A endance We inform parents of student a endance on each and every STaRS report. A endance should be above 95% and below this should cause some concerns. This equates to 10 days off school in a year and any more than this should really be ques oned. There is a very strong link between good a endance and good progress. We find that in many, many cases where students are not progressing their a endance is poor [below 95%]. Teacher comments Because we have so many STaRS reports and because parents are informed frequently about how their child is progressing we do not have teacher comments on the reports. Typically schools have used statement banks to indicate comments and we do not feel these are personal enough. We do have an Assessment and Marking policy that means students will have comments in their exercise books and will have had a number of discussions with teachers as to how they should improve. Addi onally and very importantly if a parent has ANY concerns about their child’s progress we encourage them to contact the school early. Certainly if their child is in Group 3 or 4 overall we would expect some contact and if a subject has shown repeated grade 3s or 4s then contact should be made. The school may well be contac ng parents in any case. Tutor Comments For the final report of the school year there will be a STaRS report that addi onally has a personal comment from the child’s tutor and Head of House. Every report is signed personally by the Headteacher who reads every one and will occasionally make comments to students and parents on the reports – this will be hand wri en.
When will the STaRS reports come out? The dates are published on our website. We text parents in the week of a STaRS report coming out – again part of our service to parents. Finally for Parents and Students – we seek to do everything we can to make the STaRS reports useful and accurate. With so many STaRS reports going out we will inevitably make the odd error. If you think there are mistakes then please do contact us quickly so we can adjust the STaRS reports if we need to – or explain anything that we can to assist with understanding them. If you think we can further improve the system then please contact the Headteacher directly on head@fakenhamhigh.norfolk.sch.uk
STaRS Repor ng System
2012‐2013
Fakenham High School and College Field Lane, Fakenham, NR21 9QT Tel: 01328 862545 Email: office@fakenhamhigh.norfolk.sch.uk Web: www.fakenhamhigh.norfolk.sch.uk
STaRS stands for Student Tracking and Repor ng System and is the main way we communicate with students and parents to indicate how your child is progressing in school.
There are STaRS reports each term for students in Years 7 and 8 and each half term for students in Years 9, 10 and 11. The reports have two aspects – Progress and A tude to Learning. Progress Targets ‐ Every student has a target for each subject. This target is based on what we believe the student is capable of if they work hard in lessons, complete work and hand in good quality homework. These targets are individual and we can alter them slightly up or down during the year – mostly they stay the same. How a student has progressed in the past will influence their target but it is also based on their ability as an individual. Grades – Staff indicate how well they think a student is progressing to their target. This can be referred to as a “flight path”. If the member of staff believes that by the end of the year the student will achieve their target they are graded as a 2. If the member of staff believes the student will achieve above their target they are graded as a 1. Students who are likely to be below their target by the end of the year are graded a 3 and students who are seriously underachieving will be graded a 4. All of this assumes the student will con nue working at the same rate they are now. Not ability based – because each student has an individual target that is based on their abili es any student can receive any grade regardless of their ability. An example would be a student whose target at KS4 is say a “B” and they are looking more likely to achieve a “C” – the teacher would grade as a 3 in the report. Another less able student could have a target of an “E” but is looking more likely to achieve a grade “D” because they are working hard would be graded as a 1. In this example given the student likely to get a lower actual qualifica on gets a higher STaRS grade as they are working above their target level.
Different STaRS report – when the next STaRS report comes out the previous grades are s ll shown so students can see how they have progressed over the year and parents are able to see this and support as needed. Overall Groupings In order to clearly indicate to students how they are working overall we have created four general groupings. These are to indicate to students an overview of their work and they are based on the Progress grades. The table below indicates how a student is placed in each group. Group Two or more The rest are No grade 3s 1 grade 1s grade 2s or 4s Group Could have Could have No more than 2 some grade 1s some grade 2s two grade 3s or 4s Group Could have Could have No more than 3 some grade 1s some grade 2s four grade 3s or 4s Group Could have Could have Five or more 4 some grade 1s some grade 2s grade 3s or 4s
For each Overall Group we put in place some support or recogni on of success. Group 1 – Seen individually by the Headteacher and offered a free mini prize. Group 2 – Seen as a group in assembly and congratulated on their progress. Group 3 and Group 4 – seen either by Head of House or tutor to offer support with their work. This could mean parents being invited in or students being asked to work harder and at lunch mes. Students may be put on report un l the next STaRS report. A tude to Learning In addi on to the Progress Grade we have an A tude to Learning grade – again using 1‐4 as our indica on to students about their a tude to learning. There is a table summarising what each number represents below but broadly speaking the grades have the following meanings.
The Ac ve Learner Grade 1 Excellent a tude to learning ‐ a real credit to themselves and the school—working very hard 100% a endance A tude to teachers and peers is outstanding Ac vely engaged in learning, enjoys a challenge Thirst for knowledge, skills, understanding Takes risks and can work independently Helps other learners to learn Behaviour is excellent and no personal reminders needed Consistently works above target and takes pride in their work Student involves significant others in their educa on Grade 2 Good level or work/acceptable ‐ doing what is needed Good a endance A tude to peers and teacher is consistently good O en asks and answers ques ons in class Keen to discover knowledge and understanding or learn new skills Takes risks with new work or ac vi es, developing independence Behaviour checks rarely needed Needs to be encouraged to demonstrate their understanding in a variety of ways Work meets targets Grade 3 Some improvement needed ‐ below the acceptable standard and some measure of improvement is needed in some way A endance is a concern A tude to staff and peers varies Would like to do well but not always able to turn good inten ons into work Needs encouragement to par cipate and lacks resilience in learning A tude to learning means that they are not making as much progress as they should Can distract others or be distracted if unchecked, par cularly in group work O en needs to be reminded of expecta ons and to stay on task Behaviour checks necessary Grade 4 Unacceptable ‐ far below the standard that is acceptable ‐ rapid improvement needed as a ma er of urgency Poor a endance Lack of respect for other learners’ needs Lack of commitment to learning Does not consistently follow teacher instruc ons Behaviour checks frequently required Some mes has to be removed from class Work produced is below expecta on An impression of reluctance to learn is shown