The individual assessments, which pupils receive in nearly every year together with their semester reports, are conceived as personal letters from the class teachers.
In these letters of assessment class teachers describe a pupil’s work habits (in particular in the personalized learning lessons), they inform about a pupil’s social behaviour or about his or her organising ability, and address additional issues that cannot be measured in terms of numeric grades. The assessments are generally phrased positively and encouragingly. Subsequently, the pupils write a letter of response to their class teachers, in which they refer to the given assessment. This provides the pupils with a good opportunity of confiding something, which they might not have dared to voice even in a private conversation, to their teachers.
In years 5 and 6 every report is accompanied by an individual assessment. In these the central theme is the pupil’s integration into the new school, but also questions like the impending compulsory subject choice. Before the reports in year 7 and 8, the pupils are asked to write a letter to their class teachers. For this, they are given a guideline prescribing certain areas that they are required to remark on (these are adapted from the assessments of the previous years). In their letter of assessment, the class teachers respond to the pupil’s letter.
In year 9 a regrouping of the classes takes place. Therefore in the second semester of year 8, the wishes for a pupil’s development in the new class are most important. In the letter of assessment received by the pupils together with the report of the 1st semester in year 9, the class teachers give each pupil a feedback about his or her individual learning progress in the new class. There may also be explanations about school-leaving certificates within reach.
No individual assessment accompanies the reports at the end of years 7 and 9, and that in year 10.
