Assessment
Assessment plays a crucial role in learning and teaching at Whitchurch High School. Assessment covers a wide range of elements in relation to students’ learning. We have produced this guide to assist in understanding what you can expect and how you can keep track of your child’s progress.
Assessment for Learning
While we often associate assessment with exam grades, the most important assessment that takes place happens in lessons on a day-by-day basis – assessment for learning. Our teachers will check for students learning through questioning, task setting and by reviewing written and oral responses to the work they set.
This allows teachers to respond to the needs of different learners and to understand whether students have mastered a particular skill or fully understood key subject knowledge.
We encourage all parents/carers to discuss their children’s progress by looking at the work in their books, as this will provide an up-to-date picture as to how your child is progressing in most subjects.
Teacher Feedback and Students’ Responses
The school is placing a strong emphasis on the importance of students responding to the assessment for learning carried out in lessons or through teachers’ written feedback. This means that, as directed, students should respond to the suggestions made to them to improve their work. This may take many different forms, such as:
- writing out key spellings three times,
- correcting punctuation,
- correcting inaccurate answers,
- explaining what went wrong,
- improving answers with extended detail,
- re-drafting to improve a piece of work,
- posing themselves improvements for future work.
We also promote peer- and self-assessment. This can help develop students’ understanding of what is expected in their work. Our learning teaching and feedback policy is aimed at making it clear to students, as well as you as parents/carers, which work has been assessed by teachers and which work they have assessed or amended themselves in response to the marking. Green pen marking is that done by teachers, red pen marking is completed by the students.
Tracking Progress
In Years 7-11, students receive two Interim Reports per year, containing data from their most recent Progress Checks and their Learning Behaviour scores (more information below). In addition to this, students in these year groups receive a full written report annually, where their Wellbeing Tutor collates information from subject staff and reports on your child’s progress across the curriculum. There is also an online Progress Evening held annually where parents and carers are able to discuss progress directly with subject staff.
In Years 12 and 13, students receive three Interim Reports and in lieu of a full written annual report, there are instead two online Progress Evenings.
Years 7, 8 and 9
In Years 7 to 9, students’ progress is assessed against their Progress Path.
Progress Paths are assigned to students during the course of Year 7 and are based on quantitative data (CATs test results, Welsh Government Personalised Assessments) and on teachers’ knowledge of your child and their progress during lessons. Progress Paths broadly equate to GCSE outcomes that your child could be expected to attain at the end of Year 11, as below:
Progress Paths are reviewed annually and are expected to be both challenging yet realistic. They are shared with parents and carers in the first Interim report in Year 9.
Progress is reported against students’ assigned pathways, as below:
This method of reporting has been designed to place due emphasis on a student’s progress, rather than their attainment at any one time.
For example, a student may be placed on the Excelling pathway in a subject, and their teacher may assess their progress this term as “well below expected”. Previously, this would be reported simply as a B grade, which may not have raised any concerns. The new method of reporting would highlight this as underperformance as it emphasises progress against a students’ potential.
Reports contain guidance about how parents and students can ensure that they ‘Always’ display the relevant Learning Behaviours.
Years 10,11,12 and 13
Attainment is reported as a grade and will be what we expect a student to achieve given their working standards and effort to date. The range of grades are A* to G, unless it is a vocational qualification. For AS level the grades are A to E and for A2 (full A Level) A*-E. Further information will be printed within the reports to clarify these codes.
A learner’s ‘Approach to Learning’ is referred to as their ‘Learning Behaviours’. These are the key behaviours that we consider to be necessary to enable individual learners to make progress in each subject curriculum. These focus on the whole learner; their cognitive, emotional and social behaviours in school. We will report whether learners display the individual learning behaviours with 1 meaning ‘Always’, 2 meaning ‘Mostly’, 3 meaning ‘Sometimes’ or 4 meaning ‘Rarely’.
Reports contain guidance about how parents and students can ensure that they ‘Always’ display the relevant Learning Behaviours.
In reports for all year groups, the following information is also reported:
Attendance – students’ attendance record as taken at the point of the running of the report.
Behaviour and Achievement Points – these are the reward and sanction points issued for your child during the school year.
Students will also be encouraged to use the interim report to reflect on their progress and set targets going forward that will support them in maintaining or improving their performance.
Reporting and Progress Evening Schedule
Reports are sent out during the year. The dates can be found on the school calendar on the website.
In addition to the school’s reports, parents/ carers will be directed to the HWB website in order to access their child’s Personalised Assessment results after these are completed in the summer term.