The report format

When you have your first moderation visit ask the moderator to show you a copy of the report that they will be using.

Below is a copy of a report from the Bunbury District Office.(This is an actual report, the parent's have kindly allowed me to use it).

The document is titled: Evaluation of the Learning Program (sic) and Student Progress.

There is a section in the top left hand corner which is subtitled The Learning Program: (sic). This section has  boxes that have a Y or an N above them.Y for yes and N for no. This section is not referenced.

You will notice that on the right hand side of the report is a section titled Principles of learning & teaching at the top and then another section titles Monitoring and Assessment. This section is referenced to the Curriculum Framework pages 33 - 36 and pp 37 - 39 and again there are boxes into which a Y or an N are placed.

The next section is subtitled: Learning Areas Addressed: Yes (Y) Developing (D) No (N). Each of the eight learning areas are represented and then they are marked accordingly. The moderator then writes the outcomes beside the learning areas in the space to the right.

And then finally there is a section which is subtitled: Student Progress.

 

If your moderator shows you a report like this then ask them to modify their report. There are several things that are wrong with this report and I will now expand on what is wrong.

Firstly The Principles of Learning and Teaching and the Monitoring and Assessment as referenced from the Curriculum Framework are not mandatory elements of the framework. They are simply - as stated - prinicples. In fact the Curriculum Framework says that this section of the framework is a guide. That is, that it is intended to be a guide for teachers. Teachers nor home educators are under any obligation to comply with this guide.

If this guide is on your report you can ask for it to be removed and you can state that you will not be complying with nor reporting on this section of the Curriculum Framework. P33 of the framework states:

 Learning, Teaching & Assessment

This section describes the principles which should guide learning, teaching and assessment for students to achieve the outcomes in the Framework.  The focus is on the provision of a school and classroom environment which is intellectually, socially and physically supportive of learning.  These principles assist whole-school planning and individual classroom practice.  It will be essential, therefore, to ensure that there is a shared understanding of them within particular school communities and a collaborative effort to implement these principles in ways appropriate to individual schools.

 You can phone the Curriculum Council and ask if this is simply a guide; I have phoned them and that is what I have been told. - and then you can inform the moderator that you have been advised by the Curriculum Council that this is the case - that you are under no obligation to implement this part of the Curriculum Framework. I am currently in the process of making a submission to the Western Australian Ombudsman to have this style of reporting stopped.

The section titled The Learning Program (sic) has Priority Outcomes Identified, (with two bulleted subheadings) Daily application to literacy and numeracy, & Social. None of these are mandatory nor even elements of the curriculum framework. In fact, there is nowhere that provides the criteria for 'social'. 

Once again you can inform the moderator that you will not be reporting on these aspects of the report.

The eight learning areas are mandatory for home educators to implement and I will cover these in a separate blog.