The Best Start Assessment is a tool to help teachers assess your child's skills as they enter school, and to tailor teaching to their individual needs. Teachers will sit with your child when they start school to assess your child's literacy and numeracy skills so that they can develop an appropriate teaching program that caters for your child.
Children come to school with different levels of literacy and numeracy. Some are familiar with books, can recognise some letters, even write their name or count to ten, while others have not yet learned these skills. However, Kindergarten teachers have no expectations of what pre-schoolers should know at the start of their first year of school.
Our Kindergarten teachers have always observed their new students and used different methods to find out what each child knows and can do so that they can plan and teach what their students need to learn next. Best Start gives our teachers a common set of high-quality assessment tools and professional training.
It is very important to emphasise that Best Start Kindergarten Assessment is not a test. Its purpose is to help the teacher gather information to guide the teaching of your child.
For the first 3 days of the school year, parents are given a 30-minute time slot to bring their child to school for the Best Start assessments with one of our Kindergarten teachers. The teacher will observe each child and use tasks, such as talking about a book that has been read, and record what their students know and can do. The teaching of your child will be based on the information gathered in these ways.
The teacher will look at your child's early reading and writing, their ability to communicate with others, and how they recognise and work with numbers, groups and patterns. You'll be given feedback about what your child's teacher has learned about your child, which you are welcome to discuss if you wish, in keeping with our usual practice.
