On the following Tuesday, 21 September, we will be running our first Parent Workshop of the year. I have previously spoken of my desire for us all to have a clear shared understanding of the PYP Framework and curriculum we follow here at Nexus.

With this in mind, the first workshop will be 'The PYP Framework Explained'. Mr Paul Rimmer and I look forward to seeing you.

Please visit parentworkshops.nexus.edu.sg to register your interest.

Primary Parent Teacher Conferences will be held on Thursday, 23 September from 4pm to 8pm and all day on Friday, 24 September. This is an opportunity to meet your child's teachers to discuss learning and engagement.

Primary learners are not expected to attend these with their parents or caregivers. We had hoped that we could run these conferences face to face on campus, however, it will not be possible under the current safety management measures. Please note that school will be closed on Friday to enable staff to meet individual families online.

Please log on to the Parent Portal to book your 15-minute appointment with your child’s homeroom teacher.

In late September, a randomly selected sample of Year 4, 5, 6 and 7 learners will participate in the ACER ISA assessments. The International Schools’ Assessment (ISA) is a high-quality assessment used by international schools and schools with an international focus to monitor learner performance over time and to confirm that the school's internal assessments are aligned with international expectations of performance.

The ISA supports Nexus to compare attainment in our Primary School against other schools worldwide as part of our quality assurance processes. ACER has gained invaluable experience in developing assessments that are culturally and educationally appropriate for learners from many language and educational backgrounds. The ISA is based on the internationally endorsed frameworks for the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

The ISA provides:

• an external evaluation of core skills in mathematical literacy and reading that allows us to evaluate the reliability of our internal assessments.

• a reliable external tool that helps us reflect and refine the quality of our Nexus curriculum.

• a detailed set of reports summarising our school’s results and comparative data that allow us to easily identify areas of strength or weakness and trends over time.

• comparisons of learner cohorts with other participating learner cohorts in the same year group. This provides a means for us to monitor cohort performance against international expectations.

We will share the main findings in January 2022 when the data is fully analysed against all the other schools taking part.