History

GCSE Reforms House Life

and before bed time.

Please have your own battery powered alarm clock.

POST Post is delivered to the House daily and must be signed for in Matron’s office. The “out tray” for post is on the foyer table—the postman will collect post each day. You can buy stamps and hand in letters to post at the main College reception.

POSTERS We like you to bring posters and pictures to liven up your dorm but please make sure you only pin them to the notice boards provided - do not blu-tack or sellotape any to the walls or furniture. Prospective parents, staff and other visitors will often be shown around the house and therefore any posters you put up must not cause offence to anybody. If a member of staff thinks a poster is unsuitable you will be asked to remove it. Posters containing the following should definitely be avoided; racism, nudity, sex, bad/crude language, blood and gore, anything which sets out to shock.

SATURDAYS Attendance on Saturday morning is encouraged to enable you to take advantage of the varied array of additional activities and clubs which take place over the two 50 minute sessions. Attendance is optional but it is expected that all those who board on Friday night will wish to benefit from the A advertised Saturday programme and day girls will appreciate the later registration time of 9.15am (full boarders must attend). You may go home after your last activity if you have no afternoon commitments. All girls must stay on Saturday afternoon if they are required for a school commitment.

TAXIS You may not hire a taxi without permission. The cost of taxis may be put on your school bill if your parents agree—you should collect a taxi slip from Matron.

• All GCSE subjects are now graded and assessed using the new 9-1 structure; • 9 is the highest grade, awarded to the very best candidates in the subject. The official definition of a grade-9 candidate is that they will be ‘in the top 20% of those achieving grades 7-9 in the subject’; • In every subject, the content is more demanding and the assessment more rigorous than previously; • The assessment will be mainly by exam. In some subjects such as Drama and Art, other types of assessment will be used only where they are needed to test essential skills. For further information about assessment, please speak to the relevant Head of Department. Tiering of exams The new GCSEs are only split into foundation tier and higher tier if one single exam paper does not give all students the opportunity to show their knowledge and abilities. Consequently, exams are tiered in Biology, Chemistry, French, German, Maths, Physics and Spanish. New grading structure Current grading structure

9 A* 8 7 6 B 5 4 C 3 D 2 E F 1 G U U

9 is awarded to those pupils achieving what would currently be a top A*: perhaps at around 96%+

GOOD PASS (DfE) 5 and above = top of C and above Schools are no longer AWARDING assessed on A*-C 4 and above = bottom of C and above statistics, but on ‘9-4’ statistics. Under the updated structure, the ‘good pass’ for Maths and English is a 5, which is on the border between a C and a B under the old system.