[Ianthe]

I found out this week that our school is not starting the kindergarten (FYOS) kids until February 4th because each kindergarten kid is having their Best Start assessment in the first 3 days of school and they are arranging classes so there is a range of abilities in the classes based on the assessment.

So what do you think about this? I am very interested in what our EB teachers think.

I don't feel completely comfortable about it. I don't mind the assessment but I don't like them arranging classes around the results. Kids can come along in such different ways at school. My eldest knew little when he started school but was reading 2 years above his year level by the end of kindergarten. I'm not sure of the benefits.

http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw...ation/index.htm

This post has been edited by Ianthe: 24/01/2013, 08:33 PM

[melaine]

That's late to be finding out when they start!

I don't have a problem with considering ability while planning classes - but yes, not sure that the best start assessment measures ability. It measures starting knowledge which will be impacted by the preschool exposure the child has had etc.

[**Xena**]

I found out this week that our school is not starting the kindergarten (FYOS) kids until February 4th because each kindergarten kid is having their Best Start assessment in the first 3 days of school and they are arranging classes so there is a range of abilities in the classes based on the assessment.

So what do you think about this? I am very interested in what our EB teachers think.

I don't feel completely comfortable about it. I don't mind the assessment but I don't like them arranging classes around the results. Kids can come along in such different ways at school. My eldest knew little when he started school but was reading 2 years above his year level by the end of kindergarten. I'm not sure of the benefits.

http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw...ation/index.htm

I think it seems a bit strange. Like yours my kids all only knew a bit when they started school but progressed very quickly ie strated school not being able to read much at all but were reading novels by the start of the next year. I could understand it if they were testing how a child learns (if that's possible) and grouping them that way, but not by how much they know. If that makes sense.

[howdo]

Other classes are based on a spread of abilities so no classes are loaded with either 'tricky' kids or 'easy' kids. It's difficult to do this with kids you've not yet doine some assessment on. So it sounds like reasonable practice, although not something I have ever come across myself.

[Fifi]

Kindy nsw teacher here - we are doing Best Start assessment next week too. We have already organized our classes. However, if we do Best start and then discover that we have for example a Gifted and Talented student who does not have anyone to challenge him/her in that class, we might swap them to another based on the results. Sometimes we can have a few Maths whizzes who would benefit from being together and extended etc. or sometimes we have a child who does not have funding but we identify as perhaps having a learning difficulty and we may place them in a class which has some aide time attached to it so that the child can benefit from a helping hand before we can organize other funding. There are lots of reasons and all of them are to benefit our kids
Hope that helps

[qak]

I understtod that Best Start was universal among public schools in NSW? I had never thought of it in the context of the OP, but can see that point of view. DS school (Catholic) did assessments during orientation, with the aim of making an even split of abilities/personalities and/or working out who would be best suited to a class together (or not, as the case may be!).

In any case now they are going into Y1 and there is going to be quite a bit of movement between the two classes ... this does suggest that things have changed a lot in one year ie what is the point of the assessment?

[YodaTheWrinkledO...]

I found out this week that our school is not starting the kindergarten (FYOS) kids until February 4th because each kindergarten kid is having their Best Start assessment in the first 3 days of school and they are arranging classes so there is a range of abilities in the classes based on the assessment.

So what do you think about this? I am very interested in what our EB teachers think.

I don't feel completely comfortable about it. I don't mind the assessment but I don't like them arranging classes around the results. Kids can come along in such different ways at school. My eldest knew little when he started school but was reading 2 years above his year level by the end of kindergarten. I'm not sure of the benefits.

http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw...ation/index.htm

Same thing is happening with DD1, only she is starting at school on 5th Feb.

I don't have a problem with it. It's to benefit the kids and to provide the baseline knowledge/needs/talents of each child for the teachers' planning. Arranging classes around kids needs and talents has been going on for ages and happens in all years of school. Don't see what is so different about this.

[howdo]

In any case now they are going into Y1 and there is going to be quite a bit of movement between the two classes ... this does suggest that things have changed a lot in one year ie what is the point of the assessment?

The point of the assessment - any assessment - is to find out what the child knows for the purpose of finding out 'where to next'. Without the assessment the teachers wouldn't have known what to teach your child during FYOS.

[mum850]

.

This post has been edited by mum850: 25/01/2013, 06:39 AM

[~flaxen~]

I have no problem whatsoever with it. It gives the teachers a starting point, and lets them individualise learning from the get go. Also I would imagine it frees up those first few days so they can spend more time on settling the kindy kids in.

Arranging classes around kids needs and talents has been going on for ages and happens in all years of school. Don't see what is so different about this.

True. Years ago I think it was called "baseline" or something similar, except they would spend the first few weeks of kindergarten doing it.