Student Learning

Student Reports - Reporting the Achievement of Students for whom English is a Second Language

The progress of an English as a Second Language (ESL) student learning English should be reported against the stages of the ESL Standards rather than the levels of the English Standards.

An additional text box can be created on the report card to record the ESL Standard a student has reached and to capture teacher comment.

For more information, see: ESL sample reports

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Definition of an ESL student

For funding purposes, the Department defines a student as ESL if they:

  • come from a language background other than English
  • do not speak English as the main language at home
  • have been enrolled in an Australian school for less than five years.
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How to report ESL student's progress

For students meeting the above criteria, schools can make a balanced judgement using the report card in its entirety, or for selected domains only (based on the English proficiency of the student), or an alternative reporting format can be used.

If a decision is made to use the report card, but not to enter scores for selected domains, a written comment should be provided, using existing or additional text boxes.

If students can express their understanding of ideas and information well enough in English, the same reporting format and approach as other students at the school should be used.

The time of transition to using the report card in its entirety will depend on the English language proficiency of the student, years of schooling, level of literacy in their first language and background experiences.

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When it is time to assess using the English Standards

As students learn more English, their learning begins to correspond to the English Standards. If your assessment of your ESL student on the English Standards is within acceptable year level parameters, then it is time to start using the English Standards for reporting.

If your assessment of your ESL student on the English Standards puts the student well below their peers (and the student’s English still has significant ‘ESL features’), then you should continue to use the ESL Standards.

For example, an ‘E’ rating for an ESL student made against the English Standards may not be an accurate reflection of their learning, and can indicate to parents that there are problems in their student’s learning progress, when the student is actually making adequate progress learning English.

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Explaining a report to parents if they do not speak English

Interpreters can be arranged for parent-teacher interviews, where the reports can be discussed.

Except for special school and integration student reports, individual reports cannot be translated. For more information, see: Interpreting and Translating Guidelines.

Showing parents the stages diagram on Page 6 of the English as a Second Language (ESL) Companion to the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/support/esl/esl.html) can help them to understand where their student is on the ESL learning pathway, how much progress they have made in the last semester, and to conceptualise how they will progress over time into the English Standards.