The process for placement of students into class groups for the new year will occur over the coming weeks. There will be many factors that will need to be taken into consideration when organising these groups. This will include ensuring there is a balance of social, emotional and academic needs in each class, as well as other factors. Given the complexity of the process, we will not be taking into consideration individual parent requests as it will be too difficult to accommodate all requests.
Staff will obviously use the new students to re address any in-balances where possible and we will make every effort to remember a child may choose names of his close friends who turn out to be leavers. This year we will be informing students and families of their class placement in the last week of this term.
​ Chris Chadwick Head of the International Primary School

​Dear Parents

EDUCATIONAL SCREENING FOR ALL STUDENTS IN P3-P6
PART 1
Promoting children’s learning is a principal aim at The French International School. We believe that assessment lies at the heart of this process and that it provides a framework in which educational objectives may be set and pupils progress charted.
The French International School accepts students from many different nations and backgrounds on a selective basis. During the last school year over many new students joined us, each bringing with them different social and educational experiences, levels of ability, attainments etc. The class teacher’s task in determining each child’s individual educational needs is onerous and time consuming. This form of screening and testing is designed to make that task both easier and more effective.
The debate about the effectiveness of schools is now influencing educators and parents in many parts of the world. The ‘Value added’ teaching approach is to measure the child’s educational attainments and ability on intake and throughout the year and to use this as a baseline for measuring educational outcomes. This is the fairest way to measure whether a school is offering an effective education to its’ pupils, although it is important to emphasise that a very good school like ours offers very much more than a good grounding in numeracy and literacy.
 What does the Educational screening involve?
In addition to the pupils previous educational records [ information on each student will be gathered from three main sources:
• The enrolment forms that all parents are asked to complete.
• Objective standardized or criterion referenced tests for every Key Stage 2 school pupil at F.I.S.
• Teacher’s observations of the strengths and needs of the students in their class.
 What are the reasons for Educational screening?
Educational screening of pupils is designed to:
• Provide an objective measure of each child’s basic educational attainment and level of ability.
• Enable teachers and parents to gain a clearer view of their child’s educational needs.
• Provide important information for teachers in designing a relevant educational programme for their students as required.
• Provide information for a school data base.
What screening will be going on in our School?
This year we shall be using:
• The GL Assessment/N.F.E.R. Verbal Reasoning test
• The GL Assessment/N.F.E.R. Non-Verbal Reasoning test
 What are these tests about?
The Non-Verbal Reasoning test is a test of the ability to recognise similarities, analogies and patterns in unfamiliar designs. These reasoning processes are widely accepted as being fundamental to pupil’s ability to understand and assimilate new information and ideas. Scores on this test will give an indication of how easily pupils acquire new concepts and master new materials in a wide range of school subjects based on current levels of functioning. Using designs rather than words allows reasoning processes to be assessed independently of language skills.
 The Verbal Reasoning test provides very useful information about pupil’s abilities that might not be evident from their usual classwork. The ability to understand and assimilate new and possibly unfamiliar information is very important, as it will influence profoundly a pupil’s intellectual development. The test results can be used to enhance the teacher’s knowledge of the pupils in the classroom and to inform on teaching strategies.
 In order to relate a pupil’s score to those obtained from a large “national” sample, the most useful measure that may be derived from the test is the standardized score. A pupil’s standardized score depends upon his or her ‘raw score’ the number of questions answered correctly, plus the pupil’s age. The teacher finds the standardized score by locating the pupil’s raw score on the appropriate chart and then reads across the row to the column for the pupil’s age. The intersection of the appropriate row and column gives the pupil’s standardized score.
‘We use our powers of reasoning to make sense of patterns of words and shapes and the ability to process such information is fundamental to intellectual development. Measures of this have been shown to be valid predictors of future academic performances verbal and non-verbal reasoning teats are therefore, very effective ways of assessing a pupil’s potential’.
 This year, for the first time as we are going more green, we will be using On-line assessments rather than the printed paper booklets. This is all very new for my teachers and I we have recently had training sessions to make us familiar with the methods and materials as well as training in how to manage the sessions; everything will now be done in the IT suite and not the classroom. I hope this has provided you with the enough information so that you can understand your child’s results and to see that in the future of things at F.I.S. that they are important to us all.
 Interpreting and Reporting Test Results
 Using  Standardized scores enable you to compare your own pupils with a standardized  large, nationally representative sample that has taken the test prio to publication. Previously, it was stated that standardized scores are more useful measures than raw scores. There are three reasons why such scores are normally used.
 1. In order to place pupils’ scores on a readily understandable scale
 One way to make test scores such as 25 out of 42 on this test and 32 out Of 65 on NFER -NELSON Verbal Reasoning 8 & 9 more readily understandable and comparable would be to convert them to percentages (60 per cent and 49 per cent, to the nearest whole number). However, these percentages on their own do not tell us (a) the average score of all the pupils, or (b) how spread out the scores are. On the other hand, standardized scores do. Usually, tests are standardized so that the average, nationally standardized score automatically comes out as 100, irrespective of the difficulty of the test, and so it is easy to see whether a pupil is above or below the national average.
The measure of the spread of scores is called the ‘standard deviation’, and this is usually set to 15 for educational attainment and ability tests. This means that, for example, irrespective of the difficulty of the test, about 68 per cent of the pupils in the national sample will have a standardized score within 15 points of the avenge (between 85 and 115) and about 95 per cent will have a standardized score within two standard deviations (30 points) of the average (between 70 and 130). These examples come from a frequency distribution known as ‘the normal distribution’, which is shown in Figure 1.
 2. So that an allowance can be made for the different ages of the pupils
 In a typical class, it is usual that most pupils are born between 1st September in one year and 31St August of the following year, which means that the oldest pupils are very nearly 12 months older than the youngest. Almost invariably in ability tests taken in the primary and early secondary years older pupils achieve slightly higher raw scores than younger pupils. However, standardized scores are derived in such a way that the ages of the pupils are taken into account by comparing a pupil only with others of the same age (in years and months). An older pupil may in fact gain a higher raw score thana younger pupil, but have a lower standardized score. This is because the older pupil is being compared with other older pupils in his reference graph.
Interpreting and Reporting Test Results
 Figure as shown above: The normal distribution showing the relationships of standard deviations, standardized scores and percentile ranks.
 reference group, and has a lower performance relative to his or her own a group.
3. So that scores from more than one test can be meaningfully’ compared or added together
Standardized scores from most educational tests cover the same range from 70 to 140. Hence a pupil’s standing in, say, mathematics and reading comprehension can be
compared directly using standardized scores. Similarly, should you wish to add together scores from more than one test, they can be meaningfully combined if standardized scores are used, whereas it is not meaningful to add together raw scores from tests of different length or difficulty.
4. MINDSETS:  Language conveys mindsets, use the word yet  !
​“Yet” is a power growth mindset word, it infers that brains develop and grow and that others have faith in their ability to learn and we expect them to.
 

