The New Reporting System at TDMS for Years 6, 7, 8 and 9

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1 The New Reporting System at TDMS for Years 6, 7, 8 and 9 Progress Information for Parents Last year we developed our own comprehensive programme tracking system and parents were very pleased with the quality of information they were receiving. At The De Montfort School we pride ourselves on our tracking and monitoring system and try very hard to communicate accurate and informative information to parents however, as you may be aware there have been some major national changes to the school curriculum across all subjects and key stages. Please accept our apologies for our delay in reporting but we wanted to create a system that enables us to balance the need to meet the national system and our desire to maintain our own high levels of reporting. We now believe that our new systems are robust and have been road-tested by our fantastic Parent Voice Team. Here is a brief summary of the changes: Changes to the National Curriculum in Key Stages 2 and 3 National Curriculum levels no longer exist At KS2 (Year 6) students will study a year based curriculum in all subjects and will be assessed on their knowledge and understanding of the set curriculum against the criteria of Entering, Developing, Securing and Mastery. KS2 SATs examinations remain in English (Reading and Writing) and Mathematics. Instead of levels, each child will get a raw score for each paper as well as a scaled score that will tell them if they have met the national average. NB: The score needed to reach the national average has not been announced yet! At KS3 (Years 7 & 8) students will continue to study year based curriculums in all subjects and will be assessed on how much of this curriculum they can access throughout the year. Further changes in Key Stage 4 All GCSE courses have undergone, or are currently undergoing, a fundamental revision by the government s qualifications regulator, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual). As a result, from 2017, GCSE subjects will begin reporting results as GCSE numbers (1-9). This will begin with English and Maths in 2017 (for students currently in Year 10). By 2018, all subjects will report in GCSE numbers (for students currently in Year 9) Changes for TDMS Reporting policy Many schools have decided not to take any action, and are still, for example, reporting in levels at KS3 (against the most recent advice of Ofsted Inspectors). Mindful of all the changes outlined above, we have developed a unique system that will enable students, teachers and parents to monitor progress within the year based curriculum as well as being able to track progress over a longer period of time as our students work towards their GCSEs. Our system incorporates the new curriculum as well as keeping an overall perspective of your son/daughter s progress across their time at The De Montfort School. The colour coded aspects of our system will remain, meaning you are still able to see how well your son/daughter is progressing towards their end of key stage target. TDMS Progress Reports from December 2015 Our new Progress Reports (from w/c Monday 7th December 2015) will have the same layout as our previous reports. However, our reports have been updated to replace Levels with the new National Curriculum Stages (in Years, 6, 7 and 8). In Year 9 we have chosen to report all subjects with the new GCSE numbering system. Fuller details for each year group are set out in the pages that follow.

2 Year 6 Reports Here is a brief summary of the national changes that affect children in Year 6: are: o Entering: the standard expected of a child at the start of their National Curriculum year group (6E) o Developing: the standard expected by Christmas of their National Curriculum year group (6D) o Secure: the standard expected by Easter of their National Curriculum year group (6S) o Mastery: the standard achieved by the most able students at the end of Year 6 (6M) In KS2 (Year 6) students will follow a year based curriculum in all subjects and will be assessed on their knowledge and understanding of the set curriculum for that particular year group. In students Progress Reports, assessments might be made as 6E, for instance, to show that a student has reached this level of attainment in the new curriculum, as shown in the screenshot below: In the example shown, the baseline figure comes from an initial assessment carried in the first few weeks of term. In Year 6, this is essential for us to set targets for the year ahead, shown in the last 3 columns. You will notice in this report that the student has not yet achieved the national standard for Year 6, so has been assessed in Maths, for instance, as a Secure Year 3. Rather than this being seen as a major cause of alarm it means we can immediately set about closing the gap for this student. It is also important to remember that many of these subjects have not been studied separately by your child before, so do not be alarmed if their initial numbers (Year groups) are low. For example, many students will not have had separate French lessons before. However, if they work hard (and do their homework), their National Curriculum Year will rise quickly. KS2 SATs examinations remain in English (Reading and Writing) and Mathematics. Instead of levels, each child will get a raw score for each paper as well as a scaled score that will tell them if they have met the national average. Please note, however, that the score needed to reach the national average has not been announced yet!

3 Year 7 Reports Here is a brief summary of the national changes that affect children in Year 7: are: o Entering: the standard expected of a child at the start of their National Curriculum year group (7E) o Developing: the standard expected by Christmas of their National Curriculum year group (7D) o Secure: the standard expected by Easter of their National Curriculum year group (7S) o Mastery: the standard achieved by the most able students at the end of Year 6 (7M) In KS3 (Year 7) students will follow a year based curriculum in all subjects and will be assessed on their knowledge and understanding of the set curriculum for that particular year group. In students Progress Reports, assessments might be made as 7E, for instance, to show that a student has reached this level of attainment in the new curriculum, as shown in the screenshot below: In the example above, the first column shows Assessment 1 which is used as a baseline figure. This is essential for us to set targets for the year ahead, shown in the last 3 columns. You will notice in this report that the student has not yet achieved the national standard for Year 7 in some subjects. In Maths, for instance, the student has been assessed as a Secure Year 5 (5S+) and is moving towards 5M. Rather than this being seen as a major cause of alarm it means we can immediately set about closing the gap for this student. Indeed, in English Writing (7D) they are already above the National Standard for their age. There is no colouring in the first column as this is the starting point for Year 7. In the next Progress Report, assessments will be colour-coded to show progress towards end of year targets. No colour-coding has been applied to the PE targets as the units covered are very diverse.

