Dear Secondary Families,

Quarter 4 is well underway. Compelled by the current public health crisis, classes met via Zoom or Google Meet for 7 weeks. Now, campus has reopened for Grades 7-12. As such, we have students learning on campus and students learning via live streaming from home who cannot attend. We are doing our best to respond promptly and demonstrate agility and adaptability to yet another new and different learning transition.

Grading Philosophy

The nature of online learning is different from learning that takes place in person. While we iterated conscientiously to transition to quality teaching and learning online, it can be more challenging to assess students in this environment. Every student is managing not only a new form of independence, but possible complications connected to their experience - unreliable internet connection, sharing laptops with siblings, family matters, different time zones, etc. Understanding that the student experience may be differently impacted and considering that Quarter 4 consists of 7 weeks of online learning and 4½ weeks of in-person learning, we have decided to use an alternative approach to grading, both for final exams and recording of grades.

Final Exams

Comprehensive final exams, usually accounting for 30% of the final grade, will not be administered this year for Grades 7-12. Thus, classes will continue as scheduled and assignments and assessments will continue through the end of the school year.   

However, full IB2 students have the option to take a final exam for any IB2 course in June, if desired, to improve their end-of-year Pinewood grade in any given course. 

Reporting Final Grades

In place of reporting grades on a 100-point scale (1-100%), final grades this year will be reported on a 5-point scale (A, B, C, D, F). This 5-point scale signals that the last quarter was outside our usual practices while still allowing us to honor the progress of each student up to campus closure. When doing so, teachers will review the cumulative grade at the end of Quarter 4 and compare it to Quarter 3 to ensure that there is no major adverse discrepancy between them. Equally, borderline grades will be given the considerations of the unusual learning circumstances to benefit the student. 

Please do not hesitate to reach out to your child’s teachers at any time for discussion or feedback about progress or other matters. 

Thank you for your continued collaboration.

Warm Regards,