Junior Assessment
Wellington College takes seriously our responsibility to prepare students for the next stage of their learning. One important way of doing this is by providing a cohesive and transparent school-wide assessment framework that will give students a clear understanding of what they need to do to build on their learning and prepare for the next stage.
The New Zealand Curriculum states that effective assessment benefits students by clarifying for them “…what they know they can do and what they still need to do.” Wellington College uses our Junior Assessment Framework as a tool for achieving this aim.
Our Junior Assessment Framework
Our Junior Assessment Framework is underpinned by the thinking structure of SOLO Taxonomy. Solo Taxonomy (Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes) provides a model for teaching and learning that has three levels of understanding
- surface understanding
- deep understanding
- conceptual understanding
With SOLO we can identify and use success criteria which enable students to make meaningful progress and provide feedback and feed forward on learning outcomes which is simple to understand and straightforward to act on.
Student work in the junior school will be assessed using the SOLO taxonomy across all learning areas using a structure we call the Junior Assessment Framework (JAF). Student work will be assessed on a scale from D2 (pre-structural) through to A1 (Extended abstract) with clear reference to help the student identify the next steps needed for development.
Learning to Learn
“Learning to learn” requires learners to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of their own thinking when they are learning and to make thoughtful decisions on what to do next. We encourage students to regularly answer the following questions:
