Academic Policies

LANGUAGE POLICY

Learner Profile – Communicator

Objective of the Language Policy Document

The language policy document aims to consolidate ideas and beliefs at Fountainhead School regarding language and language teaching and outlines systems and strategies in place to support the development of English as a lingua franca as well as development and maintenance of mother tongue in the school community.

This document also seeks to ensure that, as an authorized IB World School, compliance with IBO Standards and Practices are met.

This document should be referred to when planning for language teaching, curriculum planning and professional development.

The audience for this document also includes the parent community at Fountainhead School as well as new and interested parents seeking admission in Fountainhead School.

Fountainhead School : Background and context

Fountainhead School is a K-12 school located in Surat, Gujarat. The school offers the following pathways of education:

* We are considering the IB MYP for the future.

The pathways of education boards that Fountainhead School has offered for its students is a tried and tested model which a number of other schools in India are also applying to provide both the best quality of education while fully addressing the necessities of Board Examinations and local university recognition issues in India.

The school has 1236 students as of 31st August 2013. The division across students is as follows:

Programme	No. of Students
EY	342
PY	722
MY	172

Majority of the student population resides in Surat. Students mostly come from middle class or affluent families. The parent community is a mix of entrepreneurs, family managed businesses, teaching professionals, serviced professionals in banking and finance, oil and gas or telecom industry and other industries.

Student Mission Statement

To nurture leaders through primary greatness

Primary greatness is the greatness that each individual can attain by achieving both competence and character. Greatness as defined normally, is based on name, fame, money, acts etc. This greatness is secondary greatness and not everyone may achieve it, and primary greatness may not be necessary to achieve this. Primary greatness, on the other hand, is something that each child and adult can achieve through their actions.

To become leaders, students are expected to take responsibility of their own lives, learn to work more effectively with others and to do the right thing even when no one’s watching. This is how we define leaders. Not everyone may want to or can become business or political leaders or leaders in sports or arts, but becoming a leader as defined above is the kind of leader that everyone can become.

The school’s mission is therefore “To nurture leaders through primary greatness” or in other words, to nurture leaders who have both character and competence.

Organizational Mission Statement

Fountainhead believes that learning is a lifelong process and we therefore seek to inculcate in students, parents, teachers & the society at large, the sheer sense of joy of the learning. We will provide a happy, purposeful, safe and nurturing environment to help our learners develop skills, attitudes & character to achieve sustainable success in life. We aim to scale newer heights in terms of curriculum innovation and teaching methodologies and build an institute of excellence.

Language Profile of students at Fountainhead school

The following points summarize the language profile of students currently studying at Fountainhead School:

1. Majority of the students (92%) have Gujarati or Hindi as their mother tongue/ native language.

2. A small percentage of students (4.5%) have other Indian languages as their mother tongue.

3. Almost all students (97%) are second language learners of English.

4. Around 30% of students studying at Fountainhead School are first generation learners of English.

5. English is the medium of instruction and is commonly acceptable to all.

6. All parents want their children to learn English as the main language in school.

(Detailed data analysis of the school language profile is available in Appendix B)

Fountainhead’s beliefs about language and language learning

Fountainhead School believes that language fulfils three fundamental, compelling human urges- to connect with others, to understand our world and ourselves in it. Language is fundamental to learning, thinking and communicating.

Language is socially constructed and depends on the kind, nature and the frequency of one’s social interaction in the community. Fountainhead School believes that language is acquired and not learnt. We believe that learners acquire language by first listening to it and understanding it, then speaking it, then reading and finally writing it.When an understanding of the world, language and print act together as a team, reading happens. All three go hand in hand, like inseparable friends. One assists the others. On their own they function badly. Children develop language through interaction, not action. They learn to talk by talking to someone who responds. They learn to write by writing to someone who responds. (Fox Mem 1993, 2001).

The learning process simultaneously involves learning language as learners listen to and use language with others in their everyday lives; learning about language as learners grow in their understanding of how language works; and learning through language as learners use language as a tool to listen, think, discuss and reflect on information, ideas and issues (Halliday 1980). These three aspects are best thought of as linked processes.

Language plays a vital role in the construction of meaning. It provides a framework to support conceptual development and critical thinking. Fragmenting teaching language into isolated skill sets can create difficulties for learners. Their needs are best served when they have opportunities to engage in learning within meaningful and authentic contexts.

Language involves learning, in both the affective and effective domains. Through language, students understand feelings and thoughts of people from contexts very different from theirs and learn to express their own emotions in various creative forms. They learn to communicate their ideas effectually. Language provides a vehicle for inquiry. Teachers and students enjoy using language, appreciating it both functionally and aesthetically.

Learners listen, talk, read and write their way to negotiating new meanings and understanding new concepts. There are opportunities for students to negotiate their roles as learners, teachers, reflectors, thinkers and Inquirers.

The school recognizes that a majority of our learners are additional language learners of English and we see the school playing a pivotal role in providing an enriching environment and support for language development so that all learners are empowered to participate fully in the school’s academic programme, social life as well as to develop as individuals. The school believes that building a caring language community with participation from parents, students, teachers and the wider society will go a long way in developing confident language learners.

The school believes that acquisition of more than one language will enrich personal development of a child and also facilitate international mindedness.

Language at Fountainhead School

English is the medium of instruction at Fountainhead School and is taught as the primary language. It has priority in the school’s language programme.It is also the preferred language of communication in the school and is acceptable to all.

Languages used in daily functioning

English is the preferred language of communication at Fountainhead School. It serves as the school’s official language for purpose of operations, communication and management.

However, it is acknowledged that the school community is multilingual and members function in their everyday lives in more than one language.

All school-wide written communication with parents is done in English although individual parent and teachers may communicate (written and oral) in a common language of their choice. (this is typically done as per parent’s preference).

The administration department and the support staff (transport, food, housekeeping) typically use Gujarati (the local language of Surat) in their daily interactions with other members of the school community.

Language in the Primary years Programme

Language is the most significant connecting element across the school’s curriculum, both within and outside its transdisciplinary programme of inquiry. Language at Fountainhead in the PYP is seen as permeating the whole curriculum. Language learning is spread across subject areas and through the programme of inquiry and all PYP teachers at Fountainhead are viewed and view themselves as language teachers. English is the primary language taught at the Primary years and also the language through which the students access the PYP curriculum.

The school offers Hindi (one of the official languages of India) as an additional language from the age of 5 and Gujarati (the regional language of the state Gujarat) as a 3rd language from the age of 6.

Teachers plan learning experiences in language within meaningful and enjoyable contexts and learners are able to make connections, apply their learning, and transfer their conceptual understanding to new situations. This progressive conceptual development, together with an enjoyment of the process, provides the foundation for lifelong learning.

The school also acknowledges that learning to comprehend language through listening, reading and viewing and to express through speaking; writing and presenting go hand in hand and hence, promotes integrated language development. The three strands of communication: oral, written and visual are interwoven and interrelated and not taught in isolation.

Fountainhead believes that literature plays a very important role in language development. Literature helps to reconnect feeling and thinking. It expands our life spaces and takes us outside the boundaries of our life experiences to other places, time periods and ways of living. It also stretches our imagination and invites us to consider what if. Above all, it is a very powerful tool to transform children’s lives as children carry these literary experiences back into their own worlds and view their lives differently. Students at Fountainhead are involved in a book study of minimum 1 book every year in the PYP as per their age and readiness level.

The school also sees culturally diverse literature as a powerful means to develop international mindedness and attributes of the learner profile in all learners. The library collection reflects this belief in its collection of picture books, folk tales, bilingual books etc.

The learner profile, together with the five essential elements of the programme knowledge, concepts, skills, attitudes and action informs planning, teaching and assessing language at Fountainhead School.

Approaches to teaching and learning in the PYP:

Fountainhead School endeavours to make students proficient and fluent in usage of all forms of English language by the end of the PYP years, by:

• promoting integrated language development
• using language as a transdisciplinary element throughout the curriculum

• using a literature-based approach to learning language

• encouraging appropriate cooperative discussion in the classroom

• encouraging reading for meaning

• using differentiated reading engagements selected according to interest level, readiness, proficiency.

• using a variety of scaffolded learning experiences with the teacher providing strategies for the student to build on his or her own learning

• viewing writing as a process

• teaching students to read and research using multimedia resources

• using language for creative problem solving and information processing

• using a range of appropriate assessment methods such as portfolios, conferencing, writing sample analysis, response journals.

The school has developed a language scope and sequence document for the primary years. This document is a work in progress and we intend to align it with the the PYP Language scope and sequence document.

Language in the Middle years

In the middle years, it is acknowledged that with more specialized and complex areas of knowledge, literacy skills also need to be built further. Therefore, students continue to build on the language skills acquired in the PYP.

Also, English being the preferred language to access the Diploma Programme, there is a conscious attempt to develop English as the best language of the student, develop greater proficiency in it through sustained language learning and achieve their full linguistic potential in the same.

The school continues to offer Hindi as an additional subject in the Middle years. The school also offers French in the middle years as an alternative to Hindi. In addition to the approaches to teaching and learning in the Primary years, approaches to teaching and learning in the middle years include but are not limited to:

• Exposure to quality literature across a variety of periods, cultures and genres.
• Inquire into, analyse and reflect upon a variety of literary and non literary works.
• Using ICT to explore, respond to and critique language
• Use and interpret language in a variety of contexts including real life situations.

Language in the Diploma Programme

Students entering in the Diploma Programme from Fountainhead School are expected to have English as their best language as a result of sustained instruction in English over the primary years and the middle years. Thus, English is established as their preferred language, Language A, through which they access the curriculum.

Group 1:

Fountainhead School has mandated English language and literature (HL and SL) as Group 1 choice. The choice between HL and SL for each student will be made on the basis of candidate’s preference and school recommendation.

Group 2:

Hindi being the host country language is strongly recommended to students as a group 2 course selection in Grades 11 and 12. The school recommends that all students who have had 4-5 years of experience in learning Hindi study HL / SL as per the student profile.

French ab initio is the other subject the school offers as a Group 2 subject choice.

The school may consider offering Spanish ab initio and Mandarin ab initio through Pamoja Education for students who may be interested in studying these languages.

Provision for students who do not have English as their best language for the Diploma programme:

If there is a candidate who is not proficient in English seeking admission to the Diploma programme, the school will recommend hiring a shadow teacher/ interpreter who is comfortable with the best language of such a student. The student can choose a group 1 language as per his best language and the school will offer it as a school supported, self taught subject choice.

Mother tongue programme at Fountainhead School

Fountainhead School recognizes that mother tongue is an integral part of an individual’s identity and it is important to affirm, value and promote students mother tongues. It also recognizes the need for developing and maintaining students mother tongues. This belief encourages the attributes identified in the IB learner profile, as well as promotes responsible action and international-mindedness.

The school has students of over 12 different mother tongues studying in the school. Hindi and Gujarati account for the mother tongue of more than 90% of our student population and the school teaches both these languages. The school is considering offering Hindi and Gujarati at two levels (beginner and standard level) to further enhance the strength of the mother tongue programme.

The school recognizes that multilingualism is an essential aspect of the typical classroom at Fountainhead. Teachers are encouraged to use this in the best way possible without undermining the importance of development of English as a lingua franca*.

The school views all teachers in the school throughout all programmes as language teachers. It is acknowledged that some teachers are more proficient in their mother tongue than in the language of instruction in the school. The school takes responsibility for ensuring that such teachers are appropriately trained to teach in the language of instruction.

Further, they are encouraged to use their mother tongue in interaction with students where there is a wealth of relevant background knowledge encoded in their (the teacher’s) mother tongue.

The mother tongue programme plays an important role in developing and affirming the student’s personality and identity.

Adhering to the belief that when a language one uses in daily communication is denigrated, a part of him or her is also being denigrated, there are no discipline procedures that impact on student or teacher use of their mother tongues in classes. However, there is a danger of using the mother tongue as a crutch while expressing and in the process, suppressing the development of English language fluency. Therefore, the guideline for use of mother tongue in the classroom is that it should be used as a support language – interlingual translation should be used wherever the teacher feels the need and sees value in its use. An example of this could be: activating prior knowledge of students, recording anecdotes of students in Early years verbatim, exploring cultural beliefs and values etc.

Whole school strategies for developing mother tongue:

• The school library has bilingual books as well a variety of books and periodicals in Hindi, Gujarati and other regional languages of India. Students are encouraged to issue books from library on a regular basis.
• Fountainhead School conducts a Hindi Mela and a Gujarati Mela which are week- long celebrations of the richness of these languages. A variety of games, quizzes, skits etc are organised in the school in this week.
• The school also has presentations in the school assembly on various regional languages of India. These presentations showcase the richness and culture of the language through music, dance etc.The linguistic diversity of the school community is a rich resource for the mother tongue programme and the school makes active use of it in such opportunities.
• The parent community is also actively advised to develop and maintain the mother tongue of their child and encouraged to view English as an additive and not a subtractive language.

Role of the library at Fountainhead School

The library is central to the language programme at Fountainhead School. The library provides a learning space and an environment to promote love for reading, books as well as a place for research.

