Reporting and feedback

All students will receive three interim reports during the school year. The details of what you will receive in each year are below.

As well as the three interim reports, information about a student’s engagement, behaviour and attendance can be found on classcharts. Research consistently demonstrates that attendance, behaviour, and pupil engagement are key predictors of academic outcomes. Pupils who attend regularly, demonstrate positive learning behaviours, and maintain a positive attitude towards school are significantly more likely to achieve strong attainment outcomes.

We will also try to communicate to parents when students have received substantial feedback within lessons (e.g. test scores) so that you can review and discuss with your child.

Year 7

Students in year 7 will receive three reports during the school year. Within each of these, teachers will provide an indicator for their “attitude to learning” (ATL). Their third report of the year will also include a tutor comment, which provides feedback about how a student is engaging with school in general, how they conduct themselves and their engagement with clubs and tutor activities.

We will also communicate information about SATs and CATs scores in year 7. We will provide an indication of what students are likely to achieve at GCSE, if they perform in line with students with similar scores nationally. This information is based on averages; any indication of final grades are neither guarantees nor ceilings to a student’s performance.

Year 8

The first report of Year 8 will provide an indicator of student’s “attitude to learning” (ATL) only. This is to provide parents/carers with an indication of how well students have settled into the new school year, and to highlight if there are any concerns. Their third report of the year will also include a tutor comment, which provides feedback about how a student is engaging with school in general, how they conduct themselves and their engagement with clubs and tutor activities.

The second and third report of year 8 will provide an indicator of student’s attitude to learning for all subjects, as well as further feedback about progress in maths and English.

Maths and English will provide a GCSE target band, covering two GCSEs, along with a progress statement about whether assessment data suggests they are “On”, “Above”, or “Below” this target band. This judgement will be based entirely on assessment scores, and will use cohort analysis to determine which progress indicator is awarded. The target band will be generated following a review of CATs and SATs data, along with professional judgement. In year 10, these target grades will be refined to provide a single grade. Please see the information below for more information about targets grades.

We have decided to only report comments on progress in English and maths as these are the only subjects which are assessed at KS2 and have all students taking the same GCSE course. Although it is still impossible to accurately predict a students final GCSE outcome in any subject, through cohort analysis we can provide an indication of how well a student is achieving within maths and English relative to their peers, and what this performance would indicate when comparing to previous cohorts. We feel that providing parents with this information is helpful in increasing awareness of what students will most likely be aiming for at GCSE. However, progress is not linear, and these indicators provide neither guarantees nor a limit to future outcomes.

All subjects will still monitor student progress internally, and can provide comments on progress evenings. However, providing GCSE grades at this stage is not possible with any accuracy.

Year 9

Year 9 reports will follow the same format of year 8 (please see above) with one exception.

Prior to students selecting GCSE options, teachers will provide an indication of what GCSE grade band they believe students would be aiming for if they select their subject. This will be based on CATs and SATs data, along with information they have collected during KS3. These grade bands are not guaranteed, not provide a limit to possible attainment, however we fell this is helpful in support students and parents/carers when selecting subjects to take at GCSE.

 

KS4 and KS5

Students in Key Stage 4 and 5 will receive three interim reports each year. They will include a “target grade” and indicators to provide information on a pupil’s “attitude to learning” (ATL) in and out of lessons, as well as a “projected grade”.

One of the three reports will also include a “tutor comment” providing further feedback about how a student is engaging with school in general, how they conduct themselves and their engagement with clubs and tutor activities.

Target grades will be informed by SATs, CATs and national benchmarking data, along with the teacher’s professional judgement. We aim for these to provide some aspiration, while still being achievable. Students are not limited by their target grade, nor are they guaranteed to achieve it. We are also happy to review and change target grades during the course when appropriate.

“Projected grades” included in these reports indicate the most likely grade a student will achieve at the end of the course based on all the evidence a teacher has, and assuming their effort, attendance and progress remains the same.

KS4 and KS5 mock grades will also be reported after these have taken place via the interim reports. Mock grades will indicated how well students have performed in mock exams, and will not take into account NEA (coursework) or any other classwork. Projected grades will often be different to mocks grades, and could even be lower due to taking into account other aspect of assessment. It is rare that a mock exam will contain all topics assessed at the end of the course, so the grade provided assumes that students would perform similarly had all topics been assessed. Therefore please view mock grades with caution; they do not guarantee achievement at this level.

