1. Sir James Smith’s Community School
STEPS GRID handbook
A practical guide
Key Stage 3

2. STEPS and the STEP Grid Handbook
Monitoring and reporting attainment and progress
in Year-7 and Year-8.
Dear parent/ carer,
As someone with a son or daughter in Year 7/8 you may be aware that there have many changes to assessment in schools over the last few years. At the same time as the government’s announcement of a major shift in the way attainment and progress were to be reported at KS2 from September 2016, they also indicated the abolishment of ‘levels’ at KS3, but with a much earlier deadline of September However, unlike KS2, there was no prescribed alternative system put into place across the country and all secondary schools were invited to create their own model of assessment.
Over the past two years we have been working to create an assessment model that will work with our Key Stage 3 students. This year we have improved our model to create distinct STEPS grids. Each grid is comprised of 9 ’steps’ and a number of ’strands’. The grid contains descriptors for what a child needs to be able to do to complete a ‘step’.
Your son/ daughter will start with a baseline ‘step’, which will be derived from KS2 data and baseline assessments they will complete in their opening weeks of the Autumn-term. We will report the baseline step for each subject in the Q1 report in mid-November. It is expected that most students would move up each strand by at least 1 step each year (3 steps over the course of the key stage)*.
We feel very confident that what your son/ daughter experiences at Sir Jim’s is indeed a very comprehensive and professional package. This assessment model allows you as parents and carers the opportunity to be closely involved in their attainment, progress and target setting over the entire key stage.
Accompanying this letter you will find your own copy of the STEPS grids. Please keep this safe and use it to cross reference attainment on each report with content of the KS3 courses for each subject studied.
Finally, please feel free to contact me directly if you have a specific question about the system which needs further explanation.
Yours faithfully
Mr. E. McGuffie
Assistant Head Teacher – Curriculum
* In Science, progress is built implicitly into the scheme of work. Therefore students will be expected to stay on the same step or fluctuate above/ below this step as the content becomes more challenging throughout the year.

3. Introduction What is STEPS?
What is STEPS?
Strategic Targets for Educational Progress and Success (STEPS) is an assessment and progress monitoring, tracking and reporting programme for secondary schools.
How does it work?
Upon arrival in Year-7, every student is assessed via a broad range of information and results available to the school. Subject teachers then place students at a baseline Step in each Strand and this becomes the starting point for each subject. A Step Point Score is generated which is an overall score for a subject. Each student is expected to make at least one Step of progress in the Step Point Score per year, with the exception of Science where progress has been built implicitly into the scheme of work.
School reports
You will receive four reports per year showing your child’s attainment and progress in every Strand in every subject and it will also show you the overall Step Point Score. When used in conjunction with this handbook, it will give you both a detailed and quick method of reviewing attainment and progress so far. It will also allow you to discuss targets to progress to the next Step.
The STEPS grids
Each subject has its own grid, these form the rest of this handbook. Each grid is a basic summary of all the work that can be covered in each of the Key Stage 3 Programmes of Study. Each subject follows a similar approach.
Strands: these run along the top of the grid, they break a subject down into smaller topics or areas. There are between three and seven Strands per subject.
Steps: These break a subject down into progressive Steps. There are nine Steps per Strand per subject; 1 is the lowest Step and 9 is the highest.
Statements: Each Step has one or more statements. Students have to achieve all of these, and all of the ones in the Steps below, to be at that Step level.
The Step Point Score
Students will be given a Step score for each individual Strand in each subject. The Step Point Score combines these individual scores to give an overall score in a subject.
If 3.6 was the baseline at the start of year-7, then the students would be expected to reach:
4.6 by the end of Year-7
5.6 by the end of Year-8
6.6 by the end of Year-9.
This would be a minimum expectation and targets could be adjusted each year to maintain challenge for each individual.

