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ASSIGNMENT
Write a forum post (150 words min) as a Reply to this post, reflecting on on your SSE focus, assessment approach and planned actions
- Choose one clear aspect of teaching, learning or assessment to review through SSE.
- Outline your focus, the Google Workspace tools that will support it and the type of digital evidence you plan to gather.
Please also comment on at least one other participant’s post offering a supportive comment, question or suggestion.
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I think we should evaluate learner experiences as part of out SSE. The focus being on Gaeilge learning experiences. I want to determine if the children in my own class are merely repeating learned phrases or are they actively using Gaeilge to communicate their own opinions and choices.
To assess this I would begin by using Google Forms, have a selection of questions that would elicit a response on a scale of 1-5, such as – I only speak when teacher asks me to/I get to choose the projects we work on in Gaeilge. By doing this type of survey with the children I will be able to ascertain how they feel about learning Irish in my classroom. Following the results of this, I can explore new ideas on how to improve on my teaching. I can then return to this survey in two months and see have things improved. I think this is a very good starting point, and may share my idea with other teachers.
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I think this is a great idea Carol. I know in our school the SET use the my Thoughts on School document with their students, and I’ve recently thought that this would be useful to use with all the students in your class. As you have said by creating a form, you can collect their responses and then revisit the same survey later in the year and compare the responses.
This is real qualitative data for the teacher to inform her/his future learning experiences and for parent consultations, etc.
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Hi Nicola, I think using Google forms to capture data such as the ‘My Thoughts on School Checklist’ is a great idea. We often do this at the beginning of the school year using paper forms, however I think using Google forms would be much better as the data is more secure and easier to retrieve and analyse. It would also be very interesting to view how these change over time and to see if there are any trends in the data. It is also a great source of information for the teacher, particularly at the beginning of the year with a new class as it can help the teacher to better support the students with any areas they may identify as finding difficult etc.
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Hi Carol,
This is a brilliant focus for SSE. Evaluating learner experiences in Gaeilge is incredibly worthwhile, especially your emphasis on moving from rote repetition to genuine communication.
Using Google Forms to capture student voice via a scale system is a highly effective assessment approach. Gathering this kind of digital evidence makes the process highly manageable and sharing this methodology with your colleagues is a wonderful idea to promote collaborative practice.
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Using google forms for this would allow the students to be more honest in their responses which would strengthen the data you collect. I like how you suggested a question that asks the students to consider their own confidence with speaking Gaeilge as opposed to questions that would centre around if they merely liked learning Gaeilge in school or not. I think the answers you would get back from the students would be really valuable for future planning.
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The SSE focus I have chosen for my own individual practice is using digital technologies for managing, monitoring and recording pupil progress.
As a whole school we have spoken about using LETRS spelling screener at the beginning of the year to identify the phoneme-grapheme correspondences and orthographic patterns that are largely known in the class and those that are not known and need to be explicitly taught.Having administered the screening test, I could look at using Google Sheets to collect the data for individual students and for the class as a whole. Then I can identify the areas that need further work and I could readminister the screening test later in the year and use the same sheet to collect and compare the new data. If this was helpful I could share it with other staff in the school.
For parents and children I would have real data about spelling and not just a score.
Having compared the data, I can reflect on how effective the explicit teaching was or wasn’t and what areas need further development and then plan the further learning in spelling for my class.
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Hi Nicola,
I think using Google Sheets to track spelling data over the course of the year is a practical way to monitor pupil progress. Having a running record of each child’s progress would also be very useful when meeting with parents, as you can confidently discuss specific strengths and areas for development using real evidence rather than just an overall score. It would also help when planning the next steps in teaching and really help the SET teacher for any children that are struggling. I think sharing the template with other staff is a great idea too, as it would provide a consistent approach across the school and support whole-school improvement. -
I completely agree with you and the points Sarah has made. Using Google Sheets to track spelling data over a set period is a great way to monitor pupil progress. I like the suggestion of sharing the template with other staff, as it would provide a consistent approach across the school and support whole-school improvement and involves colaboration rather than re-inventing the wheel so to speak!
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My SSE focus is to improve assessment for learning in 5th Class by gathering regular pupil feedback and using it to inform my teaching. I have chosen to focus on SESE topics as subjects such as English, Irish and Maths already have more structured and regular assessment opportunities. I think using Google Workspace will allow me to assess the childrens understanding more effectively across History, Geography and Science throughout the year.
