SEMESTER ONE REPORT CARDS - INFORMATION FOR FAMILIES 

Updates to Report Card Layout and Reporting Scales in 2025

Each semester, academic report cards provide point in time information about your child’s achievement at the end of each reporting period.

At the end of each semester, teachers make an ‘on-balance’ judgement about students’ overall levels of achievement, against the aspects of the achievement standards being assessed in the different learning areas. This judgement is based on evidence of student learning demonstrated during summative assessment tasks and takes into consideration the most recent evidence.   

 This year your child’s report will include:

• a new streamlined view of each learning area provided in the semester
• your child’s achievement against the appropriate reporting scale in each learning area
• an effort rating for each learning area
• an overall behaviour rating for this semester
• An overall comment of your child’s learning habits and engagement with English and
• Mathematics.

What Does a ‘C’ or ‘Working With’ Mean?

In all Australian Curriculum subject areas, students are assessed against the relevant Achievement Standard for their year level. When a student receives a rating of ‘C’ in years 3 – 6, or ‘Working With’ in years Prep - 2, it means they are meeting the expected level of achievement for that year. In other words, the student is successfully demonstrating all the required knowledge, skills, and understanding appropriate for their current stage of schooling.

How Do Teachers Make Judgements on Student Achievement?

Throughout each term, teachers gather and evaluate evidence of student learning to make informed, on-balance judgements against a 5-point scale, which will reported on this end-of-semester’s report card. Aspley State School teachers participate in cyclic, evidenced based moderation processes to ensure that our judgements are consistent across each year level.   Our Termly Overviews are available on our school website and contains information regarding the learning areas and curriculum content your child has experienced this Semester.   

Here’s how the process works:

• Collaborative Planning: Before and during the teaching of units of work, teachers meet fortnightly in collaborative sessions. These meetings ensure that teaching teams are aligned in their understanding of the curriculum content and the demands of the assessment tasks. This shared understanding helps maintain consistency in what is taught and how student learning is assessed.
• Assessment Tasks: Teachers use a variety of assessment strategies and tools, each aligned to the Australian Curriculum. Each task is supported by a Marking Guide, which outlines specific assessable elements based on curriculum expectations. These Guides use a 5-point scale to help teachers assess the level of complexity to which a student has successfully demonstrated their skills and understandings. 
• Moderation: After marking, teachers meet with their year level teaching teams to discuss and compare student work. This moderation process ensures consistency and fairness in grading across classes.
• Overall On-Balance Decision: At the end of the semester, teachers review a portfolio of student assessment collected throughout the term. They make an on-balance judgement across all tasks to determine the final overall grade. In English, for example, achievement is assessed across the assessable elements of Speaking and Listening; Reading and Viewing and Writing and Creating. In Mathematics, students are assessed in line with the assessable elements of Understanding, Fluency, Problem-Solving, and Reasoning.

When will I receive my child’s report card this semester?

Your child’s reported card will be available in the QParents App and will also be emailed to you on the afternoon of Thursday 26^th June, from 3:00pm.

To ensure you receive these reports on time please ensure you;

• contact our administration as soon as possible to update your contact and email address details if they have changed.
• contact our administration team if you do not have an email address and require a paper copy of the report.
• add ONESCHOOL@qed.qld.gov.au to your list of safe senders to ensure report card emails are not directed to your Junk folder by default. 

Semester 1 Academic Award Celebrations

Where: Aspley State School Hall

When: Week 1, Term 3 on Monday 14 July (new date)

Time: From 2pm

For many of our students and teachers, this point of the term is essential for both teaching, learning and assessment. Attendance everyday will give your child their best learning opportunity. Teachers and support staff will invest time in all students, to help achieve their best outcomes.

In 2025, we will acknowledge and celebrate the ‘Academic Excellence’ of our students, aligned to their level of achievement in English and mathematics in the Semester 1 Report Card. This celebration is part of our ongoing strategic agenda, to recognise excellence in academia.   

The criteria for the Academic Awards celebrations will reference the levels of achievement from the Semester 1 Report Card, for Year 1 to Year 6 students. 

Students who achieved an (Academic Excellence):

• A, in English and mathematics will be awarded a Semester 1 Academic Excellence Award, certificate.

Students who achieved an (Academic Distinction):

• A, in English in Semester 1 or an
• A, in mathematics in Semester 1 will be acknowledged at the assembly.

Academic Excellence recipients (A in both English and mathematics) will receive a certificate presented at the assembly. Academic Distinction recipients will be acknowledged via a verbal presentation for their accomplishment. 

