Reporting Student Achievement and Progress Foundation to 10

Reporting to parents and carers – general information

Written reports twice a year

Schools are required to provide a written (print or digital) student report at least twice a year to the parents or carers of each child enrolled at the school.

This is a minimum requirement for school registration — schools have a legal obligation to provide a written (print or digital) student report at least twice a year to the parents/carers of each child enrolled at the school.

Reports must be accessible

Student reports are required to be in an accessible form and easy for parents or carers to understand.

Parents want to know what was learned and how well, where improvement is needed and what should be done next. This means that reports should be written in plain English, giving parents and carers a clear picture of their child’s progress and achievement against clearly defined standards.

The department advises that, if comments are used in student reports, they should:

• complement the teacher judgements made and the corresponding 5-point scale used
• describe strengths, areas for improvement and/or where students need to be further assisted or extended
• not be generic.

The following tips will assist you to write clear, easy to understand and informative reports:

• Quick tips for writing reports (DOCX)
• Quick tips for writing reports (PDF)

This checklist is designed to help teachers review the comments they have written:

• Student report writing checklist (DOCX)
• Student report writing checklist (PDF)

Reporting against achievement standards

Schools are required to report against the Victorian Curriculum F-10 achievement standards, which includes towards foundation levels A-D.

This means:

• reporting directly against the achievement standards (not the level or band descriptions, or content descriptions)
• reporting against the achievement standards defined for each learning area and capability taught, consistent with the teaching and learning program(s) schools have designed.

Each curriculum area includes content descriptions explaining what is to be taught, what students are expected to learn, and achievement standards describing what students are able to understand and do. Achievement standards (not content descriptions) are the basis for reporting student achievement.

The Victorian Curriculum F-10 achievement standards are provided in levels or bands for all the learning areas and capabilities. For more information see Victorian Curriculum F-10 structure.

For students who are progressing towards achieving the Foundation level achievement standards, the Towards Foundation levels of the Victorian Curriculum (levels A to D) are used to record levels of achievement. Levels A to D are a suitable record of levels of achievement for many students, including students with disability and/or additional needs.

Student reports to include both achievement and progress

Both achievement and progress against the achievement standards are required to be included in the student report.

Achievement means locating a student on a continuum of learning for a learning area and/or capability by making an on-balance, holistic, evidence-based and defensible judgement of assessment evidence gathered during a reporting period. This includes providing a teacher judgement against the achievement standards, assigned as a score, for each curriculum area taught.

Progress means representing the growth in learning that has occurred by referencing the last time such achievement standards were reported against for that student in the school.

For an example, refer to achievement and progress along a continuum (DOCX)

A 5-point scale must be used when reporting

A 5-point scale is to be included in every student report to provide more detail on the student's learning and to rate the quality of the student's achievement and/or progress against the achievement standards.

This requirement provides an opportunity for schools to communicate information on the student’s learning growth – their increased skills, knowledge and understandings within a curriculum area(s) over time.

A 5-point scale may be written or use a graphical representation. A written scale may use letters, numbers, or worded descriptors. If worded descriptors are not used, the scale must be explained.

For more information and examples of 5-point scales (including examples relating to EAL students) refer to 5-point scale (DOCX).

Level D now included in the 5-point age-related scale

From Semester 2, 2023, students who are working at Level D can now be identified as below age-expected standard in student reports from Semester 1 of Prep. This addition to the 5-point age-related scale will be automatically generated by school reporting software.

A template letter is available to support schools communicate this change with parents and carers: Template letter to parents/carers regarding Level D and reporting (DOCX).

Opportunities to discuss the school report

Opportunities must be provided for parents/carers and students to discuss the school report with teachers and/or school leaders

This means that parent/carers need to receive the report with sufficient time before a school break commences so that parents and carers can discuss their child’s report with teachers and/or school leaders.

The department does not prescribe a reporting format

Schools should decide on the format of reports in partnership with students, parents/carers and the school community. Reports can be customised to suit school and individual student needs.

Schools can decide how the following elements are represented:

• student achievement against the Victorian Curriculum F-10 achievement standards
• student progress along the learning continuum
• student achievement and progress related to individual learning goals and targets.

Schools can customise other elements including:

• brief descriptions (curriculum area overview) of what was taught
• areas for improvement/future learning
• what the school will do to support the student’s learning
• what parents and carers can do to support the student’s progress
• attendance
• work habits assessment
• extra-curricular comments
• student comment
• parent and carer comment/feedback.

For examples of report formats, refer to student report format (DOCX).