I will use Google Forms to create short quizzes and exit tickets after each SESE topic and Google Classroom to assign and monitor the activities. The digital evidence I plan to gather includes quiz results, pupil responses and feedback from exit tickets. This information will help me identify any unclear areas, I can adapt future lessons and provide extra support where needed. It will also allow me to monitor progress over time and reflect on the effectiveness of my own teaching as part of the SSE process.-
Hi Sarah, thanks for your engagement with Module 5 and for your reply.
Targeting SESE for Assessment for Learning is an excellent pedagogical decision, as subjects like History and Geography often lack structured tracking compared to core areas. Utilising Google Forms for digital exit tickets through Google Classroom creates a manageable way to gather real-time student feedback.
Automated data such as this provides objective, measurable digital evidence for your SSE , making it easy to identify learning gaps and explicitly document how you adapted your future lessons to support the children.
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Hi Sarah,
I think your idea is great, SESE really is an area that is so hard to gage with pupils. Your idea of using Forms, actually gives us something constructive and concrete evidence for parents as regards their SESE development. Even something as simple as an exit ticket or simple scale.
At the end of the year reports, if would make me much for confident when it comes to filling in this section for certain pupils.
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This is a really practical approach to using digital assessment in SESE. I like how you plan to use the results to identify gaps in understanding and to inform future teaching. One suggestion might to be include a simple pupil self-assessment question at the end of each google form , such as ‘How confident do you feel about this topic’ This could give you additional pupil feedback and help identify children who may need further support.
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Following on from our Curriculum Planning Days, we selected Well Being as our area for SSE for next year. To begin this process, I’d imagine using Forms for staff, parents and students. Several surveys would be needed to gather the appropriate information. Over the year, google workspace could be used to track this information.
For myself, in my classroom, I would like to use the tool of comments in Google Docs to record interactions with students and monitor the editing process in written pieces. I have to admit the frustration I feel after hours of corrections and pupils often don’t take a bit of notice and just make the same mistakes the next time. Having this history and evidence as well as real time support, feedback and interactions, it would involve the pupil in editing process in a more productive way.
I also like the idea of rubric cubes on Classrooms, especially for self assessment as regards their written pieces and the editing process.
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That’s a great way to use it in the classroom. The past two years for writing narratives the children have asked if they could type their stories and they really enjoyed the process of working in Google Docs. They quickly learned that if they attempted spelling a word they would get the correct option with autocorrect or they would get the dreaded squiggly line! They quickly learned how to fix them!
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I have chosen the focus of student wellbeing in school to review through SSE. I would use Google forms to gather evidence from my class about their feelings towards coming to school and how they manage challenges in their academic and social life. I would use scale-point statements for students to disagree or agree with. I would also ensure I include an area in the form for the children to identify which strategies the school has in place to support student wellbeing that are working, as well as giving the students an opportunity to offer their own suggestions on what we could do to further support this.
Gathering this qualitative data and sharing it with my peers would allow us as a staff to consider what is working for our students and what are some possible improvements we could make based on the students’ suggestions This would work as a starting point for our school wellbeing week also.
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I think this is a very good starting point for your SSE on wellbeing ie what is being used, what is working and giving the students a voice too. Repeating your process across the whole school would I feel give a great starting point to implement and invest in the most effective strategies to have meaningful change.
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As a school we chose well-being for our primary focus in our SSE. Ideally we target emotional self-regulation in upper primary classes. Our school is part of the Active Schools initiative and we participate in the Amber Flag initiative which celebrates communities that create healthy, supportive, and inclusive environments by promoting mental well-being. We have previously conducted surveys on google forms to assess how children feel at school with parents and children as part of our school development and antibullying policy. This can act our pupil baseline in the survey to begin.
We can integrate Google Classroom into our daily morning routines such as using Google Forms where teachers use a quick, non-intrusive Morning Check-In Form based on the Zones of Regulation or emotional scale meters. Pupils privately log how they are feeling, rate their energy levels, and flag if they need a brief 1-on-1 check-in or a sensory movement break. This is inclusive for all levels and as it will be on forms it will be confidential. Using Google Sheets can provide teachers with a confidential, real-time dashboard. This allows staff to immediately spot emerging emotional trends, identify dysregulated pupils early in the day, and adjust lesson pacing accordingly.