Student’s will be acknowledge at our Week 1, Term 3 whole school assembly, on Monday 14 July.  We invite all parents and guardians whose child/ren have achieved this admirable academic result to attend.  Parents and guardians do not need to rsvp your attendance. If you can join us, feel free to attend the assembly which commences from 2:00 pm in our school hall.

So, how will you know if your child will be receiving an Academic Award and why the change in the published date for the Award Assembly? 

In week 10, Thursday 26 June, all parents and caregivers will receive their student’s Semester 1 Report Card.  These will be emailed on the Thursday from 3:00 pm.   It is from this Report Card you will be able to determine if your child is receiving an Academic Excellence Award.  Since families will receive these reports during the final week of school, the awards ceremony will be held at the beginning of Term 3 to allow time for the school’s reporting processes to be completed.   

To quality assure the academic achievement results of all students, staff engage in rigorous professional collaboration sessions planning, assessing and moderating student’s work. This process occurs throughout the term, quality assuring the grades awarded to all students. 

We are proud of all our students’ efforts and achievements this semester and look forward to celebrating with our students, our community and our staff. Look out for the report cards due out in week 10.

Classroom News 

Prep D

Prep D have enjoyed learning about informative and imaginative text. We have discussed the differences between the genres. During phonics time we have been learning how to write CCVC words. In Mathematics we have used concrete materials to model addition and subtraction stories. In Science we placed our wind ornaments outside and reflected on the suitability of certain materials. 

1D

1D have had a wonderful time learning the difference between imaginative and informative texts and their matching images. Students have learnt facts on animals and turned them into interesting and informative sentences using informative adjectives and precise verbs.

• spikes – Echidnas roll into a spiky ball to scare their predators away.
• carnivore – Snakes are carnivores which means they only eat meat like birds, eggs, fish and other snakes.
• sticky tongues – Short-beaked echidnas have sticky tongues so they can catch insects to eat.

2D

The Amazing Octopus with 2D!

This Term 2D have been learning about a variety of interesting animals and how to compose a written Animal Report to best convey this informational knowledge. The star of the show was the incredible octopus!

The class researched fun facts about this unique ocean creature and then brought their learning to life with a carefully labelled diagram.

What We Learned

Students explored all kinds of octopus facts, including:

General Facts

• Species Variety: There are over 300 known species of octopus.
• Habitat: They live in all the world’s oceans, especially in coral reefs, pelagic waters, and the ocean floor.

Intelligence

• Highly Intelligent: Octopuses are among the most intelligent invertebrates. They can solve puzzles, open jars, and escape enclosures.
• Short-Term Memory: They have excellent short- and long-term memory and can learn through observation.

 Camouflage & Defence

• Masters of Camouflage: Octopuses can change color and texture instantly using specialized skin cells called chromatophores.
• Ink Defence: When threatened, they release a cloud of ink to confuse predators and escape.
• No Bones: With no skeleton, octopuses can squeeze through incredibly tight spaces.

 Body & Limbs

• Eight Arms: They have 8 arms lined with suction cups that can taste and smell.
• Arm Brains: Two-thirds of an octopus’s neurons are in its arms, allowing them to operate semi-independently.

 Biology

• Three Hearts: Octopuses have three hearts – two pump blood to the gills, and one pumps it to the body.
• Blue Blood: Their blood is blue because it contains copper-based hemocyanin, which is more efficient in cold, low-oxygen environments.

Reproduction

• Short Life Span: Most octopuses live only 1–2 years.
• Self-Sacrificing Parents: After mating, males die shortly after. Females stop eating and die shortly after their eggs hatch

The Labelled Diagram

To go along with their writing, students also created detailed labelled diagrams of the octopus. They labelled parts like:

• The arms
• The suckers
• The mantle
• The eyes
• The siphon (used for jet propulsion!)

These visual aids helped students show what they learned in an artistic, informative way. The individual diagrams are truly full of personality also!

I’m so proud of how much effort 2D students put into their reports.

3D

3D should feel proud of their exceptional learning demonstrated in their work this term! In English, students have been learning about informative texts and have created written informative text about dolphins and other Australian animals. They have demonstrated their understanding of the informative text structure, including paragraphs, and language features including compound sentences, topic-specific vocabulary,  literary devices and visual features. Wonderful work, 3D! Recently, as a part of the Year 3 Literacy learning, 3D students have also been participating in regular Morphology lessons (the structure of words and how they are formed). Through the explicit teaching and learning, Mrs Davey has been so proud of how  students have participated in the collaborative learning of Morphology, including some written learning on students' mini whiteboards and joint oral choral responses to check for understanding.  Look how 3D's writing, reading, speaking and spelling skills have been developing, too!