1. Understanding Reports
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Understanding Reports
and Targets
Essential information for parents
These slides give a summary of how and when GCSEs and A levels are changing in England, and briefly explain why they are changing.
The slides are designed as a resource to help teachers when explaining the changes to others – in particular, parents of students who will study towards the new GCSEs and A levels.
There is a large amount of information here, and it will not all be relevant to the parents of your students. Please use the slides selectively as helpful for conversations with particular parents.

2. Targets Every student gets a target for each subject
The target is based on everything we know about that student
Mostly on KS2 SATs, but also Cognitive Ability Tests, Wandsworth Tests, performance in class...
The target is intended to be challenging – if a student can reach the target it means the student has performed well
May well change over time
The target is the GCSE grade for the end of year 11
The GCSE grade is a number from 1 to 9

3. “the achievement of a level 5 on the new 1 to 9 grading scale at GCSE will be considered the new ‘good pass’ that will be used to hold the government and schools to account. This is comparable to a low B or high C under the old grading system and raises the bar for performance across the board.”

4. GCSEs: the main changes
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The new GCSEs will:
make more demands of students, to help them achieve as much as students in countries with the best education systems.
be awarded in grades from 1 up to 9, with grade 9 being the highest grade.
Where possible students will be assessed by exam, with other forms of assessment only for particular subject skills (e.g. in art and design or physical education).
All exams will be at the end of the course.
In most subjects, students will not be grouped in different ability tiers for the purposes of assessment – only maths, sciences and languages will have different papers for different groups of students.
Longer and more challenging
The new GCSEs will raise expectations by asking students to develop better subject knowledge, in terms of breadth and depth, by requiring students to develop stronger skills in numeracy and literacy, and by introducing a new grading scale.
The new grading scale, designed by the independent regulator Ofqual, will be numerical to clearly emphasise the break from the old GCSEs. It will be easy to see whether a student did a new or old GCSE.
The new grading structure will give better recognition to the different levels of achievement across the ability range.
Other reforms across the education system will encourage high quality teaching to help students meet the new standard. For example the Pupil Premium, the expansion of the academies programme, and reforms to support students with SEN (Special Educational Needs).

6. How to use the reports
Don’t wait for the report to start - help your child prepare for tests that are coming up
Use the reports as a starting point for discussions – what is going well? What is hard?
Set goals – more effort 1s, higher percentages, more ambers and greens
What can you do to improve?
Less screen time, more reading

7. Show My Homework
All parents should have received details to access the ShowMyHomework web site – if you have not –see me or leave your address
You can monitor the homework set for your son/daughter
See what is overdue
With some classes you may see the grades for the homework
Research shows that homework can make a real difference to a pupil’s progress; as well as the impact of the work, it is particularly valuable in developing routines and independence,
Talk to you son/daughter about the work
Provide a suitable environment – a base – with the materials they will need, avoid the time wasting
Establish routines – pack your bag the night before
Encourage organisation and effort
Test them!
Do not do it for them!