To measure progress across our 6-step SSE process, we can gather different types of digital evidence from google slides and google forms and have reflections where pupils track their chosen coping strategies (e.g., breathwork, quiet spaces, heavy work) and evaluate which tools helped them move back to a regulated state.
By using this digital evidence thoughtfully, we can still keep teacher judgement centrally and plan accordingly.-
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This is an excellent way to allow students to voice their emotional state in a safe way that helps the staff to be aware and proactively assist when needed. The records maintained in Google workspace can be used for developing whole school actions, SSE focus, parental information and evidence for inspectors aside from the obvious in class benefits. The beauty of Google collaboration here can allow other staff members to use templates or improve and refine them too.
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The area of focus I have chosen for SSE is the writing genre process. I think using tools like Google classroom and Google docs to capture examples of student’s writing across the various writing genres is a great way to monitor and track progress over time. As the student’s digital portfolio is available throughout their time in primary school, progress across the various writing genres can be easily reviewed over the years and it is a good way for the teacher to see where the student is at on their learning journey and identify what areas need to focus on in order to help them progress. These records can also be viewed by parents at home which could be very beneficial in helping parents and teachers to work together. Google forms could also be used to gather student feedback on areas relevant to the writing genres such as which genre they enjoy the most, which one they find the most difficult etc.
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After reflecting on my own practice, I have decided to focus my School Self-Evaluation on inclusion, specifically on ensuring that all students can access learning in ways that suit their individual needs and abilities. My aim is to review how effectively digital tools can support differentiated teaching and provide opportunities for every student to participate meaningfully in lessons.
To support this focus, I plan to use Google Workspace tools such as Google Classroom to organise and distribute differentiated learning materials, Google Docs for collaborative and scaffolded activities, and Google Forms to gather regular student feedback and monitor understanding. These tools will also allow me to provide timely feedback and adapt learning activities based on student progress.
My assessment approach will combine formative assessment with ongoing reflection. I intend to gather digital evidence including student work submitted through Google Classroom, responses from Google Forms, examples of collaborative work in shared documents, and student voice surveys. This evidence will help me evaluate whether the strategies I introduce are improving engagement, participation and learning outcomes for all students, particularly those who may require additional support. I hope this process would lead to a more inclusive classroom environment where every student feels valued, supported and able to succeed.
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For our SSE focus, we’re focusing on formative assessment, specifically how quick digital feedback helps pupils reflect on and edit their work across different subjects.
To implement this at the senior end of the school, we’re going to use Google Workspace. Google Classroom is great for setting tasks with rubrics and building up handy comment banks, while Google Docs lets us drop in real-time notes as pupils write. We will also look into using Google Forms for quick exit tickets to check understanding at the end of a lesson.
Going forward, to see if it’s making a difference, we’re gathering a few key pieces of digital evidence. We will be running quick pupil surveys on Google Forms to see if our feedback is useful to them. We’re also beginning to check the version history on Google Docs to see if pupils are actually acting on our suggestions, and tracking overall progress on Google Sheets.
It’s been a really practical way to gather solid evidence for SSE while making our assessment approach a lot more responsive.
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The area of Digital Learning Framework that I would like to explore through SSE is Domain 2, Pupils engage purposefully in meaningful learning activities. While we have technology in our school, the range of uses of it varies, often a reflection of individual teachers relationship with technology. As a starting point a reflective discussion amongst staff, followed by evidence gathering from pupils via adapted google forms survey to seek information on pupils experiences of using technology at school. Using the range of google sheets and slides areas of improvement will be identified and presented. This will be used to decide next steps and to drive action. This can be part of a school improvement plan. We need to be sure that technology is helping learning. It cannot always be assumed. Each annual cycle brings pupils with greater exposure to technology in our ever changing world. So too does our teacher use of technology need to move with the times.
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This would be good area to look at for SSE Victoria. It’s easy for any school to say it “has technology”, but the real question is whether the technology is actually improving learning for the pupils. I like that you mentioned the variation between teachers too. That’s very real. Some teachers are very confident with digital tools, while others might only use them in a limited way, so a staff discussion would be a good starting point. Getting pupil feedback through a Google Form is a great idea as well. The children are the ones using the technology, so their experience would tell you a lot about what is working and what isn’t. Your point at the end is also very important Victoria. We can’t just assume technology is helping because it is being used. It has to be purposeful, and it needs to move with the needs of the pupils.