4. Physical Education

5. Physical Education 9 8 7 6 5 Step Strand 1 DOING (Double weighting)
THINKING
(Equal weighting)
Strand 3
SOCIAL and EMOTIONAL 9
All of the below and…
highly effective in the use of a variety of tactics to positively influence their performance and the outcome of competitive situations.
always demonstrates creativity and imagination to excel in competitive situations.
can confidently officiate full competitive situations.
can evaluate the full performance of themselves, others and the team giving effective solutions for improvement.
people have trust in me as a team leader to carry out and demonstrate the range of activities and attributes required for successful leadership.
is committed to extracurricular sports and is an active member of local sports clubs. 8
can use a range of tactics to good effect in competitive situations.
is able to respond imaginatively to a variety of situations and influence outcomes.
can officiate full competitive situations.
can evaluate the full performance of themselves and others, giving effective solutions for improvement.
is an active team player who is trusted to solve problems within competitive situations.
regularly participates in a variety of extracurricular sports. 7
can consistently perform a wide range of techniques and skills to good effect in competitive situations.
can use basic tactics to good effect in competitive situations.
can adapt to different situations that arise within competitive performances.
has the knowledge and understanding to officiate areas of a competitive situation.
can evaluate aspects of their own and others performances, suggesting areas of development.
regularly offers tactical suggestions for use within competitive situations.
uses physical activity to benefit their health and wellbeing and enhances this through extracurricular sport.
is an active team player who is trusted to lead a team and suggest solutions to problems within competitive situations.
is able to further progress using advice from others. 6
can perform a variety of techniques and skills effectively in competitive situations.
can consistently perform with control and accuracy in competitive situations.
shows the use of basic tactics in competitive situations.
can demonstrate the ability to adhere to all rules and regulations for a variety of sports.
can evaluate aspects of their own and others performances.
can offer tactical suggestions for use within competitive situations.
understands how to use physical activity to benefit their health and wellbeing.
is an active team player who is trusted by others.
shows resilience when acting upon advice from others. 5
can use a variety of techniques and skills in conditioned games.
can perform with control and accuracy in conditioned games.
can consider the use of tactics in conditioned games.
can demonstrate the ability to adhere to most rules and regulations for a variety of sports.
can evaluate, with prompting, their own performances.
when questioned can discuss the benefits of tactics in conditioned games.
has an understanding of the impact on a person’s health and physical fitness.
is a good team player and trusts teammates.
can accept advice, from peers, and respond to increasingly challenging situations.

6. Physical Education 4 3 2 1 Step Strand 1 DOING (Double weighting)
THINKING
(Equal weighting)
Strand 3
SOCIAL and EMOTIONAL 4
All of the below and…
can demonstrate a wide range of techniques for a variety of sports in pressurised practices.
shows consistent level of control accuracy and control in pressurised practices.
can demonstrate the ability to adhere to basic rules and regulations for a variety of sports.
shows consistent levels of understanding of techniques for a variety of sports.
can accept advice, from adults, and respond to increasingly challenging situations. 3
can demonstrate a range of techniques for a variety of sports within increasingly challenging practices.
show good levels of accuracy and control within increasingly challenging practices.
can understand a range of rules and regulations for a variety of sports.
can show good levels of the use of techniques and tactics within increasingly challenging practices.
can independently safely prepare for physical activity. 2
can demonstrate basic techniques in isolation for a variety of sports.
shows good levels of accuracy and control.
understands basic rules and regulations for a variety of sports.
shows good levels of understanding of techniques for a variety of sports.
has a basic understanding of physical activity on a person’s health and wellbeing. 1
Can…
demonstrate basic techniques in isolation for some sports.
show some levels of accuracy and control.
understand basic rules and regulations for some sports.
when prompted demonstrate a basic understanding of some techniques in some sports.
I …
am confident, that with support, can safely prepare for and recover from physical activity.

7. Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What is STEPS? A. STEPS is an assessment-recording and progress-monitoring system for all subjects studied at Key Stage 3. Q. What are STEPS grids? A. The STEPS grids break a subject down into Strands of content and nine progressive Steps. Students are placed on the STEPS grid following a baseline assessment. The expected progress is at least one-Step per year or three-Steps over the key stage. Q. What is a Strand? A. A Strand is an area of study of a subject. Every subject is divided into between three and seven Strands. Q. What is a Step? A. Every Strand is broken down into nine progressive Steps. Nine is the highest Step and one is the lowest. Steps provide the pathway through the Programme of Study for each Strand. Q. Why does my child appear to have made more progress in one subject than another? A. All subjects are different and so are children! It is quite understandable for one student to have a different rate of progress to another. Learning is a cycle of improvement. Students improve and then plateau before making further improvement – the timescale for this improvement is very individual and varies between subjects. It is quite normal for rapid progress to be made when children are exposed for the first time to specialist teaching, when perhaps teachers with expert knowledge were not available in primary school. Q. My child seems to have made no progress at all in one subject. A. There could be circumstances which would mean that within the last assessment cycle this was the case. It could be a completely new subject, or one that has been studied for only a portion of the year. We are anticipating three Steps of progress over the key stage and that one Step is merely the average of this expected progress each year. Remember also that in Science, progress has been built implicitly into the schemes of work. Therefore your child will be expected to stay on the same step or fluctuate above/ below this step as the content becomes more challenging throughout the year. Progress will be numerically represented by a variation score (progress score) from your child’s start point. If your child’s score is positive or remains at 0 throughout the year this represents expected progress or above expected progress; if they receive a minus progress score then this indicates that they will need more support to maintain their progress in the upcoming units.