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Your child will receive three reports across the academic year, at the end of each term. This will contain information on their behaviour, attitude to learning and the progress they are making in each subject.
Each year group undertake a range of Key Learning Tasks (KLTs) and Key Assessment Tasks (KATs) across the academic year. KLTs are used to develop learning and provide students with guidance on how to improve. KATs are used in a similar way to give feedback to students about improvement but they are also graded. The reporting and assessment approaches for each year are detailed below.
Learning is structured in three cycles throughout each year. Each cycle is composed of three key areas (outlined below) to ensure students are given time to reflect and respond to feedback from assessments.
Teaching - Weeks 1 to 10 | Assessment - Week 11 | Response - Weeks 12 to 13 |
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Students are taught a range of engaging and challenging lessons that develop their understanding of threshold concepts. | Students undertake an assessment that tests their learning from the previous cycles as the year progresses. | Two weeks of lessons that are planned based on their assessments to address misconceptions and stretch thinking. |
In most subjects, there will be a Key Assessment Task (KAT) at the end of each cycle. These will be completed during lesson time and different subjects have different formats depending on the most suitable format for the subject. Some subjects (PE, Drama, Music, Art) may assess performance towards achieving the threshold concepts over a range of lessons.
Typically, KATs will include multiple choice questions, short answer questions, vocabulary questions and questions that assess application through extended writing or problem solving. They will also test learning from previous cycles as this has been shown to help students remember what they have learnt in the long term.
The aim of the task is to determine the extent to which the Threshold Concepts have been understood and support students in their learning of the Threshold Concepts.
Students will initially receive a percentage score for each KAT from their subject teachers. Scaled scores are then assigned based on how each student has performed in the task against all the students in the secondary schools in Windsor Academy Trust. This is done in a similar way to national assessments like Key Stage 2 SATs and GCSEs.
This is useful as it adjusts a score if a test is particularly challenging. For example, a student may receive 80% in a task but the task may have been quite difficult and when compared, it may be that 80% was one of the highest scores. This would then be given a high scaled score.
Scaled scores are between 80 and 122 inclusive, similar to the scores given for Key Stage 2 SATs in Year 6, with higher scaled scores representing better performance in KATs.
Students in Year 9 follow the same structure of teaching, assessment and improvement as Year 7 and Year 8. The only difference is that students are introduced the 9-1 GCSE grading structure.
Year 9 content is designed to bridge the gap between lower school and GCSE, using GCSE skills but not introducing GCSE content.
Assessments in Year 9 use the GCSE grading criteria and award GCSE grades but only in relation to Year 9 content, giving an approximation of future GCSE performance. This is used to build student familiarity with the GCSE grade structure and criteria prior to the study of GCSEs in Year 10.
Students in Year 10 and 11 study GCSE subjects and some vocational subjects (BTECs or Cambridge Nationals) if they picked them during their options.
GCSE grades are now awarded on the 9-1 numerical model. Grade 9 represents the highest possible attainment and is only awarded to a small number of students each year. Grade 5 is now defined as a ‘strong pass’ and sits at the old C/B borderline. Grade 4 is a ‘standard pass’ and is comparable to the old grade C.
During the two years of study students will complete a range of KLTs and KATs which will help teachers and students understand their strengths and areas for development. In Year 10, students will sit a series of mock examinations in the summer, usually around the end of June, which will be used to assess their progress and identify areas of focus for Year 11.
Once in Year 11, students will sit mock examinations at the start of November and then again in late February/early March. Our aim with these assessments is to give students useful, realistic practice in the exam environment. This has the dual benefit of helping teachers to understand how to help students improve their exam technique, as well as providing robust assessment data that allows us to predict likely performance at the end of Year 11.