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Similar to your school we are lucky to have access to a lot of technology but dont always use it well. My intention is to begin a digital portfolio this year with my students in 4th and share it with my collegues in 5th and 6th with the hope that we will all be using the available technology (chromebooks) effectively and with purpose. Again I need to use google forms more for feedback as it is a really quick, fun and interactive way to gather information from the children,
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Our SSE for next 2 years will be assessment. Identifying where the student is at and how much progress they have made were highlighted by an inspection as areas that were not coordinated or clear across the school.
In our post‑primary MGLD classrooms, the aim could be to shift assessment from something done to students to something they do. LAOS is clear that good evaluation needs a mix of tracking, student voice, and real observational evidence — and Google Workspace actually helps us here.
Digital portfolios in Sites let students show their work in ways that suit them. Slides and Drive make multi‑modal evidence easy — photos, audio, quick reflections instead of heavy written tasks. Forms and Sheets give us clean, real‑time notes that feed straight into SSE without extra paperwork.
It turns assessment from a static record into something living, visual, and strengths‑based — which is exactly what our learners need.
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I really like your focus on making assessment more meaningful and student-centred. The idea of moving assessment from something that is simply done to students towards something they actively participate in is particularly relevant. I also think the use of digital portfolios could be very effective, especially for students who may find traditional written assessments challenging.
Using Google Sites, Slides and Drive to collect different types of evidence such as photographs, audio recordings and reflections would give a much broader picture of each student’s progress. Forms and Sheets could also make it easier for staff to record and analyse assessment information consistently across the school.
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For my School Self-Evaluation (SSE) focus, I would like to look at the development of skills in SESE (Social, Environmental and Scientific Education). In particular, I would focus on skills such as observing, questioning, predicting, investigating, recording and communicating findings. I think these skills are important as they allow pupils to become more active and independent learners rather than simply learning facts.
Google Forms could be used to gather pupil voice and assess pupils’ confidence in using different SESE skills. I could create a short questionnaire asking pupils how confident they feel when carrying out investigations, working as part of a group, making predictions and explaining their findings. Google Classroom could also be used to share tasks and collect digital evidence of pupils’ work.
The digital evidence gathered could include pupil questionnaires. -
Having been inspired by a post from module 1 I would like focus on :Pupils enjoying their learning, being motivated to learn, and expect to achieve. I would do this by helping them set up a digital portfoio. Using Gemini suggestions I would help them create a slides presentation with headings:about me, thoughts about school (as others have suggested) Eng , math, Gaeilge, projects etc. I would use google forms to help gather feedback (Pupil Surveys: Assess student attitudes toward learning, self-assessment, and digital skills before and after introducing portfolios.) from the students and use slides to put it all together. Children would gather there best work for each subject and photograph and upload the image to slides under each heading. I would also get them to add a voice note/comment to tell us why they choose their piece. During family days the children would be able to open their digital portfolio and share it with parents/guardians. Once up and running I would be able to share best practice with colleagues using another domain of SSE: demonstrating collective practice.
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I would like to use domain 4 teachers collective /collaborative practice into action using a variety of digital skills. I have chosen this as I feel this is an area which w need to strengthen at my school, we have a wealth of knowledge but time constraints mean we are not effectively sharing this knowledge. Digital skills and
Some ideas below for domain 4 I will input into our digital plan for this coming year as I am currently redrafting it.
– Streamline digital storage Set up dedicated google folders- we currently have a shared drive, google drive, one drive and teacher usb keys it would be great to get one streamlined system for sharing of resources and exemplars etc. Evidence of this would be
– Digital Peer observation- pair up teachers to show each other how they use digital tools for assessment- exit tickets, rubrics.
– Staff Training- 15 minute slot “The Digital Toolbox” at every staff meeting- teachers share effective collaboration of digital skills
– Co Creation of Digital templates- digital coordinator uses a live google doc and teachers break into team groups and create standardised exit tickets and rubrics that can be shared to the google drive.Evidence for this domain could be recorded through videos, resources created and streamlined digital storage created, shared and used regularly for collaboration.
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I really like the idea of having a short “Digital Toolbox” at staff meetings, as it gives teachers an opportunity to share their knowledge without requiring a lot of additional time. Having one streamlined system for resources would also make collaboration easier. Which of these ideas do you think would be easiest to introduce first in your school?
