Joy has Year 6 SATs next week Monday through to Thursday - Standard Assessment Tests for children aged 10/11 years, which I personally disapprove of. She brought this letter home from school with her today. I'm very happy with the contents of this letter.
My youngest will start her final year 12 QCS test next semester (for university admissions, she desperately wants to do a dual nursing/para-medicine degree) and she gets very nervous and worked up about it. I tell her over and over, she can't prepare for it she just has to relax and let it happen but I am going to give her that check list .... not all of it can be done by a "too Cool" teenager but some of it will make her smile! Thanks for sharing such a positive letter Angela!
next week is NAPLAN here for both mine (same sort of testing really that they do every second year from yr3 to yr9 to give some kind of between states benchmark because their curriculums must differ!? (ie. i dont know why but anyway, i wish all the schools gave out a letter like this!
My youngest has the Grade 6 EQAO (Evil Questions Attacking Ontario) this year. It's standardized testing in grades 3, 6 and 9. I have so many arguments against standardized testing. But mostly, I remind kids that although they are filling out the forms, it is their teachers and principal who are actually being tested. Everytime the results arrive in the mail, I rip them up and throw them out without looking at them.
I totally agree with our children being challenged and tested to make sure they are mastering concepts . . . to use as a tool for the teacher to review and address those that are perhaps not hitting the mark. Otherwise, it's something that's always stressed me out when I had to take them, and it stresses me out for my son who is in the middle of testing now. I would be DELIGHTED to get a letter like this! I think it's awesome!