December 5-9 is officially 'No Testing Week' at West Ferris

Near North District School Board
News Release

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At West Ferris Secondary School, the week of December 5-9, 2011 has been declared “No Testing Week” by school administrators. Instead, the focus for the week will be on teachers providing their students with authentic assessments and descriptive feedback. Staff want to bring awareness to the many different ways they assess and evaluate students – all of which are having a positive impact on student achievement.

Student Council President Rachel Holloway said “It is beneficial for students to get a break from traditional testing. It allows students with different learning styles to be successful. I am thankful to our school and our teachers for putting forth the effort to implement this important initiative.”

“This is a good time in the school year to take a breather and re-focus on student-centred learning and creativity. We are providing our students with the opportunity to experiment with their own preferred learning style.

Although EQAO and standardized testing is important, there are other great things going on and for one week we want to highlight those,” said West Ferris principal Sean Ruddy.
Historically, this is the time of year that our students get stressed, with exams coming up and college and university applications due. Across the province, schools are seeing a dramatic increase in social, emotional and mental health issues at school.

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