Information Letter for Parents and Guardians of First, Second and Fifth year students in Colaiste Phobal Roscrea.
27/04/2020
Dear Parent / Guardian,
I am writing to you regarding the end of year assessments for you student.
In the interest of student health and well being, Colaiste Phobal Roscrea will not run formal end of year examinations, but will instead, run school based certification assessments for all students during the end of year examinations period at the end of term in May.
The framework for these assessments are outlined below.
Subject grades;
70% to be given by your students teacher based on their professional judgement. This could be taken from averaging Christmas exam results, other tests, eg class test or CBA already done where applicable, homework progress, class engagement all year or perhaps online engagement since March 13th
30% for a teacher devised assessment to be done during first three weeks in May.
The end of term subject grade will be combined with the 100% already given for oral, practical and project work (Where applicable) to determine the student’s overall final grade for each subject.
This overall final grade will appear on the students VS Ware Summer Report.
Classroom Based Assessments (CBA’s)
Where these have already been completed in 2nd year, the grades will be included on the report.
Where these have not been completed due to Covid 19 restrictions, teachers will either:
• Require students to complete a small project at home or
• Assign a grade based on each student’s performance in class during 3rd year prior to school closure.
Each subject department will clearly outline to students what is required.
Grade descriptors for classroom based assessments are those used by the Department of Education and Skills as outlined below:
• Exceptional
• Above Expectations
• In Line with Expectations
• Yet to meet Expectations
All students must engage in the process above for subject grades and CBA’s where applicable.
Below is the assessment schedule we will be following.
Assessment Schedule
Summer 2020.
Teachers will issue Assessments according to the following Schedule
First/ Second Year:
Tuesday May 5th: Irish, English, Maths.
Wednesday May 6th: History, Science, Geography
Thursday May 7th: Option Blocks 1, 2 & 3.
Fifth Year:
Tuesday May 5th: Option Blocks 1, 2, & 3
Wednesday May 6th: Option Block 4, Irish, English & Maths.
All assessments shall be due two weeks from date of issue.
Why have we taken the approach above?
We believe that the approach taken by Colaiste Phobal Roscrea will help to keep students focused and engaged for these final weeks of school term, thus delivering maximum benefit to the students.
We believe that commencing the new school year with examinations will not serve any purpose. We want to minimize disruption when we do return.
Their own health and well-being I believe would be better served if they did not have to face back to the scenario of exams.
There is currently no clarity about a return date for schools.
Kind regards,
Mr. Ml. O’ Connor
Principal.
