I hope that all of our families had a rewarding and relaxing holiday. Our students have returned to school energized and enthusiastic. With just over nine weeks left in the school year, your children's teachers are committed to making the most of the remaining time and creating valuable learning experiences for all students.
Progress Reports
This afternoon, the progress reports for Quarter 3 will be published on PowerSchool. Please take some time to look through your child’s progress report, ideally with them. The information contained in this progress report is a summary of your child’s learning progress for the third quarter of the school year. The report is one of a number of strategies used by our school to communicate with you about your child’s achievements, actions and effort throughout the year. Additional progress reports were published in October and January, with a final report on student achievement still to be uploaded in June at the end of the school year. Through the reports and our formal and informal parent conferences, we strive to provide pertinent information about particular triumphs and sources of interest and curiosity for your child, as well as specific areas in need of improvement, the degree of progress/development being made in identified areas, and/or strategies for improvement that can be made by students.
It is important to remember that marks given provide information about your child’s progress and areas for goal setting. While reading this report, please also keep in mind that each child is unique, possessing different skills and strengths, developing at different rates over time. Student assessment should focus on what students can do and know, and how they are progressing against a set of standards, rather than how they are performing compared to their peers.
In all of our assessment efforts, the teachers at ISA strive to encourage and assist students to make progress. Our commitment is to present an honest appraisal that neither inflates grades nor is overly critical. This is a positive process and requires clear communication and cooperation between students, parents/carers and teachers. If you have any questions about progress reports, or evaluation in general, please contact your child’s classroom teacher. If you would like further discussion, I’d be happy to meet with you, too.
Please take note that Preschool parents/carers receive observational notes during the school year and a narrative report at the end of the school year (June 2025).
Screen time for younger children
One piece of consistent feedback from our most recent Parent Teacher Conferences, across a number of grade levels, was that parents/carers are concerned about the impact of screen time. Many of us might also have read about or watched the mini-series Adolescence on Netflix, which raises serious questions about the effect of unsupervised access to digital content - and social media, in particular. While it is true to say that not all screen time can be lumped together into one category (watching an educational video is not the same as scrolling aimlessly through TikTok videos or posts on X/Twitter) As digital devices become more woven into everyday life, many parents wonder: How much screen time is okay for young children? For those with Preschool and Elementary-aged kids, it’s an important question—and research increasingly shows that early screen habits can have long-term effects.
In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt explores how a shift toward "phone-based childhoods" in the early 2010s has been linked to rising rates of anxiety, depression, and attention and sleep difficulties in children and teens. Haidt encourages delaying the age at which a child has access to personal devices, promoting outdoor play, and rebuilding face-to-face interaction to support mental health and resilience.
This message is echoed in several recent studies:
- According to Common Sense Media (2023), children under 8 now average over 2.5 hours of screen time daily, with many toddlers using tablets and smartphones independently.
- The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends limiting screen time for children aged 2–5 to no more than 1 hour per day, focused on high-quality, co-viewed content that sparks conversation and learning.
- Higher rates of screen use in children aged 2–17 has been associated with lower psychological well-being, including more trouble staying calm, focusing, and forming friendships.
- A 2022 meta-review in Nature Human Behaviour found a consistent (though modest) link between digital media use and increased mental health symptoms, especially in preteens and teens.
So what does this mean for our youngest learners? It means we have a chance to build strong, healthy screen habits early. At ISA, although there are situations in which children will interact with screens on devices (whether they are iPads or Chromebooks), we focus on active, imaginative play, outdoor learning, and real-world connection. At home, you might try:
- Making certain times or places (like dinner or bedtime) screen-free;
- Watching and discussing shows or games together;
- Setting clear expectations around time limits and device use;
- Encouraging plenty of unstructured play and physical activity.
The goal isn’t to eliminate screens altogether, but to guide children toward a balanced and mindful relationship with them.
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