At KS5, UCAS grades will also be reported once these are finalised.

Further information about target grades

GCSE and A level grade boundaries do not exist until all exams have been taken at the end of the course. Exam boards review the results and determine grade boundaries based on how the entire cohort have performed. Therefore, it is impossible to perfectly predict results as we do not know how well the national cohort will perform. We also have to be very careful when assigning grades to internal assessments, including mocks. Even if we use a past GCSE paper, the grade boundaries associated with it are only valid for the cohort that took that paper.

Target grades produced after reviewing SATs, CATs and national benchmarking data are only an indication of what a student might achieve. SATs and CATs data can provide an indication of what a students should achieve if their results are in line with the average performance of previous students with similar prior attainment scores. The majority of students do not achieve the “average” progress, many achieve above and below. If you wish to read more about data, predictions and performance measure please follow this link Secondary accountability measures: 2025 guidance for maintained secondary schools, academies and free schools – GOV.UK

Below are the descriptions for the Attitude to Learning columns

Attitude to Learning (AtL) – in lessons

4 = Always engaged in explanations, remains on task throughout the lesson. Written work is completed to a to the best of their capabilities. Is an active participant in lessons.

3 = Listens carefully to instructions, works well on tasks set and completes work to a high standard relative to their capabilities, but is capable of slightly more in lessons, either with the quality or quantity of the work they are completing or their overall participation in lessons.

2 = Can work well but at times is off task and needs reminding to pay attention/complete work to the standard expected. Needs to improve their effort to achieve their potential.

1 = Attitude to learning is a concern. Does not engage well during explanations and instructions and work is not complete the standard expected.

 

Attitude to Learning (AtL) – out of lessons

4 = Assignments/homework/NEA is always completed to the best of their ability and always submitted on time. Support or guidance is sought from teachers prior to submission if required.

3 = Assignments/homework/NEA is nearly always completed to a good standard and there only are extremely rare instance when not completed on time. Support or guidance is sought prior to submission if required.

2 = Assignments/homework/coursework is not completed to the best of their ability – it is either often late or not completed the standard expected. The student rarely seeks support or guidance from the teacher that would help to improve the standard of their work.

1 = Assignments/homework/coursework is rarely completed on time or is of a poor quality. Opportunities to seek support prior to submission of work is not utilised.

 

 

FAQs

Q: Can we have progress statements and target grades in year 7.

A: At the end of KS2, students get their SATs results which are most reliable attainment indicator that they will receive until the complete their GCSEs. To try to gauge progress from this over the next year would be very difficult, and effort, attitude, behaviour should be the priority as these will have the biggest impact on their progress and attainment. Students will still receive feedback for all their subjects, but to providing any form of grade with accuracy would be extremely difficult and possibly misleading.

Q: Can we have target grades and progress statements in all subjects.

A: KS2 SATs only test students in English and Maths, so these are the only subjects for which national benchmarks exist. Therefore, we feel it is possible to attempt to judge student progress using our system using KS2 STAs as our baseline, provided parents understand we can never perfectly measure progress and predict future outcomes. Other subjects do not have all students taking their subject at GCSE, so using cohort analysis and rankings to judge progress is difficult due to cohort variation year on year. KS3 courses in other subjects also vary greatly from their GCSE courses, so reporting progress relative to GCSE grades could be very misleading.

Student attainment in English and maths can often be very similar to their attainment across all their subjects. By reporting progress in these two areas, along with effort, attendance and behaviour in all others, we feel provides a good indication of where areas of concern might be.

Q: All students sit GCSEs in Science. Can you provide a progress statements and target grade like English and maths.

A: We did consider this, however cohort analysis and ranking is more difficult due to the fact that some students take triples science and some take double science. This, along with the fact that KS2 Sats, the baseline used to judge progress, is only covers English and maths we felt that including Science, and not other subjects would be the wrong this to do. There is strong correlation between Science GCSE scores with English and maths grades, so the response above is also valid here.