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<p style=”font-weight: 400;”>I really like your plan to use exit tickets via Google Forms!<span data-path-to-node=”9,2″> </span>Gathering that real-time data makes it so much easier to group pupils for target interventions the very next day. The data will be so useful for teacher feedback? One small suggestion that worked well for me was using the ‘Quiz’ feature in forms so students get instant feedback on multiple-choice check-ins.</p>
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For my SSE focus, I chose to look at how well my Junior Infants pupils understand and recognise key Autumn vocabulary. I would use a short Google Form at the end of the lesson as an assessment for learning activity. As the children are young, the questions would be simple and visual, using pictures and multiple-choice answers. Pupils could identify autumn objects, colours and weather, as well as choose a happy, neutral or sad face to show how they felt about the activity.
The Google Form responses would provide useful digital evidence of what the pupils understood and highlight any vocabulary or concepts that need further support. I could use this information to give feedback and plan my next lesson. For example, if several pupils struggled to identify particular autumn vocabulary, I would revisit it using more visual, sensory and hands-on activities. I could then repeat a similar assessment later to see whether pupils’ understanding had improved.-
I really like this! Using picture-based questions and smiley faces on a Google Form is such a smart way to adapt digital AfL for Junior Infants. It can be tricky getting tech to work for that age group, so keeping it purely visual is spot on.
I love that you’re using the quick feedback to loop directly back into hands-on, sensory work—that’s where the real learning happens for the little ones anyway, and it keeps the tech serving the pedagogy rather than the other way around. Just out of interest, do you have the children complete the Form individually on tablets during station teaching, or do you run through it as a whole-class activity on the Interactive Whiteboard?
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For our upcoming SSE cycle, I would zoom in on geometry in senior primary math, specifically focusing on how students understand shape and space. I would address a common challenge where fifth and sixth class pupils can easily name basic shapes, but freeze up when asked to explain shape properties, work out missing angles, or visualize nets.
To tackle this, I would switch up our assessment approach using key tools in Google Workspace. Instead of relying solely on end-of-unit paper tests, I would have the children use Google Slides to create interactive shape journals. They would take photos of shapes around the school, label their angles and properties directly on screen, and explain their thinking. I would also use quick Google Forms quizzes as warm-ups to spot common misconceptions in real time.
The digital evidence I would gather includes the students’ annotated slides, self-assessment reflection forms, and the automatically generated summary charts from our quizzes. This would give me a clear picture of their spatial reasoning progress while keeping the lessons practical and engaging for the class. It would make tracking our SSE goals far more manageable and meaningful.
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For the upcoming school year, our school has selected Wellbeing as our SSE focus, particularly in the context of embedding wellbeing across the redeveloped Primary School Curriculum. I think this provides a valuable opportunity not only to reflect on our current practices, but more importantly to identify practical ways in which we can improve the wellbeing of pupils across the school community.
One aspect I would like to review is pupil voice and pupils’ sense of belonging and wellbeing within the school. Google Workspace could be very useful in gathering evidence in this area. Google Forms could be used to create age-appropriate and anonymous pupil surveys, giving children an opportunity to express their views in a safe and secure way. Forms could also be used to gather feedback from parents and staff, ensuring that the wider school community has an opportunity to contribute. Google Docs could then be used collaboratively by staff to record observations, analyse findings and identify possible actions.
The digital evidence gathered could include survey responses, recurring themes, pupil feedback and staff observations. From this evidence, we could identify specific areas for improvement and agree clear and realistic actions. Follow-up surveys later in the year would allow us to assess whether these actions have had a positive impact.
I think using these digital tools would strengthen the SSE process by ensuring that decisions around wellbeing are evidence-based and that everyone’s voice is heard, rather than relying solely on the opinions or observations of a small number of people.
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I think focusing on the development of skills in SESE is a very worthwhile area for School Self-Evaluation. I particularly like the emphasis on skills such as observing, questioning, predicting and investigating rather than focusing only on pupils’ knowledge of different SESE topics. These skills can help pupils become more independent learners and encourage them to think critically about what they are learning.
Using Google Forms to gather pupil voice would be a very effective way of identifying how confident pupils feel when completing different SESE activities. It could also help teachers identify particular skills that may need greater attention across the school.
One suggestion I would make would be to gather additional evidence alongside the pupil questionnaires. For example, teachers could use a simple shared assessment rubric or checklist to record how pupils demonstrate these skills during practical investigations. Samples of pupils’ work could also be collected through Google Classroom. Comparing this evidence with the pupils’ own perceptions would provide a more complete picture of their strengths and areas for development.
