Colaiste Summer Assessments for 1st, 2nd, TY and 5th Yr students

Dear parent,

I hope this update finds you and your families well. As you will be aware, under normal circumstances, post primary schools would now be planning for their end of year summer assessments which very often involve students taking written examinations during the last week of the school year. This year, due to the restrictions put in place to protect our society during these unprecedented times, schools will not be in a position to facilitate such exams and therefore, end of year assessment for each student will take place online.

I wish to emphasise from the outset, that the aim of our summer assessments and the resulting reports is to provide students and their families with relevant feedback on the student’s progress over this difficult period. When designing modes of assessment all teachers and subject departments will be very cognisant of the school time lost and the stresses home schooling can place on families. Online exams, where applicable, will be much shorter and less onerous than typical summer exams. Please reassure your children that from once they are engaging well with their online learning, submitting work when requested, and maintaining regular contact with their subject teachers, they will be rewarded for this in their summer assessments. To this end up to 20% of the marks in each subject will be allocated in accordance with the level of online engagement alone.

Possible modes of online assessment:

• Online Open Book Exam

• Timed multiple choice online exams

• An average grade given for a number of a pieces of coursework submitted over time

• Average of a number of mini-tests given over a period of time.

• Between 0% and 20% will be allocated in all subjects based on engagement levels over the shutdown period .

(This list is not exhaustive and subject departments may include some other elements of student work over this period.)

Whilst there will be some short online assessments, there will be an emphasis on other elements of ongoing assessment with a view to reducing any anxieties students may have. In other words, students may be gaining marks as they go along over the coming weeks. Individual teachers will outline the modes of assessment clearly and well in advance with each of their classes. Some will have done so already.

We hope that what is outlined here will strike the correct balance and also give students the opportunity to showcase the good work they have been doing under the most challenging of circumstance since March 12th.

Yours sincerely,

Donal O’Sullivan