Reporting and Assessment

Years 7 and 8

The removal of National Curriculum levels means that the College has developed its own assessment system for our young people in Years 7 & 8.  Three times a year we will report home on attainment, progress and effort towards our Core Values.  

Entry Thresholds: 
Students in Year 7 will be allocated an entry threshold for each subject linked to prior attainment.  These thresholds make a suggestion about future attainment - if a child were to keep working at this level throughout their time at the College. 

Name of entry threshold        Leading to…
Excellence                            GCSE Grade 7 - 9
Confident                             GCSE Grade 5 - 6
Developing                           GCSE Grade 3 - 4
Approaching                         GCSE Grade 1 - 2

Example of how KS2 Scaled Scores transfer to thresholds:

KS2 scaled score        Name of entry threshold        Leading to…
111 - 120                  Excellence                           GCSE Grade 7 - 9
99 - 110                   Confident                             GCSE Grade 5 - 6
93 - 98                     Developing                           GCSE Grade 3 - 4
80 - 92                     Approaching                         GCSE Grade 1 - 2

The KS2 scaled score for English (Reading & Grammar) will be used for English and communication based subjects.

The KS2 scaled score for Maths will be used for Maths and STEM based subjects.
The KS2 combined English and Maths scaled score will be used for PE and Art.
Those students without KS2 scaled scores will use GL assessment scores (these tests are completing on entry to the College).

Current Attainment Thresholds

Our current attainment thresholds are defined by what a student must know, understand and be able to do before he or she can make progress in what they are learning. We define each threshold by considering the concepts, knowledge and skills demanded by the curriculum and in turn each unit of study.

Progress Reviews will report the current attainment for each subject alongside the entry threshold.  Skills ladders detailing concepts, knowledge and skills for each attainment threshold will be issued by departments to parents and to students.  Student attainment will be a measure of progress on the skills ladder.   Assessments will be constructed by staff to allow students to access each threshold on the skills ladder.   

Each Progress Review will have a written comment from subject staff and tutor.  This will be an Even Better If target to work upon to support progress in the following unit of study.

Name of attainment threshold        Leading to…
Excellence                                   GCSE Grade 7 - 9
Confident                                    GCSE Grade 5 - 6
Developing                                  GCSE Grade 3 - 4
Approaching                                GCSE Grade 1 - 2
Unclassified*                               Not applicable

If a child is making expected progress they will stay within their entry threshold.
If a child is making less than expected progress they will be below their entry threshold.
If a child is making more than expected progress they will be above their entry threshold.
*An Unclassified grade may be given if a student has missed an assessment/significant lesson time or been unable to fulfil any of the skills ladder.

Core Values 
Each student will be assessed in each subject area and by their tutor on how well they are developing their commitment to the College’s core values of Pride, Passion and Positivity.

Just as with subject attainment the core values are assessed using the threshold system.  The criteria for each threshold is published in the College Journal.  We expect all students to aspire to be within the excellence threshold and fully embrace the College values and motto of ‘Floreat Sapientia’ – Let Wisdom Flourish.