The findings could then be used to establish specific SSE targets and actions, with the same evidence gathered again later in the year to measure progress.
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As an administrative principal I chose to review learner experiences of spelling through SSE. Following CPD in spelling recently it would be valuable to evaluate students use of visual skills when spelling so that it could inform frequency and emphasis on visual skills if purposeful.
I liked the way the google slide was set up in module 3 with vocabulary, image, sentence starters, I think this could be adapted to a type of choice board for students to identify the skills they use when spelling.
Simple multiple-choice quizzes can be made using google forms and slides again used to present quantitative data in tables following the quiz.
When analysing data and deciding next steps it might be worth looking into using Gemini or Gemini gems to bullet point or summarise current up to date Irish research on the teaching of spelling e.g., visual skills & phonics skills.
Although this course discusses learners’ experiences (presumably students) I think so much of what is presented can be useful for whole school administration I guess in terms of teachers experiences and from my perspective with commitment to clarity and purpose. The voice tool- although fantastic for inclusion could save time and heartache in minute taking or initial incident reporting. The Gemini gems were also something I found super interesting. I think for me it would be important to keep my focus of what I am trying to achieve in terms of administration to the core and to use it as a tool and support.
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For our school’s SSE focus, I am looking at the Teaching and Learning domain, specifically focusing on increasing pupil engagement and ownership of learning through self-assessment and digital feedback. The children have access to technology twice per week so there will be an opportunity not only to implement this but also to make it a regular and substantial element of our SSE.
To support this, I plan to use Google Forms for weekly self-reflection surveys and Google Docs alongside Google Classroom for submitting assignments and receiving targeted feedback. The primary digital evidence I will gather includes responses from Google Forms exit tickets, baseline and follow-up pupil confidence scores, and digital comment logs within Google Docs.
By regularly analysing this evidence, I aim to move from teacher-led assessment to a more pupil-centred approach. My planned action is to establish a fortnightly reflection routine where students review their previous digital feedback, set a personal S.M.A.R.T. goal, and track their own progress over time. This evidence will directly inform Step 2 and Step 3 of our SSE cycle as we measure the impact of digital feedback on pupil autonomy. -
My SSE focus is to improve the oral language skills and confidence of EAL pupils in 1st and 2nd class. I will focus particularly on developing vocabulary and encouraging pupils to use complete sentences when speaking.
I will use Google slides with pictures, key vocabulary and sentence starters to support pupils during oral language activities. Pupils will have opportunities to practice the language through partner talk, games and small group discussions.
To assess learning, I will use a simple Google Form alongside teacher observation, speaking checklists and occasional audio recordings. This will allow me to gather evidence of pupils understanding and identify areas where further support is needed.
I will use this evidence to plan going forward. I will revise vocabulary where necessary, provide additional modelling and gradually reduce sentence supports as pupils become more confident. I will reflect on the evidence gathered and adapt my teaching to support continued progress.-
Hi Lorna,
This is such a fantastic and practical SSE focus! Working with 1st and 2nd class EAL pupils on their oral language—especially sentence structure and vocabulary—is such a vital foundation for their overall literacy development.
I really love your idea of using Google Slides as a visual anchor. Pairing clear pictures with key vocabulary and sentence starters is an amazing way to lower the pressure for young EAL learners during partner talk and games. It gives them the exact scaffold they need to feel successful right away.
Your approach to gathering digital evidence is spot-on, too. Combining Google Forms with simple teacher observation and audio recordings is brilliant—hearing their actual voice progress on tape over time gives you genuine evidence that written work just can’t capture!
Your next steps around gradually fading out those sentence supports as their independence grows shows such a clear understanding of language acquisition. Best of luck with this in your classroom.