The library is resourced with fiction, non-fiction, picture books, chapter books, board books, pop-up-books, big books, multicultural books, world classics, autobiographies, multilingual books, reference books, encyclopaedias and media that are accessible to all students and staff. The school sees the library as a valuable resource to promote the international mindedness aspect of the IB programmes.

The library is also seen as a place which makes a strong statement that all languages are celebrated and supported. The library has a collection of bilingual books, books in regional languages of India and the school continues to add to to this collection.

The library also provides resources for collaborative planning, researching and teacher professional development. Our school board is aware of our need to expand these resources and there are plans to continually add the same.

The school is in the process of developing an information literacy and media literacy curriculum that will support the language curriculum of the school and help develop research skills in students.

At the PYP level, there is a library period every week. Teachers can also conduct classes in the library with prior information. The librarian teacher as well as homeroom teachers conduct book discussions, read aloud, help conduct research and help students browse and pick up books. In addition to using the school library, every class also has a class library.

At the middle years and the Diploma programme level, teachers and students use the library for conducting classes, working individually or in groups, researching etc.

The library team also conducts various events through the year like author week, poetry month, celebrating an author’s birthday etc to promote reading as a school culture.

Additional English Language Support (AELS) at Fountainhead School

As stated earlier, almost all students at Fountainhead School are second language learners of English. The school recognizes that learning a second language is a developmental process that occurs over time. Hence, the school does not have an ESL or an EAL programme for students. Instead, from Early years onwards, a lot of focus is laid on understanding English through listening and speaking exercises. In this context, the school is in the process of developing a listening and speaking curriculum for primary years.

However, there are some students who meet 1 or more than 1 of the following conditions:

1. Are first generation learners of English
2. Have zero support for English language learning at home
3. Come from schools where the language of instruction is not English.
4. Are admitted in Fountainhead School at a higher grade and have poor foundation skills in English.

These students require additional support to enable them to access the school curriculum in a manner that allows them to reach their full potential.

The school has designed an AELS program for such students. The programme is a combination of classroom support and pull out programme of intensive English for a stipulated time period. The process of shortlisting a student for AELS involves a series of steps like informal screening, observations, feedback given by the previous grade’s teacher, assessment reports of previous year/ previous school, feedback about student’s home environment etc.

As of now, the AELS programme is only at the PYP level. The school may explore options of extending it to the Middle years and the Diploma programme if a need for the same is felt.

Process of development of the whole school Language Policy

The current policy has been written in October 2013. The pre-work for this policy started in April 2013. A language policy steering committee was formed which included the academic leadership team (Head of School, Primary School Principal, PYP Coordinator, Assistant PYP Coordinator, Middle years Coordinator, DP Coordinator designate and Teacher librarian) and the grade level coordinators (also known as Team leaders in Fountainhead School).

The following key steps have been undertaken in the development of this policy:

1. Brainstorming with the school community about their beliefs regarding language learning including collecting data via questionnaires and focused discussions.(Appendix D gives a list of the questions used in this exercise)

2. Study of literature related to language and language learning.

3. Construction of language profile of student community by collecting data from parent community.

4. Preparation of 1st draft of the policy.

5. Presentation of draft to the Academic leadership team.

5.Incorporating changes and finalizing the Language Policy.

6. Publishing the language policy to all stakeholders.

Language Policy Revision

The language policy will be reviewed after a period of 3 years. (Next review: October 2016). The review committee will be led by a member of the academic leadership team and will include librarians, teachers, students and parents of the school. The review committee will make sure that any revision to the policy is coherent with the beliefs and values of the IBO, the school’s philosophy towards language and language teaching, changes in student and community demographics or other circumstances which justify the need for revision.

Works Consulted

• Fox, Mem. Radical Reflections: Passionate Opinions on Teaching, Learning, and Living. San Diego: Harcourt Brace &, 1993. Print.

• Fox, Mem. Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever. New York: Harcourt, 2001. Print.

• Halliday, M 1980. Language of Early childhood. Three aspects of children’s language development. Ch 14.

• Guidelines for developing a school language policy, Language and learning in IB programmes, 2011, ©International Baccalaureate Organization.

• Language Scope and sequence, International Baccalaureate Organization 2003

• Language scope and sequence, International Baccalaureate Organization 2009

• Language and learning in the IB programmes, International Baccalaureate Organization. September 2011

• Learning in a language other than mother tongue in IB programmes. International Baccalaureate Organization, April 2008

• Lindfors, Judith Wells. Children’s Inquiry: Using Language to Make Sense of the World. New York: Teachers College, 1999. Print.

• Making the PYP Happen, International Baccalaureate Organization 2009

• Short, Kathy Gnagey. Literature as a Way of Knowing. York, Me.: Stenhouse, 1997. Print.

• Short Kathy Gnaney.Theory Into Practice, The Search for Balance in a Literature- Rich Curriculum. Volume 38. Number3. Ohio State University.1999. Print.

• Sridhar, Manaswini. “Thinking about Language.” Editorial. Teacher Plus May 2012: 4-5. Print.

• Syal, Pushpinder. “Interview of M.L. Tickoo.” Language and Language Learning 1.1 (2012): 60-64. Print.

• Tooms, Autumn K., Nancy Padak, and Timothy V. Rasinski. The Principal’s Essential Guide to Literacy in the the Elementary School. New York: Scholastic, 2007. Print.

• Wells, John. “International education, values and attitudes: A critical analysis of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Learner Profile.” Journal of Research in International Education 10.2 (2011): 174-188.

Appendices

Appendix A: Language profile of students at Fountainhead School- Questionnaire

Language Profile of students at Fountainhead School, Surat – The purpose of this form is to build a language profile of the student community at Fountainhead School.Please take 2 minutes to fill up this form.

 

Q1 – What is the language spoken at your home? (Choose only 1)(This will normally be the mother tongue or the native language, which the child also knows or is learning. For homes where more than 1 language is spoken frequently, choose the one which is the preferred language of communication by the family members.)
Hindi [ ]	Gujarati [ ]	Marathi [ ]	Marwari [ ]	Sindhi [ ]	English [ ]	Punjabi [ ]
Bengali [ ]	Malayalam [ ]	Telugu [ ]	Tulu [ ]	Tamil [ ]	Kannad [ ]	Others:

 

Q2 – Which other languages does your child know reasonably well? (You can choose more than 1)Please choose the languages which your child can understand and speak with some proficiency
Hindi [ ]	Gujarati [ ]	Marathi [ ]	Marwari [ ]	Sindhi [ ]	English [ ]	Punjabi [ ]
Bengali [ ]	Malayalam [ ]	Telugu [ ]	Tulu [ ]	Tamil [ ]	Kannad [ ]	Others:

Q3 – Is your child a first generation learner of English?Please answer yes if one or both parents have studied in a language other than English and are not very proficient in English.
Yes [ ]	No [ ]

Q4 – Which is the language that you want your child to learn at school the most?(Choose only 1)
English [ ]	Hindi [ ]	Gujarati [ ]	Others:

Why?

Q5 – What is your preferred language for communicating with the school?
English [ ]	Hindi [ ]	Gujarati [ ]	Others:

Q6 – Did your family (your parents or grandparents) speak some other language (in the past/ few decades ago) but over a period of time, this language has been replaced by another language?

[ ] Yes. If Yes, which language has been replaced/ lost over a period of time –

[ ] No

Appendix B: Language profile of students at Fountainhead School- Survey Results

Q:1 What is your child’s native language/ mother tongue/ language spoken at home?

Bengali	2
English	19
Gujarati	293
Hindi	361
Hindi, Marwari	1
Katchhi	1
Malayalam	1
Marathi	2
Marwari	13
Punjabi	2
Sindhi	4
Tamil	4
Telugu	1

Q2: Is your child a first generation learner of English?

No	491
Yes	213

Q3: In what language do you prefer that your child studies in?

English- 100%

Appendix C: Pathways of language at Fountainhead School

Grades and Programmes	Language of instruction and learning/ Language A	Language B/Language acquisition	3rd language
PYP (Nursery to Grade 6)	English	Hindi	Gujarati
Grade 7 and Grade 8	English	Hindi/ French *
CIE Grade 9 and Grade 10	English	Hindi
IBDP Grade 11 and Grade 12	English	Hindi #/ French ab initio/ Spanish ab initio**/ Mandarin ab initio**

* indicates tentative

# Hindi being the host country language is strongly recommended to students as a group 2 course selection in Grades 11 and 12. Hindi will be offered at both SL and HL levels (subject to approval from IBO)

** The school is considering offering Spanish ab initio and Mandarin ab initio through Pamoja Education) for students who may be interested in studying these languages.

Appendix D: Questions used as provocations with school community

Section 1: Who should teach English and when?

• Is teaching of English language the responsibility of all teachers at school or some teachers – HRTs, language teachers?
• Are all teachers capable of teaching English correctly? If not what are the implications on their teaching the language?
• Should English be used in all classes or in selected ones?
• If English were used consistently in the homeroom, starting from the Early Years, would it ensure a decent level of learning?
• Would subjects such as Math & UOI suffer if interlingual translation isn’t allowed?
• In Arts & PE, should language of exchange be enforced as English?
• Do all Single Subject Teachers (SST’s) have to be English language teachers? Or can they choose to be? For those who don’t choose to be, how should we view them? What about MY SSTs – since they are all SSTs there?
• How much impact does a SST speaking in English have in the language acquisition process (EY/PY/MY)? If they don’t speak English very well, what could be possible impact on students?
• Should one to one conversations also be in English between teachers & students? Should the counselor also talk only in English and listen to students only if it is English?

Section 2: Who should speak in English?

• Should teachers be expected to talk to each other at all times in English only?
• Should students be expected to talk to each other at all times in English only?
• Why should casual conversations also be in English?
• If casual conversations are in English then wouldn’t it have a deleterious effect on the language being used inside the classroom?
• Are we taking away their “mother tongues” from them?
• Does it help us to continue to speak in English in the hope that it will improve, unless it is corrected, unless we read / listen to good English?

Section 3: How should be improve English language levels of students & adults?

• Should we correct the English errors made by children then and there?
• Should we correct the English errors made by adults then and there?
• Should children be empowered to correct teachers’ English if they are wrong?
• How about language enhancement sessions? How about taking up one aspect of language learning in every assembly, every public meeting, putting up tons of posters and messages?
• Should the school be able to accommodate students who don’t have English / Hindi / Gujarati backgrounds?

Section 4: Our explicit / implicit attitudes towards languages other than English

• Should we view students / teachers / parents coming from Hindi / Gujarati background as people who are less capable of learning than others?
• How can we make English an additive language rather than subtractive?
• How can we promote English without making it a burden? Without demeaning Hindi / Gujarati / other mother-tongues?

Section 5: Teaching and learning of English language for those who aren’t fluent in it.

• What strategies and support systems do we have to be able to cater to such students (and adults – to the extent necessary)?
• What do we know from research and experience about children’s capability of picking up a new language? How much time would it take them if they were getting the right exposure at school alone?
• For children with no exposure at home, should we have the same expectations or a different programme?
• Why are we so focused as a school and as a society on writing and reading even before children can start speaking good English?

Section 6: Official preference and support for languages.

• How do we define the Language of instruction, the preferred language and the Mother tongue?
• What importance should we be giving to the Mother-tongue?

Back

ASSESSMENT POLICY

Philosophy of Assessment

To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now, so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.

Stephen R. Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Assessment is an integral part of teaching and learning process. Assessment policy informs the importance of assessments to all the stakeholders involved. Being an inclusive school which aims to cater to the individual needs of the students, it becomes important to have a comprehensive assessment policy which is inline with IB assessment philosophy and requirements.

We need to move away from the concept of assessment as judgement & competition or as a way to obtain grades. We need to move towards a vision of assessment as reflection that can improve classroom instruction.

Applies to To entire teaching staff at Fountainhead School

Learner Profile Knowledgeable, Thinkers , Reflective

Values guiding the policy Learner, Fairness

Purpose of Assessment

Assessment is an integral part of teaching and learning process.To ensure the effectiveness of students educational experience, it is important that varied assessment techniques be used at regular intervals. Fountainhead school has defined the following objectives for assessment:

1. To provide quality feedback to students so as to ensure growth in learning of students.
2. To effectively guide students through the five essential elements of learning: the acquisition of knowledge, the understanding of concepts, the mastering of skills, the development of attitudes and the decision to take action..
3. To provide feedback to parents regarding students progress through grades.
4. To ensure that the assessment process is aligned with IB assessment objectives.
5. To ensure that the assessment process is reliable and trustworthy.
6. To ensure that everyone concerned with assessment, including students, teachers, parents and administrators, have a clear understanding of the reason for the assessment, what is being assessed, the criteria for success, and the method by which the assessment is done.

Connection with School’s Mission Statement:

Fountainhead Student Mission Statement:

To Nurture leaders through Primary Greatness

Primary greatness is the greatness that each individual can attain by achieving both competence and character.To become leaders, students are expected to take responsibility of their own lives, learn to work more effectively with others and to do the right thing even when no one’s watching. This is how we define leaders. Not everyone may want to or can become business or political leaders or leaders in sports or arts, but becoming a leader as defined above is the kind of leader that everyone can become.

