Dear Mitchell Middle School Family,

As you are aware, Hanover School Division has scheduled Learning Forward Days on June 4 and 7.  Three purposes have been identified by HSD for these days:

 

  • To assess your child’s current reading level
  • To administer a short social-emotional survey to help the school better understand your child’s current feelings about school and their experience at school
  • To identify the Math concepts learned by your child and also to identify Math skills that were not learned in this school year

 

I would like to provide a bit more information about the nature of the numeracy assessment that your child will complete.  As you know, the 20-21 school year has had many changes and interruptions throughout the course of the year, including extended periods of remote learning, shifts to different levels of pandemic response, staggered attendance for Grade 7 and 8 students, and time spent out of class due to isolation requirements.  This combination of events has resulted in many students not learning certain numeracy concepts that they normally would at their grade level or possibly not retaining their understanding of concepts learned earlier in the year.

The purpose of the numeracy assessment that your child will complete during the Learning Forward days is to identify any grade level math concepts that your child did not learn during this school year.  The assessment will also identify possible misunderstandings in concepts that were learned this year.  When your child completes the assessment, there are likely to be areas that they are not able to complete, either because they do not remember how to or because that concept was not taught this year due to time constraints.  This is an expected part of the assessment, and not a reflection on your child as a learner.  

Our teachers understand that writing this assessment may cause anxiety for some students, and are already speaking with their classes about the nature of the assessment and its purpose.  In particular, we would like to assure our students that, if they encounter a question dealing with a concept that was not covered this year, it is ok to not answer the question.

Along with the information that MMS teachers normally share with each other to assist students in transitioning to the next grade, our math teachers will use this information to meet your child where they currently are in their learning in September.  Please be assured that the numeracy assessment results are not being used as part of your child’s Term 3 report card.  Report card grades will continue to only reflect the teaching and learning opportunities that were available in class, as always.

Please be in contact with the school if you have any questions about the purpose of the Learning Forward numeracy assessment, or about how it will be administered.  We would be happy to speak with you!

 

Yours in Education

 

A.J. Neufeld                                          Susanne Kwiatkowski

Interim Principal                                    Vice Principal

aneufeld@hsd.ca                                  skwiatkowski@hsd.ca

in: General