Assessment & Reporting
We believe effective communication between school and parents is vital to the education of all students. Reporting to parents on student progress and attainment is an integral part of how students achieve success.
Assessment is an integral part of our curriculum. Assessment allows us to:
- Plan for learning based upon a student’s current knowledge and understanding.
- Measure the impact of our teaching.
- Measure students’ progress so that they are all aware of what they are good at and also areas that need to be focused to move their learning forward.
- Inform parents on the progress of their child.
- Prepare students for external exams.
Assessment is continuous, ongoing and takes many different forms.
Ongoing Assessment:
Whilst teaching, every question asked or discussion overheard helps the teacher to assess an individual students understanding of the topics being covered.
Formative Assessment:
This type of assessment gives students feedback on how to improve their work and usually they will then be given the opportunity to do this. It exists in several different forms:
- Self-Assessment is where the student assess their own work against the success criteria that have been shared with them. This helps them to reflect on their work and builds familiarity with the success criteria.
- Peer Assessment is when students assesses each other’s work against the success criteria. They provide each other with feedback on how to improve the work.
- Teacher Assessment is when the work is marked by the teacher. The teacher will comment on ‘What Went Well’ (WWW) and then give the ‘Next Steps’ for what the student should do next. This is done on stickers so should be easy to find in students’ books.
- Summative Assessment is a type of assessment that measures attainment at a certain point such as at the end of a topic or school year.
- Most subjects have end of topic summative assessments and in all years there is an exam week where students are tested in exam conditions in the hall on everything they have covered to that point.
- In Year 10 students sit ‘Mock’ GCSE Exams at the end of the year. In Year 11 there are ‘Mock’ GCSE exams in both November and February to help 01prepare and guide them towards success in their final exams.
GCSE Grading
GCSE grades are changing from A*-G, to a numerical scheme from 9 to 1 with 9 being the highest.
- In 2017/18, Year 11 will sit the majority of their subjects as the new GCSEs graded on a scale 1-9 with 9 being the highest.
- In 2018/19, Year 10 students will sit all of their subjects as the new GCSEs graded on a scale 1-9 with 9 being the highest.
- Subsequent years will sit all new GCSEs.
| New Grade | Old Grade | Current thinking on how the new grades relate to the old grades | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | A* | Grade 9 is roughly equivalent to the top half of previous A* grades | |
| 8 | Grade 8 is roughly equivalent to the lower half of previous A* grades | ||
| 7 | A | Grade 7 is being set at the old grade A standard | |
| 6 | B | Grade 6 represents the top of a grade B | |
| 5 | Grade 5 represents the lower section of a B and a high grade C | ||
| C | |||
| 4 | Grade 4 is being set at the equivalent of the old grade C | ||
| 3 | D | Grade 3 is the equivalent of the old grade D | |
| 2 | E | Grade 2 is the equivalent of the old grade E | |
| 1 | F/G | Grade 1 is the equivalent of the old grade F/G |
In all years students are set targets based upon what they will achieve at the end of Year 11.
- In each subject, students will be set 2 targets in line with FFT (Fischer Family Trust) expectations based upon progress nationally.
- Students will be set an Expected Target. This is the target that they will be reaching if they make ‘good’ progress and this is the target that the AOB grades refer to.
- Students will also be set a challenge target which is the grade they could reach if they were to make outstanding progress in a subject.
- Targets are based upon the prior academic achievement from KS2 and so to ensure they are relevant they will be moderated. This is so subjects such as Art or PE can also use their own baselines in order to set attainable but challenging targets.
- Targets do not limit students and some students make much greater progress than would be expected. It is not unusual for a student to achieve 2 grades above their target in a subject that they really love and fully apply themselves to.
Over time
| A | A motivated and hardworking student who is able to work independently and makes very good choices in and out of lessons. They are highly proactive and consistently display excellent effort. |
| B | A student who is willing to improve their work and consistently makes good choices in and out of lessons. They consistently apply a good effort and take some responsibility for their learning. |
| C | A student who can make poor choices in lessons which can result in standards being below what is expected. Inconsistent efforts applied to work and unless a change is made future progress could be limited. |
| D | A student who applies little effort to their work and very little responsibility is taken for learning. They are underachieving and unless a significant change in approach to work is made the student will underachieve. |
Specific piece of work
| A | In the work produced the student has applied themselves fully; being proactive, showing a positive attitude, taking responsibility for their learning and looking for opportunities to extend themselves through their work. |
| B | In the work produced the student has shown a positive attitude and applied themselves well to produce their best work, acting upon feedback they have received. |
| C | In the work produced the student has shown a passive attitude to learning and the work produced is not reflective of the student’s best efforts and ability. |
| D | In the work produced the student has demonstrated a lack of engagement showing little drive or ambition to succeed at their potential. |
As students work towards achieving their target grades, teachers use a wide range of evidence to monitor how well they are progressing.
Each subject has broken down the subject into a five year plan so, at various stages in each year teachers can use their assessment evidence to be able to say whether a student’s current performance puts them either BELOW, ON or ABOVE with reference to their target grade.
Behind each AOB judgement there are 4 sources of evidence for support:
- The teacher’s assessment of all the students ongoing work in class, in books, in response to questioning and in their Independent Learning.
- Written assessments designed to assess against specific criteria.
- Doddle assessments and Doddle progress trackers.
- Annual internal exams.
| A | Assessment evidence shows that the student is performing at a standard Above that needed to reach their target grade. |
| O | Assessment evidence shows that a student is On track to achieve their target grade. |
| B | Assessment evidence shows that a student is Below the expected standards to reach their target grade. |
Online reporting – Insight
We use online reporting to keep parents fully informed of how their child is progressing. Parents are issues with their individual passwords that allow them to access all the assessment information mentioned above as well as live information on their child’s attendance and behaviour via INSIGHT, the online reporting website parents have access to at any time.
At the end of each half term there will be a summary sheet available showing the progress and achievement in each subject. Towards the end of each year a paper report will also be issued to parents showing how students have performed over the year and in the end of year exams.
In Years 7 and 8 grades are reported at the end of each half term in English, Maths, Science, Languages, History and Geography. Grades are reported at the end of each term in all other subjects.
In all years written learning targets are reported to parents in the first half term of each term and these are reviewed in the second half of each term. In Years 10 and 11 grades are reported every half term for all subjects studied. Each half term a summary grade sheet is available to parents on Insight.
These summary sheets include:
- The target grades
- On/Above/Below in reference to the target
- Attitude to learning grades
Written learning tasks are also reported on in the first half of each term and these show the the areas where a student needs to focus upon in order to take the next steps in their learning.
Parents’ Evenings provide the opportunity for parents to meet with their child’s teachers to discuss their learning.
Parents are also invited to attend Mentoring Day to meet their child’s tutor to discuss their progress as well as raise any other issues.