When we say that one of the purpose of the assessments is to effectively guide students through the five essential elements of learning: the acquisition of knowledge, the understanding of concepts, the mastering of skills, the development of attitudes and the decision to take action & also to develop internationally minded people, we thereby nurture students to develop competence and character leading to Primary greatness.

Connection with the other policies: The assessment policy should be read in conjunction with the schools language policy, admission policy, ICT policy and Special Needs Policy.

Learner Profile – Knowledgeable, Thinkers , Reflective

Assessment at Fountainhead School

The assessment component in the schools curriculum is divided into three closely related areas:

• Assessing
• Recording
• Reporting

All about Assessing:

Why do we assess

The prime objective of assessing students learning and performance is to give feedback to:

• Students:

-to encourage the start of lifelong learning

-to identify strengths and areas of improvement for each student

-to provide regular opportunities for students to reflect on their own learning

• Teachers:

-to support their reflection on what to teach and how to teach

-to instruct and guide teaching and learning in the classroom

• Parents:

-to highlight their childs learning and development

-to show students progress over time & support them in their learning

What do we Assess

1. The five essential elements of the PYP :

• Understanding of concepts (big ideas that transcend traditional subject areas)
• Acquisition of knowledge
• Mastering of skills
• Development of attitudes
• Decision to take action

1. Demonstration of the Learner Profile attributes
2. Student progress and performance in the following subject areas:

• Languages: ( English, Hindi, Gujarati)
• Mathematics, Social Studies, Science,Personal, social and physical education
• Arts: Visual Arts, Performing arts ( Music, Dance & Drama)

1. Work habits & Behaviour

When do we Assess

Student learning is promoted through planning and refining the teaching & learning process to meet the individual or group needs. Assessing students prior knowledge, their experiences during the teaching period enables the teachers to plan & refine their teaching accordingly.

We at Fountainhead School assess the students on the following :

Pre-Assessment

Following the constructivist approach of teaching, teachers assess students prior knowledge and experience before embarking on new learning experiences.

Pre- assessments are conducted;

• at the beginning of a new academic year to assess their Literacy & Numeracy skills, which provides feedback of all the students to their teacher.
• at the beginning of any new topics under different disciplines ( refer, What do we assess, record & report)
• Prospective students interested in enrolling in Fountainhead School also give a pre-assessment test to inform the school about their learning stage.

Formative Assessment

Formative assessment is interwoven with the daily teaching and helps teachers and students find out what the children already know in order to plan the next stage of learning. Formative assessment serves as a feedback to teachers about the learning process. Formative assessment occurs throughout a learning unit or process.

Summative Assessment

Summative assessment takes place at the end of the unit of inquiry or the process. It gives the students opportunities to demonstrate what has been learned. Even giving opportunity to the teachers and parents to evaluate progress over a period of time. The summative assessment can assess several elements of, What do we assess simultaneously. It is a formal ending point to a taught unit or of a process, but not necessarily the end of student’s learning in the areas being assessed.

Authentic Assessments:

An assessment requires students to use the same competencies, or combinations of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, that they need to apply in the criterion situation in professional life or real life situation.

These dimensions can vary in their level of authenticity (i.e., they are continuums). It is a misconception to think that something is either authentic or not authentic (Cronin, 1993; Newmann & Wehlage, 1993), because the degree of authenticity is not solely a characteristic of the assessment chosen; it needs to be defined in relation to the criterion situation derived from professional practice. (Refer Appendix 1)

Five dimensions of authentic assessments are:

(a) the assessment task

An authentic task is a task that resembles the criterion task with respect to the integration of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, its complexity, and its ownership. Furthermore, the users of the assessment task should perceive the task, including above elements, as representative, relevant, and meaningful.

(b) the physical context

The setting in which the assessment takes place needs to be as authentic as in real life.The physical context also includes the time authenticity of the resources as well as the time taken in real life to solve the problem.

(c) the social context

If the real situation demands collaboration, the assessment should also involve collaboration, but if the situation is normally handled individually, the assessment should be individual. When the assessment requires collaboration, processes such as social interaction, positive interdependence and individual accountability need to be taken into account (Slavin, 1989).

(d) the assessment result or form

The assessment result is related to the kind and amount of output of the assessment task, independent of the content of the assessment. In the framework, an authentic result or form is characterized by four elements. It should be a,

• Quality product or performance that students can be asked to produce in real life (Wiggins, 1989).
• This product or performance should be a demonstration that permits making valid inferences about the underlying competencies (Darling-Hammond & Snyder, 2000).

• Since the demonstration of relevant competencies is often not possible in one single test, an authentic assessment should involve a full array of tasks and multiple indicators of learning in order to come to fair conclusions (Darling- Hammond & Snyder, 2000).
• Finally, students should present their work to other people, either orally or in written form, because it is important that they defend their work to ensure that their apparent mastery is genuine (Wiggins, 1989).

(e) the assessment criteria

Setting criteria and making them explicit and transparent to learners before- hand is important in authentic assessment, because this guides learning (Sluijsmans, 2002) and, after all, in real life, employees usually know on what criteria their performances will be judged.

Assessment criteria can also be based on the above 4 dimensions of the framework. For example, if the physical context determines that an authentic assessment of a competency requires five hours, a criterion should be that students need to produce the assessment result within five hours.

All about Recording

What do we record:

Assessment at Fountainhead School is designed by teachers to incorporate a variety of methods/strategies which are relevant and motivating for the students. It is essential that they be seen as a package since they have been selected in order to provide a range of approaches and therefore to provide a balanced view of the student.

Assessment strategies

Observations

All students are observed often and regularly, with the teacher taking a focus varying from wide angle (E.g. focusing on the whole class) to close up ( focusing on one student or one activity), and from not being a non participant ( outside the group) to being a participant ( within the group)

Performance Based Assessments:

Performance based Assessment provides authentic and significant challenges and problems. In these tasks, there are numerous approaches to the problem and rarely only one correct response. They are usually multimodal and require the use of many skills. Audio, video and narrative records are often useful for this kind of assessment. In broad terms, there are three types of performance-based assessments: performances, portfolios, and projects.

Some examples of performance based assessments are;

• Demonstrations ( Science,sports, dance etc)
• Role plays
• Designing & conducting experiments
• Expos- Exhibiting work to others
• Community action
• Story illustrations
• Model construction
• Oral reports

Process-Focused Assessment

Students are observed often and regularly, and the observations are recorded by noting the behaviours, collecting multiple observations to enhance reliability, and synthesizing evidence from different contexts to increase validity. A system of note taking and record keeping is created that minimizes writing and recording time. Checklists, inventories and narrative descriptions (such as learning logs) are common methods of collecting observations.

Some examples of process focused assessments are;

• Reflection Journals
• Graphic organizers after different learning engagements

Open-ended tasks:

These are situations in which children are asked to communicate an original response to a given stimulus. The answer might be a brief written answer, a drawing, a diagram or a solution.

Some examples of open ended tasks are;

• Class charts
• Model constructions
• Photographs & video presentations
• Illustrations, comic strips

Selected Response

Single occasion, one-dimensional exercises. Tests and quizzes are the most familiar examples of this form of assessment.

Some examples of selected response assessments are;

• Multiple choice tests
• Cloze passages
• Tests & quizzes like true-false, multiple choice & fill in the blanks

Constructed response assessments

Graphic organizers, mind-maps, templates, etc.

Some examples of constructed response assessments are;

• Data graphs
• Flow charts
• Concept maps
• Venn diagrams

In a particular grade, it is recommended that a variety and range of assessment strategies and methods are used.

How do we record:

The previously identified Assessment strategies are put into practice using the following assessment tools to report to the parents:

• Checklists- These are lists of information, data, attributes or elements that should be present.
• Exemplars- Samples of students work that serve as concrete standards against which other samples are judged.
• Rubrics- An established set of criteria for rating students in all areas. The descriptors tell the assessor what characteristics or signs to look for in students work and then how to rate that work on a predetermined scale.
• Anecdotal records- Brief written notes based on observations of students.
• Continuum’s- These are visual representations of developmental stages of learning. They show a progression of achievement or identify where a student is in a process.

All about Reporting

Reporting on assessment is about communicating what students know, understand and can do. Reporting may take many forms including conferences and written reports. Effective reporting should:

• involve parents, students and teachers as partners
• reflect what the school community values
• be comprehensive, honest, fair and credible
• be clear and understandable to all the parties

When do we report

Fountainhead school has 4 parent teacher conferences in a year to inform parents about the progress of each student. These conferences are 20 minutes face to face conference amongst the homeroom teacher, the student and the parents. These conferences take place in the following forms:

Goal setting conference

A three way goal setting conference at the beginning of each academic year where the parent, the student and the homeroom teacher confer to understand expectations and set broad goals for the student. The student, parents and the teacher collaborate to establish SMART goals, identifying students strengths and areas of improvement which are reviewed in the later conferences. From Grade 1 onward, students are also involved in the goal setting process.

Three-way parent teacher conference

These are thrice in a year for Early years and Primary years and twice in a year for senior years. These conferences are in a formal setting where students discuss their learning & understanding with their teachers and parents.

Student-led conference

A student-led conference is held twice in a year. Here the students are responsible for leading the conference and also take the responsibility of their learning by sharing the process with their parents. During a Student-led conference, the teacher ensures that;

• The students follow the road map for the SLC

• The students discuss and reflect upon the samples of work they have previously chosen to share with their parents. These samples can be part of the Portfolio or Gallery walk
• The teacher helps the students out whenever they need prompting
• Hear the conversation between the parents and students
• The teacher writes anecdotes on students performance and their contribution

Guidelines for SLC (Student Led conference)

We have designed a set of checklist and guidelines for the SLC from the point of students, parents & teachers.

• The checklist for teachers-SLC (Refer Appendix 2) gives detail about the preparation a teacher needs to ensure before the conference.
• From the students perspective, this checklist (Refer Appendix 3) will help them to be prepared for the Student Led Conference
• There are certain guidelines (Refer Appendix 4) for parents which gives them the idea of the SLC & also guides them about their role as parents.

Apart from the above conferences, we do have the following:

Teacher-Student conference:

• Assessment without feedback is merely judgement; feedback is the component of assessment that let us interpret the judgement and improve our work (Making the PYP Happen; A curriculum framework for international primary education)
• According to C4.4 the school provides students with feedback to inform and improve their learning (Programmes Standards and Practises 2011)

Based on the above two references, the student-teacher conferences are designed to give students feedback so they can reflect on their work and further refine and develop their skills. These conferences happen frequently in an informal setting usually in the classrooms.

Open house (Optional for the parents)

At Fountainhead School, we have open house days. These are scheduled thrice a year. Following are the highlights of the Open house day:

• These days are designed to give parents information about the students development needs, behaviour, progress, work habits in an informal setting.
• It is optional for the parents to attend these meetings and if the parents want to meet the teacher they have to take a prior appointment from the teacher.
• In some cases, the parents can fix an appointment with the teacher in advance whereas in some cases the teacher calls the parents of student/s with whom she wants to discuss about the students needs and progress.
• Such meetings provides opportunities to the teachers to gather the background information, to answer parent’s questions, to address their concerns and help to define their role in the learning process.

Written reports:

Written reports include the summative records of the students, to be reported to the parents. Reports clearly indicate the areas of strengths, areas for improvement, participation and overall progress of the student in the school.

Guidelines followed by Fountainhead School for reporting:

• The report is given as a hard copy to the parents. In future we plan to send the e-reports to the parents.
• Following is the frequency of the reporting cycle for different disciplines:

Transdisciplinary units & subject specific teaching ,all essential elements, Learner Profile attributes	Thrice in an academic year
Mathematics	Thrice in an academic year
Language ( Hindi, Gujarati)	Twice in an academic year
PSPE	Thrice in an academic year
Work habits, Attendance	Thrice in an academic year
Arts(Music, Dance, Drama, Visual Arts)	Twice in an academic year

Essential agreements in case of reporting:

• The written report for any assessment taken ( Math, Language, Unit of Inquiry etc) should be prepared within a week’s time after the assessment is taken.
• The assessment reports of each term should be sent to the parents a day before the Parent teacher conference or Student led Conference( PTC/SLC) so that they can go through it in detail.
• The sequence in which the assessments of different disciplines should be compiled is Unit of Inquiry 1, Unit of Inquiry 2, Language, Maths, PSPE, Arts ( Music, Visual arts, Dance, Drama), Languages ( Hindi & Gujarati) Overall comments, work habits and attendance.

Portfolios :

A portfolio is a collection of student work and other assessment records that provides a broad picture of a student’s progress over time. Schools has a responsibility to show evidence of student learning. A portfolio is a work in progress and not a product.