4 Year 8 Reports Here is a brief summary of the national changes that affect children in Year 8: are: o Entering: the standard expected of a child at the start of their National Curriculum year group (8E) o Developing: the standard expected by Christmas of their National Curriculum year group (8D) o Secure: the standard expected by Easter of their National Curriculum year group (8S) o Mastery: the standard achieved by the most able students at the end of Year 6 (8M) In KS3 (Year 8) students will follow a year based curriculum in all subjects and will be assessed on their knowledge and understanding of the set curriculum for that particular year group. In students Progress Reports, assessments might be made as 8E, for instance, to show that a student has reached this level of attainment in the new curriculum, as shown in the screenshot below: In the example above, the first column shows Assessment 1 which is used as a baseline figure. This is essential for us to set targets for the year ahead, shown in the last 3 columns. You will notice in this report that the student has not yet achieved the national standard for Year 8 in some subjects. In English Writing, for instance, the student has been assessed as Entering Year 7 (7E). Rather than this being seen as a major cause of alarm it means we can immediately set about closing the gap for this student. Indeed, in Maths (8E) they are already working at the National Standard for their age. There is no colouring in the first column as this is the starting point for Year 8. In the next Progress Report, assessments will be colour-coded to show progress towards end of year targets. No colour-coding has been applied to the PE targets as the units covered are very diverse.

5 Progress across Years 6, 7 and 8 The table below gives an idea of the progress that a typical child might make during Years 6, 7 and 8 Year NC Stage Progress of a typical student across Years 6, 7 and 8 Year 6 6E A Year 6 student by the end of the Autumn term Year 6 6D A Year 6 student by the end of the Spring term Year 6 6S A Year 6 student by the end of the Summer term Year 6 6M A gifted Year 6 student by the end of the Summer term Year7 7E A Year 7 student by the end of the Autumn term Year 7 7D A Year 7 student by the end of the Spring term Year 7 7S A Year 7 student by the end of the Summer term Year 7 7M A gifted Year 7 student by the end of the Summer term Year 8 8E A Year 8 student by the end of the Autumn term Year 8 8D A Year 8 student by the end of the Spring term Year 8 8S A Year 8 student by the end of the Summer term Year 8 8M A gifted Year 8 student by the end of the Summer term New GCSE number grades in Years 9 and 10 from 2017 During the outcomes for all GCSE courses will change so that they are reported in GCSE number grades (1-9) instead of the traditional letter grades. In Year 9 we have replaced our old system of assessing students against National Curriculum levels with the GCSE numbers that they will be assessed against when they take their examinations in Although grades will initially be low, we feel that it is important for us to start as early as possible so that both parents and students understand these fundamental national changes. The table below shows how the new numbers system corresponds to the grades system which is being phased completely. (Source: Ofqual website )

6 Year 9 Reports Here is a brief summary of the national changes that affect children in Year 9: are explained above. In many subjects in Year 9, students have already started their Key Stage 4 courses. This is true in English, Maths, Science, Computing and (for most students) Philosophy and Ethics. In these subjects it makes far more sense to begin assessing attainment using the GCSE number grades that come into force from 2017 and will be fully in place by 2018, which is when our current Year 9 will take their GCSE examinations. As the other subjects will form the basis of their option choices, it also seems sensible to begin assessing against GCSE number grades here too. This will mean that we have a consistent approach, and it will also mean that students can compare their progress in other subjects and make more informed choices. As Year 9 is now effectively only the first year in a 3 year KS4, you would expect grades to be correspondingly lower, as show in the screenshot below. To ensure that we have a more meaningful spectrum of grades for these early stages, we have broadened the Ofqual number grades system in a number of ways. Firstly, we have introduced fine grades, denoted by an additional plus or minus sign, to show a high or low pass at that threshold. Also, we have introduced N grades between a U and a grade 1. By doing this, we are able to create a broader spectrum of attainment, which in turn means that we can track progress between each assessment point. Finally, you will notice that in Year 9, the targets appear at the top of the page, rather than as extra columns on the right hand side. The reason for this is because in Key Stage 4 the targets are generated from the Key Stage 2 SATs average points score. We use this rather than teacher estimates for 2 reasons: firstly, it is an objective, externally verified test; secondly, it is the measure that the government uses as the basis for school league tables.

7 Further information The changes that we have made to our assesment and reporting systems have been prompted by government reforms to the National Curriculum and to a fundamental overhaul of GCSE courses. This has placed an enormous burden on staff as they have had to plan and resource the new curriculum for their groups, and they have also had to update their assessment practice. For foundation subjects in particular, is a period of evolution, moving from the old level-based curriculum to the the new year-based curriculum in Key Stages 2 and 3. During the week commencing Monday 7 th December 2015, Your child will have a special assembly to explain the new reporting system. We are starting to put together a list of Assessment and Reporting FAQs, which will be displayed on our website shortly, and which will be continuously updated. If you have and further questions about our new Assessment and Reporting systems, please contact your child s Head of Learning at the school. Contacts Year 6: Mrs Jane Pitkeathley Year 7: Miss Sam Hook Year 8: Mr Alex Ballantyne Year 9: Mr Matthew Hirons Year 10: Miss Katie Green Year 11: Mr David Hearing Year 12/13: Miss Rowena Marriott Sixth Form: Mr Matt Sandell jpitkeathley@tdms.worcs.sch.uk shook@tdms.worcs.sch.uk aballantine@tdms.worcs.sch.uk mhirons@tdms.worcs.sch.uk kgreen@tdms.worcs.sch.uk dhearing@tdms.worcs.sch.uk rmarriott@tdms.worcs.sch.uk msandell@tdms.worcs.sch.uk Change is always uncomfortable, but we hope that you can see that we are do everything we can to manage the process efficiently and effectively to support students, parents and our staff. Thank you for your continued support of the School. Yours sincerely Guy Nichols Headteacher