How will I know if my son is doing well? Student Progress How will I know if my son is doing well? Karen Velissarides – Deputy Headteacher

Coombe expects that your son…. makes friends and is happy is engaged in his learning is taught by up to date and knowledgeable teachers does his homework behaves impeccably ENJOYS learning gets involved

Academic Progress Each student is an individual Wide range of subjects and skills Catch up CAT and Baseline testing in the first 3 weeks Building on skills, knowledge and understanding year on year 7 year flight path to GCSE and beyond!

Changes at Key Stage 2 Year 7 students – your son - arrived at Coombe in September with a standardised score based around 100 (average) which is an average of his performance in aspects of English and mathematics. This replaced the old KS2 levels (i.e. 5a or 4b etc). In March 2014, the Department for Education (DfE) published information for schools on the National Curriculum and assessment from September 2014. which stated that level descriptors were being removed so that “Schools have the freedom to develop their own means of assessing pupils' progress towards end of Key Stage (KS) expectations”. This meant that every school could choose their own way of assessing progress – both infant, primary and secondary! In September 2016 Coombe moved away from levels.

What data do we have in September? English KS2 Test 1 What data do we have in September? English KS2 Test 2 KS2 Teacher assessment Maths KS2 Test KS2 Teacher assessment Cognitive Abilities Tests

Assessing progress without levels Coombe assessments are based on skills development, knowledge and understanding General principle – students study fewer things in greater depth, developing a deeper understanding of central concepts and ideas Assessments focus on this – selective assessment based on progress made Celebrates the progress of all students regardless of their starting points

Teachers have identified the ‘big ideas’/concepts in their subjects For each year group the teachers have decided what they would expect students to achieve at their age/stage (based on prior attainment at KS2) Assessments are designed to measure student attainment against the expected progress and a conclusion as to whether the student is working Exceeding expected progress Expected progress Below expected progress

The curriculum is planned with a spiral approach to skills and knowledge in mind Skills and knowledge are revisited with an increasing level of difficulty as the students progress in the school Educational research (Rohrer ‘Spatial Effects in Learning’, 2008) showed that long term retention can be tripled if this approach is taken: “To achieve enduring retention, people must usually study information on multiple occasions” Year 9 Year 8 Year 7

Important Dates for you and your son 2018-2019 Progress Reports Uploaded to Insight Parent/Carers Evenings Examination Weeks Examination Results reported Autumn Data Capture Progress and attitude to learning report Academic Mentoring Day Friday 14th December 2018   Spring Data Capture Academic Mentoring Day Friday 29th March 2019 Wednesday 27th February 2019 Summer 1 Data Capture 5 Summer 2 Data Capture 6 Full Report Wednesday 17th July 2019 Week of 5th -11th June 2019 Exam Report

Working Towards

Academic Mentoring December 2018