Portfolios are effective in following ways:

• A portfolio is a record of students involvement in learning which is designed to demonstrate success, growth, higher-order thinking, creativity, assessment strategies and reflection. A portfolio is a celebration of an active mind at work.
• It provides a picture of each student’s progress and development over a period of time both as individual and group learners.
• It enables students to reflect with teachers, parents and peers in order to identify their strengths and growth as well as areas for improvement, and then to set individual goals and establish teaching and learning plans.
• Evidence of learning in a portfolio are from a range of experiences and curriculum areas. The portfolio is used to show the development of knowledge, conceptual understanding, transdisciplinary skills, attitudes and the attributes of the learner profile over a period of time. It may also be used to document student action.
• Portfolio entries document both the process of learning and the product, including images and evidence of students in the process of constructing meaning.
• Portfolios are often used as a means of reporting to caregivers and/or used as a part of the three way conference approach.
• Students are involved in the selection and annotation of their work samples, which encourages ownership of and the responsibility for learning.
• Portfolios allow for a more individual, differentiated approach to assessment -no two portfolios look the same.
• There is no need for a fixed structure, so portfolios are more flexible than traditional reports.

Essential agreements for the use of a portfolio:

• Every student has a portfolio.
• Portfolios are kept in the homeroom.
• Portfolios are shown to parents during PTC but can be taken home only at the end of the year.
• The reports show the level of achievement reached.The portfolios show the journey towards those levels of attainment.
• Teachers should help students learn, how to thoughtfully choose which items to include/keep in their portfolios and provide students opportunities to thoughtfully remove items also.
• Portfolios should be easily accessible to students. Students should understand the purpose of portfolios, the process used to compile them, and be able to explain why specific materials are there in their portfolios.

A portfolio can include:

• Introductory cover page. (Name, Grade, section & year) This page can be made creatively with child’s inputs.

• Content list or checklist of the items
• Goal sheet with the action plan
• Work samples from the beginning, during and end of a sequence of learning to show development
• Work samples of students in the form of writing pieces, photographic evidences of individual & group work, models.
• Students reflection on two or more of the attitudes and attributes of the Learner Profile from each term
• Certificates & awards
• Social & personal learning profiles (Multiple intelligences survey, Learner profile attributes and attitudes)
• Work samples from specialist areas
• Student’s self and peer assessment sheets, reflective statement rubrics, checklists sheets to support work samples.
• Parent reflections/ comments/ feedback
• Portfolio tags to help student’s reflection or explain certain pieces
• The work pieces selected need not be the best piece of the child, but pieces that show his prior knowledge & progress can also be a part of the portfolio
• Student chosen pieces are accompanied by a student reflection / self-assessment page
• Teacher chosen pieces are accompanied by a teacher reflection / assessment page.
• There are a range of assessment tools represented.
• Final drafts of writing process include first draft and edited versions ( Grades 3-6 only)
• All work is marked, dated, legibly signed and commented on. Full name of the teacher must be on the accompanying rubric or reflection sheet. This applies to both the Homeroom as well as the single subject teachers
• Written comments are addressed to the student. E.g. Julia, you have demonstrated…
• Work chosen will be neatly presented, legible and relevant
• Landmark moments of the student

Checklist of the contents to be included in the portfolio :

Each term the following process has to be followed for selection of pieces:

Discipline	Selection
Cover page	Once in the beginning of the Academic year
Checklist of all the items	Once in the beginning of the Academic year
Language Arts	1 student chosen piece and reflection, 1 teacher chosen piece and evaluation/reflection
Maths	1 student chosen piece and reflection, 1 teacher chosen piece and evaluation/reflection
Unit of inquiry	1 student chosen piece and reflection, 1 teacher chosen piece and evaluation/reflection
Languages: Hindi & Gujarati	1 student chosen piece and reflection, 1 teacher chosen piece and evaluation/reflection
Music	1 piece chosen either by the student or the teacher with reflection
Personal & Physical education	Student piece with reflection
Arts ( Visual arts, Dance & Drama)	1 piece chosen either by the student, commented by the student & signed by the teacher OR 1piece chosen either by the teacher, commented & signed by the teacher (P.S. – Choice should be given to the students to select the pieces)
Personal & Physical education	1 piece chosen either by the student, commented by the student & signed by the teacher OR 1 piece chosen either by the teacher, commented & signed by the teacher (P.S. – Choice should be given to the students to select the pieces)

Learner Profile

Student reflection, Teacher reflection

• Format & Types of Portfolio maintained at Fountainhead School:

At Fountainhead School, we have two types of the portfolios:

1. The grade level portfolio: The grade level portfolio represents the journey of a the student in a particular grade.This portfolio is in a form of a folder with numerous sheets. The students enter the pieces of the particular grade he/she is in, over the period of one year. At the end of a particular grade, the students, in total select 10 pieces from the grade level portfolio, annotate them & add it in the PYP portfolio. After this process, the student is given this portfolio during the last Student Led Conference of that respective academic year.

1. The PYP portfolio: The PYP portfolio represents the entire journey of the student/s across the PYP years. This means that this portfolio moves with the students every year and is passed on to the next grade level teacher.This portfolio is also in a form a folder with multiple sheets. When the student leaves the school for whatsoever reasons, he/she gets to take this portfolio.

Both the portfolios are housed in the students classroom. They ultimately belong to the students.

1. The E-portfolio: Grade 6 has been using the e-portfolios to share their learning in the Unit of Inquiry, Math & Language.

The school is working on an action plan where in the future the portfolios will be digitized across grades.

The challenges of using portfolios:

Like all assessments and reporting, portfolios are not without their challenges and potential problems.Following are the DONT’s while preparing the portfolios:

1. Falling into the trap of doing it for the portfolio or selecting a piece/activities that would look good in a portfolio. A portfolio should reflect what has been done in a classroom, not determine what is done.
2. Preparing the portfolio towards the reporting time. If systems are not set up for collecting evidences , annotating records then the portfolio work becomes time consuming.
3. Keep on adding the pieces or activities which do not match with what is to be demonstrated.
4. Adding the pieces that do not have a description, are not annotated by the students and pieces that are not signed by the teacher.

The PYP Exhibition as a Summative Assessment

Purpose:

The Exhibition is the culminating experience for the IB Primary Years Program. It requires students to synthesize their prior knowledge and to apply it in a self-directed manner. The Exhibition provides an authentic summative assessment for the PYP years. The subject of the Exhibition is a student-selected, real-world problem which warrants an extended investigation. It is a celebration which unites students, teachers, and families in an activity which represents the essence of PYP.

The essential elements; Knowledge, Concepts, Attitudes, Transdisciplinary skills are embedded with the IB Student Profile. This is a great platform where they get to demonstrate all the above in a true sense.

The sixth grade Exhibition is undertaken by students in their final year of the PYP. The Exhibition represents a significant event in the life of our school, encapsulating the essence of the PYP and encouraging younger students to look forward to their final year of the program and their future participation in the community at large.

Essential Components:

• incorporates application of all key questions
• uses all transdisciplinary skills
• display of attitudes
• engaged in action plan
• application of all PYP theme
• involves self, peer, teacher & parent assessment.

Role of ICT in Assessments:

ICT in the PYP encompasses the use of a wide range of digital tools, media and learning environments for teaching, learning and assessing, The Role of ICT in the PYP.

We at Fountainhead School integrate ICT in the teaching and learning as well as assessment. Following are a few examples of ICT tools which we integrate in assessments:

Reflection: Today’s meet, padlet,

E-Portfolios:Weebly, Blogger, Google sites etc

Formative assessments: Online google forms, quizzes,

Summative assessments: Google slides, Powtoon, Prezi, Emaze etc.

Differentiated Assessments:

We at Fountainhead School strive to have differentiated assessments in the following ways:

• The Summative assessment of each unit of Inquiry involves differentiated assessment task which is added in the planner.
• The formative assessments are taken through various engagements like Learning centres/Exploration tables that involves activities planned according to different intelligences and learning styles.

Mandatory Assessments:

ASSET:

ASSET is a diagnostic test which actually helps students improve. Unlike regular tests which only try to find out how much a child knows (or has memorized), this test measures how well a student has understood concepts and gives detailed feedback on the same, to help him/her improve.

Role of a teacher in assessments:

At Fountainhead School following is the Role of a teacher in Assessments:

• Planner:

Teacher plans for quality assessment to occur. This requires careful thinking about:

• what we want students to understand and be able to do
• what tasks and contexts will help students to demonstrate their learning
• how will we record evidence of progress
• how will we involve students in making the decisions about their learning
• how will we use assessment data to improve learning

• Observer:

Teachers who have strong,learner-centred assessment in their classrooms are skilled observers.They take the time to carefully watch students at work, monitoring their behaviour, interactions with others and the way they approach tasks.

• Listener:

Listening to students is also critical for the teachers who engage in quality assessment.What students reveal through their dialogue with each other & with us can be an excellent source of assessment.

• Analyst:

Unfocused observation and random gathering of work samples can lead to poor judgements and misleading reporting. While assessing students learning, we use higher-level analytical thinking. The teachers keep the following in mind while analysing students work:

• Talk to students about their view on their learning
• Analyse student’s work in collaboration with the colleagues to help clarify and moderate your judgements.
• Look for evidence of the idea or skill that has developed over time.

• Reporter:

Our role in listening, observing and analysing students learning is only of value if it regularly informs our teaching and reporting. Reflection is an important tool that we follow at Fountainhead to inform the child about their progress.

• Supporter:

Learner-centered assessment cannot occur in a climate of fear and intimidation.The students will willingly involve themselves only if they feel they are supported in taking risks and admitting to what they find challenging.

• Strategist:

The teacher has strategist plans to cater to differentiated needs of the students, continually processing the information gathered from the students and using it to inform the next experience.

Assessment Review:

Procedure for review of this policy is as follows:

• The Assessment Policy is reviewed once in three years
• For the purpose of review, a copy of the last reviewed policy is shared with the the teaching community for their considerations & suggestions wherever required.
• The Academic leadership team is the core team for the review. Taking into consideration the suggestions given by the teaching staff the core team makes essential amendment that are further incorporated in the policy.
• The next review is scheduled in September 2017.

Works consulted:

• Guidelines for developing a school assessment policy in the Diploma Programme,

International Baccalaureate Organization 2010

• The Role of ICT in the PYP, International Baccalaureate Organization

• Making the PYP Happen, International Baccalaureate Organization 2009

• Murdoch Kath, Jeni Wilson. How to succeed with Learner-centred Assessment. Australia, Curriculum Corporation 2006. Print.

• W.Harlen, Sandra Johnson, A review of current thinking and practices in assessment in relation to the primary years programme. Europe. January 2014 @ International Baccalaureate Organization

• Continuum of International Education: The Principles of IB Assessment © International Baccalaureate Organization

• Judith T. M. Gulikers, Theo J. Bastiaens, Paul A. Kirschner, A Five-Dimensional Framework for Authentic Assessment, Educational Technology Research and Development, Vol. 52, No. 3 (2004), pp. 67-86, Print.

Appendices:

Appendix 1 : Five dimensional framework for Authentic assessments

Appendix 2 : Checklist for Teachers“ SLC

Sr No	Task	Ticks
1.	Displays
	Put up the central ideas, LOIs and key concepts of the units covered.(at least last 3 units, if possible then with evidence)
	Learner profile, attitudes
	Setting up the class for SLC“ table arrangement and displays.
	Prepare samples of students work to show evidence of growth and goal progress (portfolio).
	Choose 2-3 written pieces from each unit of inquiry
	Choose 2-3 math work
	Choose 1-2 Language work
	Choose 1-2 Single subject work
	Table of content
	Introduction and description of the student on the front page.
	Ask students to explain and reflect upon their choices
	I put this in my portfolio because
	I feel good about this piece because
	If I did this piece again, I would improve it by
	Goal setting
	Help students to review the old goals and help them to identify the evidence
	Behavioral and self analysis
	Review the list of the things students do well.
	Help them in pointing out the areas where they need to improve
	Provide opportunities for students to practice
	Model of the process- teacher to teacher
	Student to student / student to teacher
	During conference
	Hear the conversation between the parents and students
	Make anecdotes on students performance and their contribution.
	Help students out whenever they need probing.

Appendix 3 : Checklist for Students “ SLC “

Before the conference

Sr No	Task	Ticks
	Prepare Portfolio
	Choose 2-3 written pieces from each unit of inquiry
	Choose 2-3 Math work
	Choose 1-2 Language work
	Choose 1-2 Single subject work
	Table of content
	Introducing or describing you on the front page.
	Reasons for selecting each written piece
	I put this in my portfolio because
	I feel good about this piece because
	If I did this piece again, I would improve it by
	Goal setting
	Review the old goals set by you and show evidence for them
	Show evidence for the goals you had set in the previous goal setting meeting
	Behavioral and self analysis
	List things you do well behaviorally
	Point out areas you need to improve

During the conference

Sr No	Task	Ticks
	Introduction
	Introduce parents to teacher
	Find portfolio and lead parents to available area
	Discuss the purpose of Student Led Conference
2.	Portfolio Organizer
	Go over your introduction and content page
	Show examples of quality work
	Explain what makes it a quality work
	Tell what makes you especially proud
	Discuss what needs to be worked upon and what you can do to improve
	Explain, if needed why there are no samples of quality work
	Goals
	Discuss your previously set goals to the parents and show evidence
	Set new goals for the upcoming year with parents
	Behavioral Self Evaluation
	Show the list of things you do well
	Show the list of the areas where you still need to improve and discuss with your parents on the ways to improve
	PYP – UOI
	Show the parents around and tell them the central idea of the units covered
	Explain the lines of inquiry and the key concepts
	Visual art and music
	Perform any new technique you’ve learnt in music or art
	Teach your parent the new technique
	Self Evaluation
	Show parents question for which you have prepared answers
	Answer other questions parents have for you
	Hand parents Parent Conference Evaluation sheet to complete
	Fill your reflection sheet

Appendix 4 : Guidelines for Parents

Parent Guidelines for Student Led Conferences

The purpose of student-led conferences is to open the eyes of students to their own learning and to help them take personal responsibility for their progress. In the traditional parent-teacher conference, students are third parties to assessment, hearing about their progress through the grapevine of teachers and parents. Teachers and parents do play a vital role in assessment but students must also take an active role in this area to maximize their potential for success. In preparing for a Student Led Conference, students see how their strengths, weaknesses and behavior can affect them as learners, thus allowing them to take more responsibility for, and control over their achievement in school. Student-Led Conferences are an experience that can improve the communication patterns of both students and parents. In a Student-Led Conference, students learn how to reflect on their learning, evaluate their progress and communicate this information to their parents. Parents learn how to listen to their children, how to encourage growth and how to best help their child with specific problems.

