Assessment and Reporting

The partnership between parents and carers and the school is vital in building positive relationships and ensuring maximum progress for all our students.

We have designed an ambitious curriculum for your child which builds upon the good work of our primary partners and stretches students towards University, Apprenticeships and into the world of work. Through careful planning and sequencing we develop the knowledge, skills, vocabulary and cultural experiences that will enable our students to be truly successful.

Student progress is reported to parents and carers at three points each academic year. In addition, parents are invited to attend one consultation evening each year to discuss student progress with their child’s subject teachers, along with an extended meeting with their child’s Tutor on our Academic Monitoring Day held in November.

Assessment in school involves much more than tests. It takes many forms and is an integral part of our Responsive Teaching programme. Assessment is an ongoing process involving task setting, completion, feedback and evaluation towards identified learning objectives. Teachers assess classwork, homework, verbal responses and examination style assessments or end of unit assessments throughout the year.

Teachers will use all of this information, as well as available data, to provide parents / carers with an end of year target; this is the likely level of achievement that, based on all the evidence available at the time, the student should be working at in each subject by the end of the year.

However, learning is not a linear process, and there will be times when students make more, or less, progress depending on a wide variety of factors. Therefore, we also provide a progress grade (green, yellow and red) which indicates whether a student is making the progress expected of them in that subject since their last report.

Each report will also highlight a student’s Attitude to Learning in Lessons (ATL) and Attitude to Homework and Independent Learning as either exceptional, good, inconsistent or a cause for concern. Should an inconsistent or cause for concern ATL be recorded, teachers will identify this in a short target on the report and then work with parents / carers to support students to be ready to learn.

As parents / carers, the greatest contribution you can make to ensure your child thrives at school is by supporting them to have a positive attitude to their learning, be present at school and complete their homework.