Assessment at KS4

1. Assessment at KS4 Bury C of E High School Engaging Parents Information

2. A changing environment Things are changing for our pupils. • differences between the exams that pupils will sit in 2017 and the ones taken in recent years; • the changes will continue after 2017 for the following few years so that they include every area of the curriculum and every aspect of assessment.

3. Changes… These changes will include (in no particular order): • A change of grades available from G – A* to a new system of 1 – 9 (9 being the highest) • Different content for each subject/syllabus • Different forms of examination – a move away from coursework and practical assessment and different kinds of exam questions. • Different tiering arrangements.

4. Changes…II • An expectation that nearly all pupils study the English Baccalaureate subjects (which the language used describes by implication as good or academic subjects). These include English (with elements of literature and language), maths, two science qualifications, a language, and history or geography. • GCSE as the main form of qualification (it always has been here at BCEHS) and the inclusion of academic elements in all subjects (for example, design and technology will have many elements of science and maths in its specification) and more limited choices (there will not be electronics/product design/resistant materials but one syllabus in DT).

5. Timescales • Most confusing of all, these changes will not all happen at once. They will continue to reform a system that has been evolving and operating in schools since 2011.

6. 2016 - 2020 • There is a clear timescale to the changes, and it will mean that people need to understand what is going on; it need not be too confusing or rushed to be able to make out what is going on. • In 2017, pupils will sit the first new exams in English and maths using the 1 – 9 grading system. So some of their results for GCSE will be in numbers (1 – 8 mostly because 9 will not be fully used until 2018 according to our exam boards). But some results (all the other subjects)will be in letters, from G – A*. • In 2018, more subjects will use new syllabi and the number grades, but not all subjects will. And grade 9 will become a little more common (it is intended to cover the top half of A*). • By 2019, all subjects will be using the numbers and have new specifications.

7. Finding out more… • There are a lot of places where you can research more about the timeline for these changes. An obvious place to start is the Department of Education website. Here is a link to one document on that site about the changes, although there are lots of other resources there.

8. What will the new GCSEs be like?

9. The intention of the reforms.

10. In practice that means… • Exams will be at the end of the course – not modules throughout the course. • Resits will not be available except in a very limited way – e.g. in English or maths the next November • There will be more to learn and more to cover in class – particularly in maths GCSE • Practical elements of a course in subjects like design and technology and science will be taught, marked and awarded differently. • Pupils must find out about the way a subject is going to be taught rather than HOW IT USED TO BE

11. What will the grades be?

12. So what do the number grades mean? • Not exactly the same as the old grades G – A* in the way they correspond number to letter. This was the intention (at the start of 2015):

13. A good pass… • Used to be considered a grade C and above. • In the new system it will be a grade 5 • Grade 5 is intended to be equivalent to the better grade C and lower grade B passes in the past – a bit higher than at present. • The number of those getting the very top grade will be fewer than those getting A* - the top two grades of 8 and 9 will together make up the A*s.

14. Colleges, universities and employers • Will have to navigate their way through the maze of changes too. • That has been the case for a long time. If you were a university lecturer, would you give the one place you had to a student with A* at A level or A if other things were equal and you had to choose? In 2009 it might depend on whether they had had a gap year or not – A*s were not available in 2008 • So it does no harm to understand a system that affects you.

15. How will we assess and report at BCEHS? We have to find a way to communicate effectively to you whilst we adapt to new syllabi, assessment and systems

16. Our plans • We will report a grade 6 times a yearonline with the data from the end of each term also being provided in a paper report. • We will report to you in the form of grade that will be used for the particular subject, so pupils in Year 10 2015 -16 will have English and maths as a number, other subjects as a letter, pupils in Year 9 that year will have most subjects as a number except the few (such as design and technology) which will remain a letter for a further year. • The attainment grade you receive for each subject will tell you how we think your child would do if they sat the final exam there and then. You must expect these to be below their final grade, especially in the first year of study, but to improve over time.

17. Target setting • Every pupil will have a Target to Beat (TTB) set for each subject • This target will be set in February of Year 9 and the process will involve the pupils • You will be able to compare how each pupil is doing compared to the target they have been set • These targets are not ceilings or limits but should set a reasonable expectation and aspiration for each pupil. They keep them until the end of Year 11.

18. Target setting continued • The expectation should be to at the very least equal this target but the desire should be to exceed it – to get a grade higher in the final exam.

19. How will we set the target? • Every pupil will have a Key stage 2 score (or we will establish a baseline for them when they arrive which we will convert into a compatible figure). • The government tells us how a pupil who achieved each level at KS2 did on average across the whole country by the end of Year 11 (this average changes each year). • They will give us a way of expressing these figures as a number, an average score for each pupil. The number would be a number between 1 and 9 to one decimal place - something like 5.3 or 7.2 • This number represents an average GCSE grade and is called an Attainment 8 Estimate (A8E)

20. How will we set the target? • We will use this A8E average GCSE grade to create the Targets to Beat. Of course, there is no GCSE grade 6.2, only whole numbers. • If a pupil has an A8E of, for example, 6.2, that would mean to get on average what such a pupil would gain nationally, they could be expected to get a total points score of 62 in their GCSEs, (which might mean 8 GCSEs at grade 6 and 2 at grade 7). • We will add 0.1 to each pupil’s A8E to add some aspiration, and tell pupils the figures.

21. How will we set the target II? • In our example, the pupil would have a figure now of 6.3. • We will ask them to look at the subjects they study and to set a personal target for each within the range that we tell them. We want to involve them in the decision making. • For this example, the pupil would be asked to set Targets to Beat of 7 grade 6s and 3 grade 7s. • That is a good expectation, but not a ceiling.

22. How will we report to you? • We want to keep you informed about progress throughout. • At the end of each term we will publish what each subject teacher assesses your child would get at that point if they sat the GCSE. This will go home on paper. It will also appear online. • A further three times a year at half term points we will publish information online that assesses the same question. That means there will be 6 data entry points for each pupil, one for each half term. These marks will only be available online.

23. Interpreting these grades • The Targets to Beat are statements of what a pupil should aim to get/beat by the end of the course. The grades that we create 6 times a year are statements of where they are at that point in the course. • The TTB will therefore often be higher than the attainment grade reported, especially at the start of the course. • There should be progress over the course – if things are going well, the longer a pupil has studied a subject, the closer to attaining or surpassing their TTB they will be.

24. Interpreting these grades II • It is of course much harder to beat a TTB of grade 8 than one of grade 3. It is impossible to beat a TTB of grade 9. • So pupils who gained high results at KS2 and who therefore have very high TTB’s should understand that we want them to achieve these targets but that we cannot expect them to surpass them.

25. The Future… • As we develop and refine this system, we will try to ensure you and your child understand it, so you are fully informed. • Please feel free to contact us at school with any questions or concerns – Mrs Martin about the system itself, or an appropriate Head of Year about specific progress questions for your child.