1. The role of the child

Your child will be in charge of leading you through the student-led conference. It is important that you follow their lead as the timing of Student-Led Conferences is very exact. The children will have a roadmap to guide you through your conference. They will be responsible for telling you about his or her learning in each subject area.

2. The role of the parents

This is the most exciting part, you are not in charge! As soon as the student signs in at the classroom and picks up his or her roadmap from the classroom, the student becomes the teacher and you become the student! Please respect the timing of this presentation and save socializing for after the student-led conference! There is a lot for you to see and experience and we wouldn’t want you and your child to miss out on any part of this special day!

HINTS FOR PARENTS

A few hints to help you along the way of the conference:

• Express positive interest and anticipation about the upcoming conference.
• Be on time.
• Listen and respond to the student (not the teacher)
• Express pride in growth and progress.
• Ask questions (see below for samples)
• Be positive, offering to help in areas where improvement is needed.
• Recognize that students need to develop independence in communicating progress“ the teacher will be there to facilitate and answer specific questions but will not take charge of the conference.

POSSIBLE QUESTIONS TO ASK DURING THE CONFERENCE

• Can you explain this to me?
• How did you come up with this idea?
• How have you grown in this area?
• How can you improve in this area?
• How can we help you at home?
• What was important to you about this?
• If you could do this work over again, how would you change it?
• What future goals do you have as a student?

3. The role of the teachers

During your student-led conference, the teachers will be stationed in their classrooms. They will be there to support students during their conferences, and to share a few brief words with you at the end of the conference. This is really a chance for teachers, as well as parents, to see and hear how much the students have learned during the year!

4. What you will see and hear

Your first stop will be your childs classroom. You will need to sign in and pick up the roadmap for your Student-Led Conference. From this point, your child will be leading you through your conference. As appropriate for your child, you will learn about library, music, SEN, IT, Art and their classroom work! You will hear your child describe how he or she is doing in each area of study. You will also be viewing a portfolio of work during that particular year that will show you progress, strengths and challenges of your child. You may see lot of smileys in your child’s portfolio and hear many positive comments from the teacher!

 

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ASSESSMENT POLICY

Purposes of assessment at Fountainhead School

Assessment is an integral part of teaching and learning process. To ensure the effectiveness of students educational experience it is important that varied assessment techniques should be used at regular intervals. The following are the objectives for assessment which we at Fountainhead school would be targeting as part of IB global community.

1. To provide quality feedback to students so as to ensure growth in learning of students.
2. To prepare students so that they can meet assessment requirements of IGCSE & IBDP.
3. To provide quality feedback to teachers regarding learners stage in the learning process, level of knowledge acquired and the extent of skills development.
4. To provide feedback to parents regarding students progress through grades.
5. Ensuring that assessment is criterial related and not norm referenced.
6. Ensure that the assessment process is aligned with schools assessment objective.
7. Ensuring that the assessment process is reliable and trustworthy.

Continuous assessment as an indicator of effective assessment and assessment practice

To measure the knowledge, understanding, and skills attained by students, it is necessary that continuous assessment should form an integral part of the MY. The school provides ample opportunities for continuous assessment through varied assessments. The MY faculty at Fountainhead school will assess the student continuously over a period a time through his/her performance in group projects, activities, portfolios, or individual or group activities. For example the group project in Social Science & Individual activity in Mathematics etc. The students will be receiving feedback from teachers at regular intervals which will enable them to focus on their areas of improvement and consolidate on their strengths. Through continuous assessment the teachers will over a period of time ascertain the level of students progress and will be able to plan their teaching strategies so that effective learning takes place.

Assessment cycle

For the purpose of assessment, each academic year will be divided into two terms of four months each. The assessment cycle will comprise of :

Assessment Period	Weightage of Internal (Continuous) Assessment	Weightage of Summative Assessment
First Term	20%	80%
Second Term	20%	80%

Please refer Appendix 1 for details regarding assessment cycle for the academic year 2013-2014. The link for the same is :

https://docs.google.com/a/fountainheadschools.org/document/d/17yf2iP6yQrzg2QNNAN7ea5pWCbLNch77klOC7d0agqQ/edit#bookmark=id.cbyyfxym965d

Weightage system

For the purpose of calculation of overall grade for a student. The following weightage system will be applicable.

Weightage of Internals	Weightage of Term 1 Examination(Summative)	Weightage of Term 2 Examination(Summative)
20%	30%	50%

Marks from each component will be added to calculate the final grade. An illustration for the above calculation is given in Appendix 2.The link for the same is :

https://docs.google.com/a/fountainheadschools.org/document/d/17yf2iP6yQrzg2QNNAN7ea5pWCbLNch77klOC7d0agqQ/edit#bookmark=id.52fxzsgs1pbm

GRADE BOUNDARIES

Fountainhead school believes in a transparent and fair assessment system. To this end, the grade boundaries for individual subjects will be provided to the students beforehand. The reason for having separate grade boundaries for each subject is the varied level of difficulty of each subject. For example a subject from humanities (Social Science) cannot be judged at the same level that of Maths. Further the grade boundaries will be as per the IGCSE pattern with Grade starting from a maximum of A* to a minimum of G. After G Grade the student will be considered as U i.e., ungraded which is equivalent to the failing condition.

Recording & Reporting Format

At Fountainhead each subject teacher will be recording and storing the information regarding students performance on Google Drive. The students will not be given access to the drive. However student can inquire his/her marks. The teacher concerned is expected to provide the marks along with the details (how the marks has been calculated). Also we are in the process of developing our internal software for the purpose of recording the assessment. Each subject teacher will be recording students performance and converting the same on pre-declared grades to arrive at a particular grade.

Reporting Format

The performance of the student will be reported through report card. The report card will be divided in two sections.

• Self Appraisal

Under the self appraisal the student will be grading himself/herself on the basis of the following areas along with writing reflection on themselves. Students will be appraising themselves on a scale ranging from 1 to 4 displaying their unique qualities and skills attained as part of Fountainhead family.The student’s own reflection along with the grading will form part of MY report card (Self Assessment section)

Descriptor	Mark yourself on the continuum where 1 is the least and 4 is the highest	Your comments
I always meet deadlines	1 2 3 4 _________________________________
I collaborate with my team mates in group projects.	1 2 3 4
I pay attention and participate in classroom discussions	1 2 3 4 _________________________________
I take initiative in various tasks	1 2 3 4 _________________________________
I follow the routines and procedures	1 2 3 4 _________________________________
I understand the 7 Habits and implement the same	1 2 3 4 _________________________________
I do my homework regularly	1 2 3 4 _________________________________

• Teacher Assessment

The teacher assessment section will be further divided into two sections :

• HRT page
• Subject specific page

Recommendation regarding HRT Page : In addition to the comment on each individual student the HRT is recommended to assess student on the following criteria.

Format of HRT appraisal for each student

Students Name:	Roll No:
Class :

Midterm Attendance record from June to October :

Total Working Days
Present
Absent
Cumulative Attendance Percentage

General Comment:

 

Homeroom teacher’s sign:________	Parent’s Sign:____________
Fountainhead School

Recommendation regarding Subject specific page :

In addition to other relevant information regarding the child, the subject teacher is recommended to include in his/her comments on the subject page, the level of interest of the student in that particular subject and how to nurture the same. Further in each subject report card the grade boundary/range should be mentioned so as to enable student to understand the calculation of grade for that particular subject.

Format of Subject specific page for each student

Student’s Name:	Class:
Roll No. :	Subject: English
First term Grade accredited:

Grade Range:

A*	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	U
								Exam not given/fail

Subject Teacher Comments:

Teacher’s Name :	Parent’s Sign: __________________
Teacher’s Sign:_______________
Fountainhead School

Decision regarding promotion of student to the subsequent grade

The final decision regarding promotion of the student will be taken by HOS/Coordinator in consultation with the HRT and subject teachers. For promotion to the subsequent grade, the student may be told to reappear in a specific subject/group of subjects(however it is not mandatory in every case and promotion might be given by HOS/Coordinator in some specific case without the student appearing for retest), if the HRT and the subject teacher are of the view that the student can improve his/her performance(if given a second chance). The final decision regarding promotion/retest will be taken by the HOS and will be considered as final.

Process of conducting the examination

Reporting Cycle

The school reporting cycle will comprise of

Parent teacher conference :

To be held thrice in an academic year. It is there in the month of November (Current year), January (Next year), April (Next year).

Parent-teacher conferences are short (20 Minutes) one to one session between parent and teacher that are formally arranged by the school thrice in a year after school hours usually on Friday and Saturday.

The PTC’s are a valuable tool to help a parent and child’s teacher(s) work together for child’s success. This is a great opportunity for parents to ask questions and gather information that will help them to encourage their children to achieve success.

Common agenda points to discuss in PTC’s will include going through the important achievements, goals set, issues with academics or behaviour etc.

Source : http://goo.gl/0vEHXN

Book Club

As a school, we promote reading in a big way. To support this idea, we have started with Book Club for the Middle Years. These are the minimum number of books; students from all the grades are expected to read throughout the year.

Grades	Minimum
7	6 per year
8	8 per year
9	10 per year
10	10 per year

The Book club report has also been shared with the term 1 report card. Please note that the students will not be given their end of the year report cards, if they have not read the required number of books. Moreover, the teachers will not meet the parents during the PTC.

The student will not be allowed to attend classes in the next grade, unless he/she has read the required number of books.

In case of Grade 10, the IGCSE certificate will not be handed over to the students; unless the minimum number of books are read.

Policy for Retake Examinations

Objective: For students who value their education and aspire to achieve better grades, retake examinations will give them an opportunity to do so. Students can learn from their mistakes and strive to improve their scores.

This will also give a clear understanding to all the stakeholders (students, teachers and parents) to frame the future plan of action for each student.

Applicable to: All students from Grade 7 to 10

Values: Responsible and Excellence

For students of Grade 7 and 8.

Retake examination will be decided on the basis of the grades earned in the end of the year final examinations. This includes the homework bonus(5%) and Internal assessment weightage(20%)

Conditions for retake examinations:

Grade less than:D	Retake examination
U (failing condition)	Retake examination

For e.g. Student X gets a U in Math, and E in English, then he/she will have to retake the examination for both Math and English.

• The retake examinations will be held in the last week of May; the results of which will be declared in a weeks time. The dates for the retake examination will be given at the time of PTC.
• In case of failing condition or grades less than D in one or more subjects, it is mandatory for the parents and students to meet MYC when they come for PTC.
• The highest score out of the 2 examinations taken will be considered, and the final report card at the end of the year will be modified accordingly.
• The decision to promote/retain the student, to the next grade will be taken by HOS, based on his/her performance in the retake examination. Please note that the decision regarding retake examination or repeating the year will be taken on case to case basis.

For students in Grade 9

Retake examination will be decided on the basis of the grades earned in the end of the year final examinations. This includes the homework bonus(5%) and Internal assessment weightage(20%)

Conditions for retake examinations:

Grade less than C	Re-examination
U (failing condition)	Re-examination

For e.g. Student X gets U in Math, and E in English, then he/she will have to do retake examination for both Math and English.

• The retake examinations will be held in the last week of May; the results of which will be declared in a weeks time. The dates for the retake examination will be given at the time of PTC.
• It is mandatory for the parents and students to meet the MYC on the date of PTC, if there is a failing condition or grades in one or more than 1 subjects are less than C.
• The highest score out of the 2 examinations taken will be considered, and the final report card at the end of the year will be modified accordingly.
• If a student fails – gets U or gets less than C grade, he/she may choose to drop that subject altogether. In this case, retake examination does not hold true.
• This will help students to choose core/extended component wherever applicable, and it will also serve as a guideline for their career choices, based on their aptitude.
• The decision to promote/retain the student, to the next grade will be taken by HOS, based on his/her performance in the retake examination. Please note that the decision regarding retake examination or repeating the year will be taken on case to case basis.
• As per the guidelines by AIU – Association of Indian Universities; for admission to university courses in India, it is mandatory for students to get minimum 5 Cs including English. This means that if a student gets overall 5 Cs, but gets a grade less than C in English, then he/she has to re-appear for the English examinations and score minimum C grade.
• Hence we can decide the number of subjects the student needs to take retake examination through discussion and mutual agreement.

