Assessing your child’s progress at Allestree Woodlands School – Aspire and Achieve As a school we know it is very important to you to keep track of your child’s progress throughout the academic year. In year 9 we will report to you three times throughout the year. This will be a summary report twice a year and a full subject report once a year, along with the usual parents’ evening. Information on how we will report to you and what it all means is shown below. The Summary Report This is designed for you to receive a snap-shot of how your child is doing in each subject they take. Your child’s attendance to date (as a percentage), attitude to learning and current grades are summarised on this report. A snipped example of what this will look like is shown opposite. What does this information mean and why it is important? 1. Attendance Your summary attendance information shows you the percentage to date your child has been present in school since the start of the school year. Over the years we have compiled information on the attendance of students against their achievements at school. Every year the same pattern occurs – those students who attend 95% of the time or more achieve the highest GCSE grades. For those students who attend less than 90% of the time, there is a significant reduction in their level of achievement. We are, therefore, totally committed to ensuring our students attend school every day – if they are not in the classroom they cannot learn! 2. Attitude to Learning We expect all our students to work hard to achieve their aspirations, whilst also accessing support to help them along the way. We have a high level of expectation because we want all our students to achieve great things! We have split the attitude to learning into three sections we feel are necessary to do well: - Classwork and Motivation - Behaviour and Co-operation - Homework and Organisation Each section is graded into one of 4 different categories: 1. Exceptional – goes above and beyond expectation. 2. Expected – is working at AWS expectations 3. Cause for concern – is working below our expectations. 4. Unsatisfactory – is working well below expectations. In order for a teacher to make judgements about a student’s attitude to learning we use a set of criteria. These will be attached to a student’s summary and full report, will be displayed in all classrooms and are available on our website for parents/carers to see. 3. Current Grade A student’s current grade will be reported on three times a year and will show how well a student is doing against their end of GCSE target. A current grade is also split into a fine grade (or decimal) of .3/.6/.9. Below is a definition of what these mean – in this example a student is working as a grade 3:
3.3 = achieving a grade 3 but this is insecure at this stage (could slip into the grade below) 3.6 = achieving a grade 3 and is secure at this stage. 3.9 = achieving a grade 3 and almost hitting grade 4 – this is what we call a ‘boundary leaper’ as they could leap into the next grade with a little extra effort/revision of a topic.
Key dates for both year 9 parents/carers and students: -
Year 9 options week for students – starts week commencing 18th November 2019 Year 9 full subject reports available on the SIMs app from Wednesday 20th November Year 9 parents’ & options showcase evening – Monday 25th November 2019 - 4:00pm – 7:00pm Year 9 options process opens online Monday 20th November 2019 Year 9 options process closes 4pm Friday 31st January 2020
The Full Subject Report This is a more detailed report where your child’s teacher will provide both current tracking level, attitude to learning information and comments about the progress of your child. The comments are based around ‘what went well’ and ‘even better if’…. These are the same phrases we use when we assess a student’s work and when we give a student feedback on a lesson by lesson basis and at the end of periodic assessments. An example is shown below.
How can I access this information each term? At each reporting period, a copy of your child’s summary or full report will be available to view on the SIMs parent APP. More information about how to download and use the APP is available on our website in the ‘Parents’ section. If you are experiencing problems using the APP please contact r.lawmon@woodlands.derby.sch.uk stating your child’s name and the issue you are having and we will help to resolve the problem. If you do not have access to the internet or a device to view this on, your child can receive a paper copy of their report from student services during the school day. For any parents/carers who may live separately, access to the APP and reports can be set up for you both to receive them. Please contact us on the above address if there are any changes to circumstances or is you would like to set this up. Any further questions regarding reports or assessment please feel free to get in touch. How can I use this information to prepare for my child’s GCSE options? All year 9 students will be starting to think about their GCSE options. As part of this process over the next few weeks, preparation activities will be taking place, so you and your child can make the best informed options to achieve their potential. A good way to choose the best options is to look at your child’s attitude to learning and current grade. If your child is working hard and is doing well in a subject towards their target, then this option is a good choice – it shows they are enjoying this subject and that they have a talent to succeed. Talent is about how well your child is doing against their own GCSE target grades.