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<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>The aspect of teaching and learning that I would use for SSE is literacy with a specific focus on the writing genres. Each class level would have a number of specific genres to do so that each band (eg 3rd/4th) would get indepth teaching on all genres over 2 years. Assessments would be made at the start before the teaching of each genre. This would be done by taking a photo of the children’s work on the Google Classroom App and uploading it to a digital portfolio for the child on Google Classroom. The work would be assessed by a rubric decided at the whole school level (and shared with the students after grading), this then would be the basis of teaching. The feedback could be given via Google Classroom to have a running record over the years. Pupils’ work could then be sent home to parents and feedback shared with parents to celebrate children’s progress. Children’s work could be displayed at the end of the teaching unit within the school and then that work compiled in a scrapbook to be shared with parents for a night or two before being returned to the class. Finally, rubric scores will be entered into Google Sheets to track class-wide progression and serve as quantitative digital evidence for our SSE process.</span>
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For our next SSE cycle, I really think our focus should be on Formative Assessment specifically getting the 5th and 6th class pupils taking a bit more ownership through self-assessment, while giving us a clearer picture of where they’re at. I’d suggest leaning heavily on Google Workspace to keep the workload manageable for everyone. Google Forms would be ideal for quick exit tickets at the end of literacy or numeracy blocks, while Google Slides could work really well as simple digital learning logs where the kids pop up pictures of their work and reflect on how they got on. In terms of digital evidence, the focus could be on gathering: Summary charts auto-generated in Forms and Sheets to spot gaps in understanding right away without spending hours correcting, short self-reflection notes and quick audio clips added straight to the children’s Slides logs and quick baseline and end-of-term Form to measure if the pupils actually feel more confident assessing their own progress over time. As a practical starting point, my idea would be to set up a shared Drive folder with reusable exit ticket templates that the senior team could tweak and test out. This would feed directly into our SSP targets by giving us real-time data for differentiation, without landing anyone with a massive pile of physical marking every evening. That said, I know getting a process like this used consistently across the whole school will take time and a good bit of staff training—maybe using some Croke Park hours to get everyone up to speed. It definitely won’t happen overnight, but starting with a small pilot in the senior classes would make rolling it out to the rest of the school a lot smoother down the line
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This is a phenomenal proposal for your next SSE cycle! Shifting the focus toward student ownership through self-assessment in 5th and 6th class is perfect for preparing senior pupils for secondary school.
Using Google Workspace to keep the workload manageable is highly practical. Your idea of auto-generated charts in Forms and Sheets is a brilliant way to gather digital evidence instantly without drowning staff in marking. I also love the idea of digital learning logs in Google Slides for audio reflections—it makes self-assessment accessible for all learners.
Your suggestion to pilot this with the senior team first using a shared Drive folder and Croke Park hours for collaborative training is a highly realistic implementation strategy. Starting small makes a school-wide rollout much more sustainable. To further enhance your SSP targets, do you think a standard rubrics template could be embedded directly into those shared Google Slides to give the pupils a clear visual guide for their self-assessment?
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Our current School Self-Evaluation (SSE) focus is on improving learner outcomes and pupil engagement in content-heavy subjects like SESE. To support this, my assessment approach uses a brief Google Forms quiz acting as a formative assessment check at the end of our 4th Class unit on Irish Bogs and Peatlands.
This tool will automatically generate digital evidence through visual pie charts and item analysis summaries of student responses. This instant data will shape my immediate feedback by highlighting specific vocabulary or concepts (like habitat or peat formation) that require whole-class re-teaching. For my next steps, I will use individual student responses to assign targeted, differentiated review activities in Google Classroom. Ultimately, this digital evidence supports our broader SSE reflection by providing clear, measurable data on conceptual retention and tracking the long-term effectiveness of our blended learning strategies.
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SSE Focus & Assessment Approach
Our School Self-Evaluation (SSE) focus evaluates how digital feedback tools can strengthen formative assessment, clarify student thinking, and promote greater self-regulation. To measure this, we are using a brief “3-2-1” exit ticket built in Google Forms and assigned directly through Google Classroom at the end of key learning units. Students quickly outline three main takeaways, two remaining questions or areas of confusion, and rate their overall understanding on a simple 1-to-5 confidence scale.Supporting Tools & Evidence
Google Forms acts as our primary gathering tool, generating instant summary charts that highlight common misconceptions across the group. Google Classroom helps manage individual tasks while providing a private space to leave personalized, direct comments for students who log low confidence scores. Finally, all form responses automatically sync into Google Sheets, giving us a clean spreadsheet dataset to track growth, spot trends, and measure topic mastery over time.Planned Actions & Next Steps
Immediate Re-Teaching: Review automated Forms summary graphs right after submission to adjust the very next lesson plan and target widespread gaps.
Direct Interventions: Send targeted, private feedback through Google Classroom to quickly support students flagging high confusion levels.
Department Collaboration: Export collected Sheets data to team folders for quarterly department reviews, using empirical evidence to refine assessment strategies across subjects.
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