Grade 10

• As per the guidelines by AIU – Association of Indian Universities; for admission to university courses in India, it is mandatory for students to get minimum 5 Cs including English. AIU clearly mentions that 5Cs in IGCSEs including English are required. AIU will not issue equivalency certificate if English is not one of the subjects included in the 5Cs in IGCSE.

• However please note that all universities and colleges in India do not ask for an equivalency certificate issued by AIU. Most universities have an eligibility department that looks into such matters though some of them require that a student has passed a language subject in IGCSE.

To fulfil this criteria, we recommend students to appear for retake examinations after reviewing their IGCSE results.

Students and parents can take a call whether to go for retake examinations or not, based on their career choices.

The student can start with the diploma program, and simultaneously appear for retake examinations, if he/she does not score 5 C’s including English.

MY Report Card format:

For the format of MY report card please refer appendix 7.Please click on the link below:

https://docs.google.com/a/fountainheadschools.org/document/d/17yf2iP6yQrzg2QNNAN7ea5pWCbLNch77klOC7d0agqQ/edit#bookmark=id.i737u91v8znw

Exceptional Circumstances

SEN Students:

If the SEN candidate(Special educational needs) requires any extra concession for the examination then the SEN coordinator has to inform respective HRTs in writing or through mail at least four weeks prior to commencement of the examination. SEN coordinator should mention the name of the student, grade and the reason for concession in his/her application to HRT. After receiving the information the respective HRT will be informing the examination team, academic coordinator regarding the same. The level of concession differs from case to case and the decision of SEN coordinator will be considered as the final decision. Also, the grade boundaries will be moderated for SEN(Special educational needs) students. SEN coordinator and specific subject teacher will be responsible for moderation. The moderated grade boundaries will come into effect after the approval of the academic coordinator. No application whatsoever will be entertained directly from parents regarding examination concessions. Parents will be required to approach SEN coordinator for the same.

Absenteeism

For candidate who miss his/her examination due to reasons like sickness or any other event beyond his/her control, will be given an opportunity to appear for the retest. Incase if a student is absent, without prior information, for whatever reason, shall be marked absent and ungraded.The decision of the HOS regarding the action to be taken in case of such violation will be final and no further request whatsoever will be entertained in this regard.

Further, the parent of the candidate may request the school for the arrangement of retest one day prior or one day later to the date of that specific examination paper(missed by the student). If the school does not receive any such request within the aforesaid time period then no retest will be taken and the student will be awarded marks on the basis of his/her performance in the previous examination in that particular subject. The decision of HOS will be considered as final in such cases.

It is mandatory for the student to appear for the retest latest within three working days from the date of last examination. Please refer the below mentioned link to the example in Appendix 6 for clarification.

http://goo.gl/RHNP1e

However in extreme cases like accidents or any form of physical injury to the candidate where the student is unable to appear for the retest, then the school will award marks(extrapolate)on the basis of his previous examination performance(in that specific subject). Further, in case the student has missed the examination in multiple subjects then the same rules will apply as in case of single subject.

Also the school may or may not give the same paper for such retest. It is mandatory for the student to sign an undertaking before appearing for the retest that the student was having no access to the examination paper/s of that/those specific subject/s in which he/she has missed the examination/s and has not seen or heard about the content of the examination paper/s . In case the student is found guilty of misrepresentation of facts then appropriate punitive action will be taken against him/her which may include awarding zero marks or marking the candidate absent for that particular examination. Also in extreme cases, HOS have the right to expel student from the school. The decision of HOS will be considered as final in this case and no subsequent request will be entertained whatsoever.

Appendix 1

The assessment cycle for the academic year is as follows :

Assessment Period	Date for Term end Examination(Summative Assessment)	Weightage of Internal (Continuous) Assessment	Weightage of Summative Assessment
First Term (June -Oct)	22nd Oct – 26th Oct,2013	20%	80%
Second Term(Nov – March)	April 14 – April 24,2014	20%	80%

Appendix 2

Weightage Wise distribution is as follows :

Weightage of Internals	Weightage of Term 1 Examination(Summative)	Weightage of Term 2 Examination(Summative)
20%	30%	50%

Now suppose a student called X has secured the following marks in both the term examination:

Internal (First Term)/ out of 20	Summative (First Term)/ out of 80	Internal (Second Term)/ out of 20	Summative ( Second Term)/ out of 80
15	60	12	48
Total (First Term)	75/100	Total(Second Term)	60/100

So for the calculation of final grade his marks to be added from each component are:

Internal Marks

(First term + Second Term) – 15+12 = 27 out of 40, so out of 20(since weightage is 20%) = 14 marks(approx)

Term End marks

Term 1 = 60/80 so out of 30(since weightage is 30%) = 23 marks(approx)

Term 2 = 48/80 so out of 50(since weightage is 50%) = 30 marks

Now for arriving at final Grade the final marks for the student are :

Internal = 14 marks, Term 1 = 23 marks Term 2 = 30 marks,

So out of 100 marks the student got = 14+23+30 = 67 marks

Now suppose that the Grade Boundaries is A* – 94 -100, A – 87 – 93, B – 80- 86, C – 73 -79, D – 66 – 72, E – 59 – 65 , F – 52 – 58, G – 45 – 51. So X will get a grade of D since he got 67 marks which falls between 66 -72 marks

Appendix 6 Illustration

Suppose X (a student) has missed his/her examination on 25th April. Now as per the policy the parent can inform one day prior ie., either on 24th April or one day later i.e., on 26th April. Now suppose that the last paper is on 30th April then the student has to appear for the test within three days after the last examination(30th April). So the student has to appear till 03rd May. After 03rd May the school will not be responsible for taking retest.

Appendix 7 Sample Report Card Format

Middle School Report Card 2013-2014

 

To the parent of _____________________

Date:

Dear Parents,

Enclosed is your child’s report for this term. Within the report there will be specific comments on performance, participation and behavior in various subjects and advice on how further progress can be achieved.

The report contains a detailed report of the student’s general behavior and individual subject results.

Please discuss the report in detail with your child and do praise, support and guide them wherever possible. In case of any doubt, feel free to meet and ask questions to the homeroom or subject teacher.

 

Mr. Vardan Kabra

Head of School.

Fountainhead School.

Students Name:	Roll No:
Class :

Midterm Attendance record from 10th June to 30th October :

Total Working Days
Present
Absent
Cumulative Attendance Percentage

 

General Comment:

Homeroom teacher’s sign:________	Parents Sign:____________
Fountainhead School

Student’s self Appraisal:

Descriptor	Mark yourself on the continuum where 1 is the least and 4 is the highest	Your comments
I always meet deadlines	1 2 3 4 _________________________________
I collaborate with my team mates in group projects.	1 2 3 4 _________________________________
I pay attention and participate in classroom discussions	1 2 3 4 _________________________________
I take initiative in various tasks	1 2 3 4 _________________________________
I follow the routines and procedures	1 2 3 4 _________________________________
I understand the 7 Habits and implement the same	1 2 3 4 _________________________________ _________________________________
I do my homework regularly	1 2 3 4 _________________________________ _________________________________

 

Student’s Name:	Class:
Roll No. :	Subject: English
First term Grade accredited:

Grade Range:

A*	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	U
								Exam not given/fail

Subject Teacher’s Comments:

Teacher’s Name :	Parents Sign: __________________
Teacher’s Sign:_______________
Fountainhead School

Back

ASSESSMENT POLICY

Purpose of Assessment

Assessment is an integral part of teaching and learning process. To ensure the effectiveness of students educational experience it is important that varied assessment techniques should be used at regular intervals. The following are the objectives for assessment which we at Fountainhead school would be targeting as part of IB global community.

1. To provide quality feedback to students so as to ensure growth in learning of students.
2. To prepare students so that they can meet assessment requirements of IBDP and Universities in future.
3. To provide quality feedback to teachers regarding learners stage in the learning process, level of knowledge acquired and the extent of skills development.
4. To provide feedback to parents regarding students progress through grades.
5. Ensuring that assessment is criterial related and not norm referenced.
6. Ensure that the assessment process is aligned with IBDP assessment objective.
7. Ensuring that the assessment process is reliable and trustworthy.

Assessment at Fountainhead School

Nature

Fountainhead school will be assessing students through formative, summative and continuous assessments. The approach of school towards each type of assessment is covered under the subsequent heading. The weightage for examination is given under the heading : Assessment weightage and cycle. It should be noted that formative will not contain any weightage as its purpose is to make teachers aware of the progress of the student on a continuous basis. Also the student may be given a chance to rewrite or attempt again his/her formative assessment as the purpose is to improve the student and not to assess him or her.

School’s approach towards assessment

Formative assessment

The school believes that formative assessment is an integral part of teaching learning process. To this end the school promotes and fosters the use formative assessment as part of day to day teaching practice. The school recommends its teachers to divide the content to be covered in summative assessment and conduct regular formative assessment on the same.

Summative assessment

The school believes that summative assessments are essential for preparing students for the final examination at the end of two years in the case of DP. The final examination will be based on the entire syllabus and not just parts of it. The school has allocated weightage (as per IB guidelines for a particular subject group) for summative assessments with a purpose of giving students the exposure to final examination.

Continuous assessment

To measure the knowledge, understanding, and skills attained by students, it is necessary that continuous assessment should form an integral part of the DP. The IB provides ample opportunities for continuous assessment thorough internal assessment components. The DP faculty at Fountainhead school will assess the student continuously over a period a time through his/her performance in internal assessment components for different subjects groups. For example the lab reports in Science, Research project and written commentary in Business Management etc. The students will be receiving feedback from teachers at regular intervals which will enable them to focus on their areas of improvement and consolidate on their strengths. Through continuous assessment the teachers will over a period of time ascertain the level of student’s progress and will be able to plan their teaching strategies so that effective learning takes place.

The school has allocated weightage (as per IB guidelines) to the continuous assessment. The main purpose of continuous assessment is to develop the various skills of the students (like team working, research skills etc) and help him/her in understanding that learning is not only limited to classroom but is an integral part of life.

Homework for IBDP students

Fountainhead school believes that homework is an integral part of the teaching process and leads to enhancement in assessment results of students.The following are expected from teachers :

• Students should be given homework in every subject to facilitate overall development.
• Students should be provided with quality homework.
• Always implement practices that continue to produce valued outcomes
• Homework task must be differentiated on the basis of learners readiness, interests, learning styles, organizational skills, amount of difficulty so that each student can benefit.

Further the teachers must do the following to ensure timely submissions

• Discuss homework and make sure the student has understood the task
• Enforcement of time management skills in class
• Establish discontinuous due dates for long projects
• Specific guidelines to be given for challenging tasks
• The assessment of student’s work including homework should be based on the above standards and practices. The DP teachers are expected to communicate this to students through class interactions and also through formative assessments
• The school expects that assessment expectations, standards and practices are made clear to the students from the beginning of the session

Assessment practices : Expectations from Teachers

The teachers are expected to ensure students academic progress through formative, summative and continuous assessment strategies. As stated above that the summative assessment has been assigned weightage (as per IB guidelines for a particular subject group) which indicates the significance attached to summative assessment within the overall assessment framework. However this certainly does not undermine the importance of formative and continuous assessment which are and will remain crucial for students overall learning growth.

The teachers as an integral part of the IB community are expected to include in their formative assessments the following practices :

Use of detailed assessment descriptors (rubrics and matrices)

Teacher guided self assessment

Peer evaluation through blog or other ICT resources

Few types of Formative Assessments

• Formative assessment include :
• Class discussions
• Group and individual oral presentations
• Historical investigations
• Individual oral commentaries
• Investigation workbooks
• Multimedia presentations
• Multiple-choice style quizzes and tests
• Short and extended responses
• Skits and performances
• Studio work etc.

Also Fountainhead school believes in team working. We would always prefer to have two teachers for the same subject, however it may vary according to the circumstances.

In case there are two teachers in the same subject, the final internal assessment will be sent to IB subject wise and not teacherwise. The school will provide slots in the DP time table for collaborative planning where teachers teaching the same subject can share ideas.

Assessment period, weightage and cycle

For the purpose of assessment, each academic year will be having two examinations (conducted at the interval of five months each). The first examination will be held in the third and fourth week of October. The second and final examination will be held in third and fourth week of March. Entire syllabus including first examination syllabus will be assessed in the second and final examination. As a school we believe in the policy of latest and fullest. Hence only the second and final examination grade will be considered while computing the final grade of the student. The weightage of summative and internal(continuous) assessment will be as per the IB guidelines.However keeping in mind the content covered (till the date of assessment) the teacher can customize the weightage so as to ensure the balance in assessment. However it is to be kept in mind that teacher in any case should not exceed the maximum weightage for Internal assessment as prescribed by IB for that particular subject. The summative assessment will be in the form of an examination at the end of each semester. The continuous assessment will include internal assessment like lab reports in Science,research project in Business Management etc. The assessment cycle will comprise of :

Assessment Period	Weightage of Internal (Continuous) Assessment	Weightage of Summative Assessment
First Examination	As per IB guidelines for a particular subject group	Will vary as per changes in internal assessment
Second & Final Examination	As per IB guidelines for a particular subject group	Will vary as per changes in internal assessment

How to mark Internal Assessment

The teachers are expected to mark the internal assessment on the basis of internal assessment criteria given for each individual subject (in the respective IB subject guide). However the teacher may use his/her judgement regarding whether to apply all the criteria or some of them. The teacher are expected to consult and take approval of respective HODs before finalising on the criteria to be applied.