The venue will be either at: Kennedy road/ mid levels, or South bay road/ south.
​More info can be asked  at enthusiasmhk@email.com.

Welcome back to school after what was a very enjoyable and exciting term 2.
Term 3 has started extremely positively with staff and students having a smile on their faces as they came through the gates ready to once again be ‘actively engaged in teaching and learning’. I am excited about the educational challenges that are ahead for this term and know you will continue to support us in our efforts to make FIS the best it can possibly be.
 
This term promises to be another very full and exciting one with the following events planned ;
Global Awareness week/ Inter-schools swimming competition / Inter-schools Athletics Day/ Inter-schools rugby competition/ French Concert /Kermess Fair/ Y5 Athletics Day/Y6 camp/ Art  Weeks on both campuses / Discovery Dome visit/Y6 visits to BPR/ Y4 liaison visit to CW/Y6 Graduation/DELF Assessments/ Race for Hunger /Y5/CM1 SCIENCE PROJECT  DAY/Reports/ Y4  starting their Mindfulness programme.
 
We are also aiming to continue our focus upon teaching and learning development across all phases of the school. As part of this process we are eagerly anticipating the visit of Mr Ian Gilbert  who will be working with the Primary teachers on classroom in-service; and we are also planning to conduct a thorough review of our Behaviour policy model  later in the term to also go across all phases of the school.
We are in the process of interviewing and appointing teachers in primary, more details on these new appointments will be available soon.

External in service; as you all know we have built in a new extensive program of in-service which covers external and internal actions; some teachers will be out of school on external in service and subsequently their class is covered by a confident and competent supply teacher; for example  the two deputy heads Mr Phillips and Ms Wakeman have regular absences to attend their management training sessions. I  just wanted to re assure you all that we book cover for the teachers , that the work is planned, completed and marked by the supply teacher.
 
Later on this tem my teachers will be conducting their Class mixing exercises. Here they will be preparing the new classes for September 2016. I will send out more details later.
 
Staffing structure for next year 
Rec    Ms Drake & Ms Stuchbery
Yr 1    Mr Plaw & Ms Ki
Yr 2   Ms Cooper & Ms Turner
Yr 3    Ms Metz & Mr Finch
Yr 4    Mr Phillips & Mr Cameron
Yr 5   Ms Wakeman & Mr Tait
Yr 6    Mr Durkin & Mr Guise
 
Y6 Transition
These are our key-dates for the weeks to come:
•             Yr5/ 6 Primary Info Evening – Tuesday 12th April
•             School Tour – Thursday 26th May (9.45/11.45am)
•             Yr 6 Graduation Ball – Thursday 2nd June
•             Induction Project Day – Monday 6th June (whole-day)
•             Yr 6 Graduation Ceremony – 23rd June (10.00-11.00am)
 
Sad news : Ying Sperring from Y1/P1
Ms Sperring our ex Teacher Assistant for Y1/P1 has had a stroke and is in the Eastern hospital
If any parents or students who have known her would like to make a personal card /message please feel free to do so and bring into school and we will see that she receives it.

The second term is rushing by . It has been extremely positive with staff and students once again actively engaged in teaching and learning. 
I am excited about the educational challenges that are still ahead and know you will continue to support us in our efforts to make FIS the best it can possibly be. There are some very exciting actions coming up such as; the Year 1/3 trips / Y3/4/5/6 Athletics Days, Young Readers Festival  and Y5 camp.
We are also aiming to continue our focus upon teaching and learning development in allareas and phases of the school. A parent forum with a focus upon Bilingualism was organised for Wednesday 2nd March.
I also wanted to make you aware that the school’s teacher recruitment process is well underway. We are interviewing for the positions of PE teacher and Music teacher for August 2016. The process is rigorous and involves the input of students and staff  I’m hopeful of informing you of its outcomes very shortly.
Young Readers Festival 
FIS is celebrating all things books /reading and writing! We want to turn the spotlight onto literacy and focus on books and writing and reading stories. Our theme to support the Festival is in reading/writing  our own stories and reading the growing popularity of graphic novels and comic books.
Different year groups have chosen different ways to learn with/about stories and using their writing /reading times. There will be a few impromptu sessions of buddy reading/ Mother tongue reading/ assembly time input  etc This is not a book week its just  to support the Hong Kong wide Festival

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