1. Assessment and reporting

2. Students will take all of their GCSEs in May/June 2021
Old GCSE grades
New GCSE grades
A** 9 A* 8 A 7 B 6 C 5 D 4 E 3 F 2 U 1
Students will take all of their GCSEs in May/June 2021
No early entry

3. Curriculum
Students are currently take the following subjects: English Maths Science Spanish PE Art History Geography Performing Arts (to be introduced in September)
Students will make their GCSE option choices at the end of Year 9

4. Assessment system There are four Tracking Assessments every year:
October
December
March
July (end of year tests)
Tracking Assessments are all directly linked to GCSE content and skills
They are marked using a GCSE style mark scheme
Tests are moderated by Heads of Department in other schools

5. Why do we assess? To identify gaps in students’ learning/understanding
To provide students with the opportunity to practice/revise topics they don’t understand
To enable the teacher to reteach topics which students haven’t understood before moving on
To move the students’ learning forward
These are not high stake/high accountability tests – we do not want students to “stress” about them

6. How do we monitor students’ progress?
Students are set a GCSE target based on their Key Stage 2 SATs result. Students are tracked against this target in all of the Tracking Assessments.
Department Action Plans – each department produces an analysis of the results after each Tracking Assessment and identifies topics that need to be retaught and students/groups that need extra support or intervention in class
The Head of Year analyses the data for the whole year group and will send letters to home to any students who may need extra support. In addition extra support and intervention will be put in place for these students.

7. Sample report 1
Target
Projected grade
Progress
English 7
On track
Maths 5
Not making expected progress
Science 6
Below target
Spanish 8
Making good progress
Art 4
History
Geography PE
We have decided not to use this type of report as it does not provide the parents or students with any information about where the gaps in the student’s knowledge are or what they can do to improve.
This report would also lead to an increase in the pressure and accountability of the tests and could be very demoralising for students over a period of time.

8. Sample report 2
Progress
Targets
English
Not making expected progress
To identify the spotlight word and explain it in more detail
Maths
To practice how to work out the area of a trapezium
Science
To understand the difference between weight and mass
Spanish
Making good progress
Art
To learn the difference between warm and cold colours
History
To understand the importance of provenance when examining a source
Geography PE
This report does provide parents and students with clear information about what the student can do to improve. However, again this report could be very demoralising due to the focus on whether or not they are “making expected progress”. A student could be performing well but still not making expected progress at this stage due to their aspirational target. Parents and students are more likely to focus on the progress column rather than the targets column.

9. Current reporting system
Targets
English
Making good progress
Maths
To practice how to work out the area of a trapezium
Science
To understand the difference between weight and mass
Spanish
Art
To learn the difference between warm and cold colours
History
To understand the importance of provenance when examining a source
Geography PE
This report purely focuses on moving the students’ learning forward. There is no reference to targets or “not making expected progress”. This hopefully reduces the pressure on the students. Parents and students are given clear targets on how the student can improve in each subject.