Grade Descriptors

Fountainhead school believes in a transparent and fair assessment system. To this end, the grade descriptors for individual subjects will be provided to the students beforehand. The reason for having separate grade descriptors for each subject is the varied level of difficulty of each subject. For example a subject like Business Management from Group 3 cannot be judged at the same level to that of Group 5 subject like Mathematics. Further the grade boundaries will be as per the IB pattern with points starting from a maximum of grade 7 to a minimum of grade 1. However, the teacher can customize the grade boundaries and descriptors as per the difficulty level of the question paper and coverage of syllabus (till the assessment date).

The IB Grade descriptor for each of the subject group is unique and is given on the subject page on OCC.

Each subject will be having their specific grade boundaries. For the purpose of summative assessment the teachers are expected to follow IB grade boundaries(taken from last IB examinations in that subject) for their respective subject groups. However, the teacher can customize the grade boundaries and descriptors as per the difficulty level of the question paper and coverage of syllabus (till the assessment date).The grade descriptor for each IB grade are given on respective subject page of OCC. Also the grade boundary will differ as per the SL and HL level for the same subject. The marks of the students will be converted as per the IB grade boundaries for that group for previous examination session. Also it is to be noted that each subject groups grade boundary will have its own grade descriptor(for that specific subject group). The teacher is expected to communicate the grade descriptor to the student beforehand so that he/she understand the meaning of 5 or 7 grade.

Recording and Reporting

Recording

The school in alignment with IB emphasizes on criterion-related (as opposed to norm-referenced) assessment. This method of assessment judges students work in relation to identified levels of attainment, rather than in relation to the work of other students. The school will also ensure through meetings within departments and interdepartmental meetings that all its teachers are well aware of the DP assessment principles. The school will report students performance at the end of each examination. The school will use Managebac for the purpose of recording and reporting students performance. In addition to that teachers will be maintaining record of marks on Google Drive. The teachers will be grading students on the basis of individual subject group grade boundaries. Also the grade boundary will differ as per the SL and HL level for the same subject.

Reporting

The school will be reporting the performance of students through Parent Teacher Conference (PTC) held thrice a year. (Refer appendix 2 for information regarding assessing and reporting of DP core components)

Parent teacher conference

To be held thrice in an academic year. It is there in the month of July beginning(Current year)/ mid – November end(Current year), and April end(next year).

Parent-teacher conferences are short (10 Minutes) one to one session between parent and teacher that are formally arranged by the school thrice in a year after school hours usually on Friday and Saturday.

The PTCs are a valuable tool to help a parent and child’s teacher(s) work together for child’s success. This is a great opportunity for parents to ask questions and gather information that will help them to encourage their children to achieve success.

Common agenda points to discuss in PTCs will include going through the important achievements, goals set, issues with academics or behavior etc.

+

The decision to promote/retain the student, to the next grade will be taken by HOS (on case to case basis), based on his/her performance in the retake examination.

Conduct of Retake Examination & Modification in report card

The retake examinations will be held in the last week of May; the results of which will be declared in a weeks time. The dates for the retake examination will be given at the time of PTC.

It is mandatory for the parents and students to meet the DPC on PTC, when student scores are matching the failing conditions (as mentioned in the examples stated in Appendix 3).

The highest score out of the 2 examinations taken will be considered, and the final end of the year report card will be modified accordingly.

Exceptional Circumstances

Absenteeism

For candidate who miss his/her examination due to reasons like sickness or any other event beyond his/her control, will be given an opportunity to appear for the retest. However

no candidate will be allowed to exploit this privilege given by school and punitive action will be taken. The decision of the HOS regarding the action to be taken in case of such violation will be final and no further request whatsoever will be entertained in this regard.

Further, the parent of the candidate may request the school for arrangement of retest one day prior or one day later to the date of that specific examination paper(missed by the student). If the school does not receive any such request within the aforesaid time period then no retest will be taken and the student will be awarded marks on the basis of his/her performance in the previous examination in that particular subject. The decision of HOS will be considered as final in such cases.

It is mandatory for the student to appear for the retest latest within three working days from the date of last examination. However in extreme cases like accidents or any form of physical injury to the candidate the school may take his/her previous examination score in that particular subject/s as a base for calculation of grades.

Further, in case the student has missed the examination in multiple subjects then the same rules will apply as in case of single subject.However if the student neither gives the examination nor appears for the retest(due to extreme circumstances) then he will awarded marks in those subjects(in which failed to appear) on the basis of previous examination performance. For example a student got 40/80 marks in previous examination and was not able to appear for current examination or retest then he will be given 50/100(assuming the current paper to be of 100 marks).

Also the school may or may not give the same paper for such retest. It is mandatory for the student to sign an undertaking before appearing for the retest that the student was having no access to the examination paper/s of that/those specific subject/s in which he/she has missed the examination/s and has not seen or heard about the content of the examination paper/s . In case the student is found guilty of misrepresentation of facts then appropriate punitive action will be taken against him/her which may include awarding zero marks or marking the candidate absent for that particular examination. Also in extreme cases, HOS have the right to expel student from the school. The decision of HOS will be considered as final in this case and no subsequent request will be entertained whatsoever.

Note : The above policy is only applicable for examination conducted by the school. In case of IBDP examination or any other examination conducted by an external body , the above provision related to absenteeism will not be applicable.

Review of Assessment Policy: Roles and Responsibilities

DP Coordinator along with Heads of Departments will be collectively responsible for annual review of the assessment policy for the first three years and after that the review will be done every two years. After review the recommendation will be sent to HOS and after the approval of HOS the suggested changes will be incorporated in the policy. The link to the revised policy will be given on the schools website and all the stakeholders will be notified regarding the same through mail and blog.

Internal Calendar for meeting DP deadlines

Fountainhead believes in the system of having internal deadlines well before time so as to meet DP deadlines effectively. For this purpose the DP Coordinator is entrusted with the task of framing internal deadline calendar keeping in mind the deadlines set by IB for external assessment and moderation.

Training of new teachers

The HODs of respective departments will have the responsibility to train the new teachers. For this purpose the HODs are expected to assign the new teachers to experienced DP teachers within the Department.

Monitor the progress through feedback from the senior teachers.

Also school has initiated a system of instructional rounds where a specific teacher invites his/her colleagues to observe the class of that specific teacher and learn from it. The purpose of instructional round is to develop an environment of learning without any fear of consequences. Also suggestion for improvement will be provided on the request of teacher whose class has been observed.

Works Consulted

• Guidelines for developing a school assessment policy in the Diploma Programme, 2010, International Baccalaureate Organization

• Diploma Programme assessment: principles and practice, 2004, International Baccalaureate Organization

• Fountainhead School CAS Handbook, 2013, Fountainhead School

Appendices

Appendix 1: Group 3 Grade Descriptors

Grade 7 Excellent performance

Demonstrates: conceptual awareness, insight, and knowledge and understanding which are evident in the skills of critical thinking; a high level of ability to provide answers which are fully developed, structured in a logical and coherent manner and illustrated with appropriate examples; a precise use of terminology which is specific to the subject; familiarity with the literature of the subject; the ability to analyse and evaluate evidence and to synthesize knowledge and concepts; awareness of alternative points of view and subjective and ideological biases, and the ability to come to reasonable, albeit tentative, conclusions; consistent evidence of critical reflective thinking; a high level of proficiency in analysing and evaluating data or problem solving.

Grade 6 Very good performance

Demonstrates: detailed knowledge and understanding; answers which are coherent, logically structured and well developed; consistent use of appropriate terminology; an ability to analyse, evaluate and synthesize knowledge and concepts; knowledge of relevant research, theories and issues, and awareness of different perspectives and contexts from which these have been developed; consistent evidence of critical thinking; an ability to analyse and evaluate data or to solve problems competently.

Grade 5 Good performance

Demonstrates: a sound knowledge and understanding of the subject using subject-specific terminology; answers which are logically structured and coherent but not fully developed; an ability to provide competent answers with some attempt to integrate knowledge and concepts; a tendency to be more descriptive than evaluative although some ability is demonstrated to present and develop contrasting points of view; some evidence of critical thinking; an ability to analyse and evaluate data or to solve problems.

Grade 4 Satisfactory performance

Demonstrates: a secure knowledge and understanding of the subject going beyond the mere citing of isolated, fragmentary, irrelevant or common sense points; some ability to structure answers but with insufficient clarity and possibly some repetition; an ability to express knowledge and understanding in terminology specific to the subject; some understanding of the way facts or ideas may be related and embodied in principles and concepts; some ability to develop ideas and substantiate assertions; use of knowledge and understanding which is more descriptive than analytical; some ability to compensate for gaps in knowledge and understanding through rudimentary application or evaluation of that knowledge; an ability to interpret data or to solve problems and some ability to engage in analysis and evaluation.

Grade 3 Mediocre performance

Demonstrates: some knowledge and understanding of the subject; a basic sense of structure that is not sustained throughout the answers; a basic use of terminology appropriate to the subject; some ability to establish links between facts or ideas; some ability to comprehend data or to solve problems.

Grade 2 Poor performance

Demonstrates: a limited knowledge and understanding of the subject; some sense of structure in the answers; a limited use of terminology appropriate to the subject; a limited ability to establish links between facts or ideas; a basic ability to comprehend data or to solve problems.

Grade 1 Very poor performance

Demonstrates: very limited knowledge and understanding of the subject; almost no organizational structure in the answers; inappropriate or inadequate use of terminology; a limited ability to comprehend data or to solve problems.

Appendix 2: Assessing and Reporting of Core Components of IBDP – CAS, TOK and EE

Assessing and Reporting of CAS

The progress of student in CAS related activities will be reported in each term on the basis of advisors evaluation report, student self reflection and evidence in any form(like video, photograph etc). The advisor evaluation report will comprise of students progress in view of 7 learning outcomes, three strands and time commitment. It will also include students Managebac for anecdotal comments.

On Creativity/Action/Service related project/s:

Total Time Committed(In hours):

Creativity – _______hrs

Action – _______hrs

Service – _______ hrs

Advisor’s Evaluation Report

Please evaluate the students learning outcomes and performance throughout the project –

Please tick in the appropriate box.Thank you!

Learning Outcomes	Barely meets expectations	Meets expectations	Exceeds expectations	Nature/Location of evidence
Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth
Undertaken new challenges
Planned and initiated activities
Worked collaboratively withothers
Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities
Engaged with issues of global importance
Considered the ethical implications of their actions
Developed new skills

COMMENTS

I have read his/her self-evaluation report and honestly evaluated his/her performance.

 

Date:

Signature

 

Approved by CAS Coordinator _______________________ Date______________

Assessing and Reporting of TOK

TOK one of the components of the DP will be assessed by TOK teacher who will be writing individual comments on the performance of each student. The report will be part of report card to be handed over to parents at the end of each semester. However during the third and fourth semester the student will be marked as per the IB criteria for these components along with the report.

Assessing and Reporting of EE

The progress of student in extended essay will be reported in each term on the basis of EE supervisor evaluation report and student self reflection. The advisor evaluation report will comprise of students progress in view of EE assessment criteria and level of commitment. The supervisor will write report on each student individually.

EE Supervisor Evaluation Report

Please evaluate the students performance in the Extended Essay process

Please tick in the appropriate box.Thank you!

	Always	Often	Sometimes	Never
Planned and systematic approach towards the research
Range of sources used for research
Respect Deadlines
Adheres to academic honesty guidelines

The student has completed 500/1500/2500/4000 words. The essay is the result of student’s own effort and hard work.

COMMENTS

I have prepared the above report to the best of my knowledge and ability and have sufficient evidence to justify my observation.

Date:

Signature

 

Approved by EE Coordinator _______________________ Date______________

Appendix 3 : Possible Scenarios for retest/repeat in Subject Groups/DP Core

	Example 1	Example 2	Example 3	Example 4
	Total points less than 24 with 01 point in a subject	Total points less than 24 and Grade 3 or below has been awarded four or more times (HL or SL).	Total points equals to 24 however the total of HL is less than 12	Total points greater than 24 but candidate has gained fewer than 9 points on SL subjects
	1	3	4	2
	3	2	5	4
	4	3	6	5
	5	3	4	6
	4	5	3	3
	5	6	2	6
	22	Less than 24	(Equal to 24)	Greater than 24
Recommendation	(Retake in 02 subjects with point 1 &3)but not repeat. Student must ensure that total point is greater than 24	Repeat grade 11	Retake in 02 subjects with points 02 and 03	Retake in 02 subjects with points of 02 and 03

Further please note that it is not necessary that students score same points as mentioned in the above examples. Students performance might be meeting the failing conditions (inspite of student scoring different points in each subject when compared to the above mentioned example).

