School Reporting: The End Of Semesterly Report Reporting

With the close of another school year now just weeks away, faculties all across Australia are taking a collective breath and rolling up their sleeves in preparation for the time-challenging task of end of semester reporting.

While semesterly reports are intended to provide a detailed overview of a student’s progress, and how their school is supporting their development against the Australian Curriculum, recent studies clearly indicate that the current requirements, methodology, and delivery of end of semester reports no longer aligns with students’ best academic interests.

With data from a number of evidence-based sources demonstrating a shift towards continuous reporting – with students and parents able to access crucial teacher feedback in ‘real time’ via their school management system – it seems the future of the “holy grail” of documents may evolve into a fluid year-round assessment tool, rather than a twice-yearly report offering little value by way of generically-derived comments.

Responding to an everchanging educational landscape

At Edumate, we’ve naturally got our finger on the pulse when it comes to technological trends, but in order to continually deliver the most advanced school management software, we’re committed to understanding and responding to the everchanging educational landscape. And when it comes to semesterly reporting, we’ve really done our homework.

Director, Daniel Hill, who was recently interviewed by Acer’s Teacher magazine on how electronic reporting features are helping shape the change in paradigm, recognises the benefits of progressive reporting. “Research suggests teacher-to-student feedback needs to be a lot more regular, so students can pick up and action it straight away, and parents can support them at home, rather than six months down the track when it’s too late.”

Edumate’s vision is to instill an enduring sense of connectivity and community that will last beyond the classroom. To this end we recently conducted our own survey of over 1000 K-12 parents from all school types Australia-wide, to hone in on issues important to them. When it came to teacher feedback, over 80% of parents stated it was essential, yet don’t feel they are getting the right information in a timely manner to support their children. Additionally, they believe the feedback they currently receive is too late to action, and would prefer reporting based on their child’s progression, rather than as a measurement against a standardised benchmark.

Edumate – your partner in semesterly reporting

While these comments add further weight to the argument for continuous reporting, it’s not something that’s going to be introduced overnight across every school in Australia. Until then, the best way we can support schools with the challenges of semesterly reporting is to provide the very best platform we can to enable streamlined, accurate, and timely reporting, whichever way your school collates and distributes reports.

Our reporting solutions include:

• Tailored comment banks with specificity for each subject, so teachers can find and auto-apply appropriate comments for each student.

• Administrative-friendly templates, with the ability to efficiently add, edit, or delete data already held within Edumate’s database.

• A convenient direct feed into every state’s jurisdiction – simply select the criteria and outcomes appropriate to your state’s syllabus.

• The ability for parents to access results through a secure portal 24/7 from anywhere in the world via their smartphone or digital device.

• For school’s already embracing continuous/progressive reporting, Edumate’s simple and flexible just-in-time reporting feature, with conditional release of student marks, will ensure students engage with teacher feedback.

“At Edumate, we believe that for a child to be successful all stakeholders – that is, student, family, and the school – must be communicating effectively,” says Daniel. “That’s why we’re strong advocates for continuous reporting. We see it as a step forward in improving student outcomes. We’re confident Edumate’s reporting features will help every school easily navigate the reporting process, whatever form that may take in the future.”

Until then, we wish every school all the best as they undertake the arduous task of compiling the end of year semester reports. We understand the workload that goes with it.

For more information about how Edumate can assist with your school’s reporting, call one of the team on +61 (02) 8313 2700.