Curriculum planning and programming, assessing and reporting policy requirements

The Curriculum planning and programming, assessing and reporting to parents K-12 (CPPAR) policy outlines schools’ obligation relating to student reporting to parents.

Each student report must include:

• student attendance
• whole school activities
• student’s social development and commitment to learning
• explanation of the grade scale used
• a report for each key learning area, subject or course, each requiring
  • the outcomes assessed
  • A-E grades or word equivalent (Years 1-11) or Personalised Reporting Scale grade
  • key learning area, subject or course-specific comment.

Schools should refer to the CPPAR Policy regularly to ensure that they are meeting the current reporting to parent requirements.

Detailed guidance on all aspects of the CPPAR Policy’s reporting to parent requirements can be found in the other sections of the Reporting to parents webpage.

Federally mandated requirements

The requirements for reporting to parents are federally mandated. The Australian Education Regulations requirements (Subdivision G) regarding student reports (last updated in 2013), states:

• An approved authority for a school must provide a report to each person responsible for each student at the school in accordance with this section.
  

• A report must be readily understandable to a person responsible for a student at the school.
  

• The report must give an accurate and objective assessment of the student’s progress and achievement including an assessment of the student’s achievement:

(i) against any available national standards and

(ii) relative to the performance of the student’s peer group and

(iii) reported as A, B, C, D or E (or on an equivalent 5-point scale) for each subject studied, clearly defined against specific learning standards.

• A report must be given to each person responsible for the student at least twice a year.

  The child and the parents, guardians or other persons who have care for and control of the child have the opportunity to meet with the child’s teachers to discuss all aspects of the report and for the school to give constructive advice about supporting the child’s further progress at school (Schools Assistance (Learning Together – Achievement through choice and opportunity) Act 2004 – Sect 15)

NESA requirements for school-based reporting

There are specific NESA reporting requirements based on individual syllabuses. NESA provides basic information specific to subject reporting processes rather than information on reporting to parents.

Attendance data requirements

Attendance data must be included in a student’s report. This can be completed by administration staff or automatically generated by a learning management system.

Student achievement in relation to their cohort

This does not need to be included in student reports but should be provided to parents and carers if requested.

In Years 1 to 10, in response to requests from parents and carers, schools are to provide information on how their child’s achievement compares with the performance of the student’s peer group. This information will show parents the number of students in the group in each of the achievement levels. Schools should advise parents and carers on the written report on how the information can be accessed.

For Years 11 and 12, information on how student achievement compares with that of the peer group may be provided through course group rankings or grade distributions.

Report timing

The CPPAR policy does not specify the timing of the reports. This means you can report at a time that your school, in consultation with parents, identifies as the most valuable to support student progress. For example, you could have the first report sent home at the end of Term 1 and the second one at the start of Term 4.

Schools can keep parents and carers informed on their child’s progress between the formal reporting periods through a range of approaches. For example, this can occur through formal parent-teacher interviews, as part of the collaborative curriculum planning process, or informally via emails, phone calls and online collaboration tools.

Legal requirements

Student reports must be retained until a student reaches the age of 25 or a minimum of 7 years after the reports are developed, whichever is longer. The department recommends that electronic copies of the reports are stored, rather than paper copies, to reduce the administration burden.

Parent/teacher interviews

Parent/teacher interviews are not mandatory.

Schools do need to provide the opportunity for parents and/or carers to meet with the child’s teachers to discuss all aspects of the report and for the school to give constructive advice about supporting the child’s further progress at school (Schools Assistance (Learning Together – Achievement through choice and opportunity) Act 2004 – Sect 15).

This requirement can be achieved in a number of ways including parent/teacher interviews, holding a three-way learning conference or an invitation on the report for parents and/or carers to contact the school to organise a meeting with the child’s teacher/s if required.

Interim reports

Interim reports are not mandatory. A formal report on a child's learning must occur twice a year. However, the timing of the report is determined by the school.