Note : Students & parents must be aware that if students don’t reach satisfactory level of performance with respect to DP core (EE,CAS,TOK) then they will not be promoted unless and until they reach satisfactory level of performance in DP Core. Satisfactory level will be determined by respective incharges of EE/TOK/CAS.

Appendix 4 : Illustration for retest timings

Suppose X(a student) has missed his/her examination on 25th April. Now as per the policy the parent can inform one day prior ie., either on 24th April or one day later i.e., on 26th April. Now suppose that the last paper is on 30th April then the student has to appear for the test within three days after the last examination(30th April). So the student has to appear till 03rd May. After 03rd May the school will not be responsible for taking retest.

 

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HOMEWORK POLICY

Objective:

The objective is to ensure that there is a systematic schedule for homework, that there are certain guidelines in place regarding frequency and amount of homework, homework is turned in regularly and that there are pre-set guidelines or procedure in place for teachers while checking the HW/CW of the students.

Applicable to:

All students and parents.

Value (s) guiding policy:*

a) Value Term: Responsible, Excellence, Learner

b) Why:

• Being responsible for accomplishing HW with discipline (timely).
• Strive for the highest personal achievement in all aspects of academics.
• Monitor individual’s performance and progress and provide feedback for improvement.

Learner Profile: Responsible, Reflective

Rationale:

Homework is important to know what is happening in the class and review the learning progress of every individual. Thus teacher can focus on students who may be having problems with homework. Homework enables parents to involve themselves directly in the learning program, to work with them and help their children in their lessons.

Policy Guidelines:

General Instructions:

• Homework is important and related to what is happening inside the classroom. Teachers discuss homework with students before giving and it is always linked to what is happening inside the classroom.
• Teachers give clear instructions for accomplishing the homework successfully. In case there is something new, an exemplar of what is expected is shown and discussed with the student.
• When homework that is time consuming is given, we take into consideration the total amount of homework that student are getting from other teachers also. HRT coordinates with other teachers and/or with the student also and revise the timelines if needed.
• All grades have a homework schedule in place.
• Teachers always take into consideration the convenience of the parents while giving homework that involves a group and where parents are expected to provide transport to their children till their peer’s house.
• Sufficient time is given for the homework. In cases where children are not adept at reading written instructions, teachers gives oral instructions in the language that the student understands and are able to follow.

Communication of the homework:

• Communication of the homework is done through the blog.
• Homework is given daily or on weekend, as per the grade level and is expected to be submitted first thing the next day.
• In case the homework is expected over a period of time (such as project, a survey, an essay etc.), then teacher discusses the progress with the students in the class. Teachers help them succeed by giving them reminders and tips.
• Every class has homework leader, who gives reminders, help students when they are not clear with the instructions and even collect the homework. The same homework leader can work across homerooms and single subjects.
• Homework is being given from DAY ONE so that clear expectations are set and to make it a procedure for them at home, thereby making it a routine or a habit. The first few homework assignments are given with the sole purpose of making it a habit from day one. The size of the homework may be very small. This helps children to become confident through small and simple assignments which they can easily do and turn in.

Type of Homework: Worksheet, Assignments, Online, notebook, written piece, projects etc.

• The quality of the homework is something that children find exciting and interesting.
• Choices in HW are being given to students to make them responsible towards their learning. Ideal situation where the content is the same but students can work around the same concept through different ways. E.g. Online links, Khan Academy, Pen and paper tasks etc.)
• In case online assignments are given (such as Khan Academy) then also the teachers clearly discuss the homework in class before assigning it. The teacher follows up with the online HW and gives feedback to students on the same. Homework is ideally a practice of what is already been done in theory in the class. It is not a new concept unless flipping the classroom. Also in cases where teacher knows that a few children (or one child) do not understand a particular concept, they help the student in school itself to understand the concept and then practice the problem.

Collection of Homework:

• Homework needs to be collected the first thing in every class. It is checked, discussed and/or commented upon within 24 hours or by the next class.
• Collection and Storage of Homework: Parents can view the homework when the child is doing the homework before submitting the homework to school. After submission of homework by students, teacher checks it and return it to the students so that parents can see the checked homework. The corrected homework can be kept at home
• As a part of the 7 Habits training and discussion, student needs to be encouraged to practice Habits 1, 2 and 3.
  • Habit 1 will make them be proactive and take charge of their HW.
  • Habit 2 will help them see the importance of overall learning and of homework within that.
  • Under Habit 3, discuss that doing homework is an important priority, not to be left as the last thing at night.
  • Remember putting first things first means Organize and execute around your priorities. For that, students must understand that homework is a priority for them. In putting first things first, it also needs to be discussed that students must not only do their homework early in the day, but also pack their bag early in the evening or at night and to remember to pack their homework every day (so that homework isn’t forgotten at home).
• In the MY & DP, a homework bonus policy is being followed to incentivize the students to complete their homework in time and with quality. Details of this policy are given in Appendix 2. However, if a student fails to submit homework more than 2-3 times, then please follow the process given below.

When homework is not turned in:

• In case a student does not turn in the homework, then from day one: the child has to miss their play time during the school meal break and finish the homework. This practice will be continued as many times as needed to ensure that the student is able to follow the schedule.

1. During the process we will ensure that the learning is not missed out: If the homework is the kind that can be done within 20 min (all your first few days homework should be of that kind), then we will ask the student to do it in the recess by missing out on play time.
2. Repeat the process as many times as needed to ensure that turning in homework becomes a routine for the student.
3. If the homework is long and cannot be finished in recess, teacher will talk to the student and find out the reasons and then give him/her an extension for submitting the homework. If the student still does not submit then instead of the recess, for completing of the work, student will be asked to do stay back. Before using stay back, teacher will send a note to the parent. 4th time, parents will be called to identify the reasons for regular delay / lack of submitting of homework.

• If the student is not making the homework a priority frequently. The possible reasons can be:

1. Parental support not given as outlined earlier. Common problems include parents not having agreed upon a schedule for homework, over scheduling of the child’s day, parents not showing any interest in the child’s learning, a very busy household with no one in particular responsible for the child’s learning.
2. Lack of motivation for the child in homework specifically or learning as a whole.
3. The child is facing some problem not related to the above two – such as concentration etc.
4. Child is unable to understand instructions or has not understood the concepts and is therefore unable to do the homework despite trying.
5. Child does not have a good relationship with the teacher and therefore does not do the homework for that reason.

Bottom-line: In cases of regular tardiness in doing homework or lack of submission of homework, school will find Helping Solutions to resolve the issue rather than applying any consequences. Helping Solutions may be in the domain of 7 Habits, practice of procedures, talking to parents etc.

Parental Support Expected:

• Space & Time: Parents are expected to provide the right space and schedule time early in the day for their children so that they can focus on their homework.
• Resources (a computer with a reliable internet connection)
• Interest & Support: Parents must take an active interest in what their child is learning. When needed parents are expected to support the child in doing the homework for tasks such as surveys, visits, interviews etc.
• Read to / with them regularly.

Appendix 01

DP Home work schedule

Group 1	Group 2	Group 3	Group 4	Group 5	Group 6
Day 01	Hindi	Physics
Day 02	English.- A & B Section	Economics – Optional	Maths – A & B Section)& Maths Studies
Day 03	BM & Psych & ESS – Optional	VA
Day 04	Eng.- A & B Section	Maths – A & B Section)& Maths Studies
Day 05	French	Chemistry & ESS – Optional
Day 06	ITGS & Eco- Optional	Bio	VA

Note:

• If Eco. H.W is given on Day 02 then it cannot be given on Day 06
• If ESS H.W is given on Day 03 then it cannot be given on Day 05

Homework expected the next day should not exceed 30-45 min of work. Homework which requires more time should be expected over 3-4 days.

Appendix 02

MY & DP Homework Bonus Policy

MY & DP Homework Policy

5% additional bonus marks will be given to the students on the final marks scored for completion of homework. After adding the bonus, the total cannot exceed 100%. So if the student gets 75% out of the regular 100%, and get 4% as the homework bonus, s/he will have a total of 79%. If the student has already scored, 98%, then the total will be capped at 100%.

For this, the teachers maintain a homework log on a regular basis. A student gets 1 mark for submitting homework on time, 0.5 for late submission, and 0 for not submitting homework.

Conditions for Submission completion (below) Score to be awarded

Submission fully done	0.5	1
Submission partially done	0	0.5
Conditions for Submission with respect to time –>	Submission not timely	Submission in time

The amount of homework done (in the previous month) is also reported by the subject teacher in the beginning of each month through a mail.

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ICT POLICY FOR STUDENTS

Policy for Usage of chromebook, laptops & internet in school

Why IT devices are needed in school?

Curriculum integration with the use of technology involves the infusion of technology as a tool to enhance the learning in a content area or multidisciplinary setting. Technology enables students to learn in ways not previously possible. Effective integration of technology is achieved when students are able to select technology tools to help them obtain information in a timely manner, analyze and synthesize the information, and present it professionally. We at Fountainhead believe that technology should become an integral part of the classroom. Students will have to use computers for research/projects/collaboration for various subjects and so we expect students to bring their own IT devices to school i.e. Chromebook & laptops.

Acceptable Use

• The school defines acceptable use as activities that directly or indirectly support the academics of students.
• Students are blocked from accessing certain websites during school hours such as Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites. Though, google plus is acceptable for sharing within the school.
• The usage of devices will be recommended by the respective teacher for their classrooms. Students may also use these devices at times for research work, report writing, presentation making during their breaks of free periods(if any) with the permission of the respective teacher.
• Devices may not be used at any time to:
  • Store or transmit illicit materials
  • Harass others
  • Download or view/listen/play music, games, movies and any material which is not related to academics.
• The students will be provided individual lockers and they should keep their devices in their lockers, when not in use.
• The students are expected to bring their devices fully charged from home.

Devices and Support

• The students can bring netbooks if not a laptop/notebook. Ipads and tablets are not allowed because they will not help in creating and sharing documents. Usage of ipads and tablets will be restricted to internet surfing; which will not serve our purpose.

• Minimum configuration –

• Intel Core 2 Duo processor
• 2 GB RAM
• 320 GB HDD
• Operating System: Licensed Windows 7/ Windows 8, Linux

• Operating System must be a licensed one, otherwise a student will be advised to purchase a licensed OS or get the linux OS installed because the school also enforces the same for all school and staff owned devices.

• IT will not give any support unless and until the students has a licensed OS installed on their devices.

• Devices must be presented to IT for configuration, before they can access the network.

• The students are not allowed to bring usb/data card/dongle to access internet within school premises. If students are found possessing any of these in the school premises then it will be immediately confiscated. Internet should be accessed from school wifi connection only.

• Special software(s) required for senior year students e.g. for IGCSE Art & Design and Visual Arts in the DP:

• Students can buy license software if they wish to but they must only have legitimate software.

• They can use free tools or paid tools on the cloud; if needed, in this case they can also use the school PCs as that will offer better computing power than their own devices.

• Students have to bear all such costs and the school would not bear these costs. Therefore students also need to be told beforehand about the costs that they need to incur.

Security

• The students device may be remotely disconnected from the network if 1) the device is lost, 2) IT detects a data or policy breach, a virus or similar threat to the security of the school’s data and technology infrastructure.

• In addition, the IT Dept. reserves the right to scan the network to assist in identifying and protecting against exploitable security vulnerabilities (e.g., viruses or worms) in efforts to preserve network integrity. Information gathered in such scans will be used only for the explicit purpose of monitoring network security.

• The school uses a firewall system, which will be protecting student devices and also prevent students from accessing inappropriate content within the school premises.

• The students are required to login using their LDAP logins in the firewall (Cyberoam) in order to be able to access internet.

Risks/Liabilities/Disclaimers

• The school reserves the right to disconnect devices or disable services without notification.

• Lost or stolen devices must be reported to the Coordinators as soon as possible.

• The student is expected to use his or her devices in an ethical manner at all times and adhere to the school’s acceptable use policy as outlined above.

• The student is personally liable for all costs associated with his or her device.

• The student assumes full liability for risks including damage (partial or full), theft or loss. We advise parents to ensure that devices are covered by insurance to cover the risk of damage, loss or theft.

Expectations and Consequences

• The school has a zero-tolerance policy for violation of the above rules.

• The students found using their personal devices in school for games, music , movies etc unless permission has been given, the following process shall be followed.

Violation of Policy as stated above	Consequence	Parents Involvement	Rationale
First Instance	A gentle reminder of the IT usage policy	No information	First step will be remind the student of the necessity of the policy.
Second Instance	Reading / watching a resource on discipline and reflection	Parents are sent a note	Second step will be, let the student understand the importance of discipline.
Third Instance	Reading / watching a resource on Integrity and making a presentation of the same	Parents are called to school for a counseling session along with the student	Third step should be, let the student understand the value of integrity
Repeated Instance	One of the above, plus action as decided by the Coordinator and/or HOS	Parents will be informed	For this level of issues, case to case basis action plan is necessary.

For additional information related to chromebook usage guidelines, please refer to Parent Undertaking – Chromebook

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