Learning and Teaching

Debating

St Cuthbert’s debating teams are busy debating after school on Wednesdays. Our teams visit schools around the area, making their arguments and defending their positions. The opposing team also try to ask some tricky questions.  Debating is open to students in Grade 5/6 and students plan, write and deliver their arguments in front of a panel who judge them on both the strength of their arguments and the manner in which they speak. Our thanks go to Ally Wheatley who coaches the teams and accompanies them as they compete in competitions. 

Assessment and Reporting at St Cuthbert’s (including school reports) 

You will notice some changes to reports when they are shared at the end of this term. Last year we received very positive feedback from parents and teachers about the Learning Conferences teachers held alongside parents, where discussion was focussed around progress in Maths and English and work samples were shared. Both teachers and families felt the rich conversations meant that everyone had a shared understanding of a child's strengths and challenges. We will continue with this model this year with learning conferences. Conferences will take place on June 10th and 11th  and again towards the end of Term 3. These conferences will replace the written comments in a report to ensure that the feedback you receive on your child’s learning is timely, specific, relevant and focused on future opportunities for growth. The overall level of achievement for each subject will still be shared in the same way as previously. 

If you have any comments or questions around the school's assessment and reporting procedures your child’s class teacher will be happy to discuss this with you. 

Katherine Dobbie