. Assessment, teaching and learning are interactive and interdependent, embedded in engaging and authentic tasks that are part of the student’s real world.

Assessment tasks should be sufficiently varied in scope to allow all types and levels of learners the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding. Tasks should be interesting and challenging, and at the same time must allow the very able students to demonstrate higher order thinking and understanding.

Assessment tasks are criterion-referenced and the levels of achievement are clearly articulated. The process is transparent, and the assessment criteria are made clear to the students in advance.

Reporting

The aim of reporting is to communicate to the student, parent/guardian, other teachers and other institutions the knowledge that the teacher has gained from his/her assessment of the student’s learning. The report should provide honest, accurate and detailed feedback on the student’s level of achievement according to the criteria of each subject. It should also contain an interpretive comment on the student’s performance and constructive advice on how to improve in the future.

At the mid-point of each semester, an interim report is issued to outline progress in the student’s approaches to learning skills.

Examinations

Internal examinations are designed by the subject teachers and overseen by the department heads to test the students’ knowledge, understanding and skills. These examinations form part of the overall assessment process. The content of the examinations is based upon selected topics covered during the year. The examinations are also designed to give the students experience of preparing for and taking examinations. External examinations are sat by Year 13 (IBDP examinations).

Year 10 sit internal examinations at the end of the school year based on the work covered in the second semester.

Year 11 sit internal examinations at the end of the school year based on the work covered in the second semester and additional concepts from the first semester.

Year 12 sit internal examinations in January and at the end of the school year.

Year 13 sit their “mock” internal IBDP examinations in January and their final IBDP examinations in May.