Student Progress & Assessment
As a school we are focusing on providing accurate and insightful information which enables students to achieve their full potential. We firmly believe in setting academic targets for students. Targets, if used well, can inspire and motivate and can help young people see the possibilities that are open to them.
However, when talking about targets, there are some really important questions that need to be answered:
- How are they calculated?
- How do we track and record progress?
Target Calculation:
Like most schools in the country, we use ‘Key Stage 2’ data to set our targets. You will remember that at the end of Year 6, your son/daughter did a ‘SAT test’ in English and Maths. From this, they will have been given a level – we call this a ‘key stage level.’ However, due to the pandemic, our students in Years 8 & 9 did not have these results, so instead, we used these students' CAT results that they sat at the start of Year 7.
Again, like a lot of schools in the country, we then send this data to Fischer Family Trust (FFT). Fischer Family Trust is a non profit organisation that processes the National Pupil Database for the Department of Education and provides data and analyses to all schools in England and Wales. They provide grade predictors for student attainment at the end of KS4 and we use these to inform the setting of ambitious and aspirational targets for students (at Tring School this is a students Year 11 Expected Progress Grade - EPG) . As a school we use the Fischer Family Trust benchmark FFT5. This is an ambitious benchmark that puts us in line with schools that made much greater than average progress (FFT5 – 5th percentile progress - the top 5% of schools nationally with a similar intake). Fischer Family Trust datasets are updated each academic year.
We then create a flight path, working backwards from the end of key stage 4 target to plot the expected progress for each student, in each subject; to work towards at the end of each academic year (please see the diagram below). Obviously, this is a statistical calculation. We always need to be aware of the individual behind the statistics and have to be mindful of whether our target setting is inhibiting ambition. In other words, should the student’s target really be “X”. In this situation, we can use professional judgement to adjust the target to ensure stretch and challenge is maintained.
Tracking Progress:
Student assessment information can be accessed through Go4Schools (via the app or website) and at specific times in the year (generally, at the end of each term), a formal tracker will be available to you. This will allow you to track your child’s progress against the targets mentioned previously, as well as enabling us to celebrate excellent achievement and to offer support to students where expected progress is not being made. Next academic year we are hoping to make teachers' markbooks live and this will show how your child is progressing throughout the course of the year in any particular subject. Each department will be providing detailed information about how they will be assessing students in each year and will be available via the school’s website. We will continue to provide trackers at the end of each term that will focus on the markbook grade and then any assessment/exam period.
It is important to recognise that it is not possible to accurately predict GCSE grades for students in Key Stage 3. As such, these targets do not represent GCSE targets but a target for the end of their current academic year. Clear criteria will be provided to students by their subject teachers to give them an understanding of what they would need to achieve in order to gain a particular grade by the end of the year. However, during the course of the year, a student may demonstrate that they have achieved a grade indicated on the KS3 assessment grid (see below), for a certain piece of work. What this means is; at that time, a student has shown a glimpse of that grade; not that they will definitely get a “6” at GCSE or that they are consistently working at that grade.
| KS3 Assessment Grid - to be introduced academic year 2022-23 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year 7 | Year 8 | Year 9 |
| 4 | 5 | 6 |
| 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
| P | 1 | 2 |
| P | 1 | |
| P | ||
P = working below grade 1
Exceeding = working above the indicated highest grade for that particular year group
If you are ever concerned about your child’s progress in a particular subject, please contact the subject teacher directly about this. Email is usually the best way to do this - for example, if your child’s teacher was Peter Parker, their email address would be pparker@tringschool.org
At Tring School, the progress of students is monitored using a variety of reporting and assessment methods. These include exams and other formal tests, together with teacher assessments and informal tests.
At each assessment point during the year, a snapshot of your child’s progress to date is recorded in Go 4 Schools, and this is communicated to you via the tracker reports.
Carrying out regular assessments enables us to measure your child’s progress towards their expected outcomes, and ensure interventions are put in place if required. Student's attendance should be 100%, and a summary of your child’s attendance will also be shown. All dates given are the expected date of publication.
| End of Term Trackers | |
|---|---|
| All Years | w/c 18 December 2023 |
| All Years | 27/28 March 2024 |
| Years 7, 8 & 10 | w/c 8 July 2024 |
| Year 9 | 24 May 2024 |
| Year 12 | 24 June 2024 |
| Assessment/Exam & Mock Results | |
|---|---|
| Year 9 Assessment | 27/28 March 2024 |
| Year 10 Exam Results | w/c 8 July 2024 |
| Year 11 Mock Results Day | 14 December 2023 |
| Year 11 Assessment Results | 27/28 March 2024 |
| Year 12 Exam Results | w/c 24 June 2024 |
| Year 13 Mock Results | 26 Feburary 2024 |