Assessment and Reporting

Assessment and Reporting

At Melksham Oak School, ongoing assessment of student work is an integral part of the learning process and helps us to track where students are excelling and where they are falling behind so we can both support and challenge them. We send reports home electronically three times during the academic year for each year group (see below for our assessment schedule).

How we assess our students’ work

Summative assessments are generally longer assessments, including content from a range of sub topic areas linked to the curriculum and/or exam specification. These take place in all subjects in order to develop students’ learning and to gather progress data for the three assessment and reporting points. The work generated from these summative assessments is used for feedback, reflection and redrafting as part of our cycle of student feedback.

Qualification-linked exam papers, or parts thereof, are used in KS4 and KS5 with internal exams taking place in order to give students the experience of public examinations. KS3 assessments are linked to each subject’s curriculum, which is closely aligned to the National Curriculum.

The grades from these summative assessments are used by subject teachers to inform their judgements on current progress for reporting home, as well as for analysis and targeted support for students. We also expect our teachers to use ongoing shorter ‘formative’ style assessments to inform lesson planning and ensure students continue to progress.

Assessment and Reporting Schedule:

	Term 1	Term 2		Term 3	Term 4		Term 5	Term 6
Year 7		SA*	Assessment Point 1 - reports published via ParentPortal		SA	Assessment Point 2 - reports published via ParentPortal	SA	Assessment Point 3 – reports published via ParentPortal
Year 8		SA			SA		SA
Year 9		SA			SA		SA
Year 10		SA			SA		Internal exams
Year 11		Internal exams			Internal exams		Final exams	Final exams
Year 12		SA			SA		SA	AP3 / Reports
Year 13		Internal exams			Internal exams		Final exams	Final exams

*SA = Summative assessment in the weeks prior to assessment points

Key Stage 3

During 2020, we designed and implemented a new assessment system for Key Stage 3.

Students are assessed against their specific aspirational target grade zone in each subject, and are judged to be making one of three possible degrees of progress:

PROGRESS TOWARD GCSE TARGET ZONE	WHAT THIS MEANS:
At the top or beyond	The student is very securely meeting this target grade zone and may achieve even higher when they take their final exams.
Meeting	The student is meeting this target grade zone and is on track to secure a final grade that falls within it.
Working towards	The student is not yet meeting this target grade zone.

This judgement is made in relation to the progress grids which we have created for each subject. These can be found by clicking the following links:

Key Stages 4 and 5

In Key Stages 4 and 5, we report home a minimum progress grade, which represents the target for the end of Key Stage. These target grades are based on data generated by Fischer Family Trust (FFT) for Key Stage 4 grades, and a combination of Oxford Analytics for Key Stage 5 grades. These are organisations which use national data to produce a target grade that is both realistic and aspirational for our students.

We also report home a predicted end of Key Stage grade at each of our assessment points, which is always ‘fine graded’ as below. This grade is based on the assessments which have been undertaken, marked and moderated in school, as well as the teachers’ expertise and experience of their students.

SYMBOL NEXT TO TARGET OR PREDICTED GRADE:	SYMBOL NEXT TO TARGET OR PREDICTED GRADE:
+ E.g. 5+	The student is secure on this grade and is showing the potential that they can reach the next grade.
No symbol, just a grade E.g. 5	The student is secure on this grade.
- E.g. 5 -	The student is on this grade but it is not secure and could drop down to the next grade.

Sixth Form reports also include a written teacher comment as well as subject specific targets for how students can make further progress.

Attitude to Learning

In Key Stages 3 and 4, instead of a detailed comment we report home an ‘attitude to learning’ judgement which can be one of the following four categories for each subject area.

These are designed to represent the student’s typical attitude to learning during their lessons in each subject.

RATING:	EXCELLENT	GOOD	INCONSISTENT	UNSATISFACTORY
Descriptors on which each rating is based:	I show resilience and I don’t give up in my learning, even when I find an activity or idea challenging. I complete my work on time and to the best of my ability, setting a positive example to other students. I try hard to use feedback to improve my work.	I often show resilience and I rarely give up in my learning. I often complete my work on time and to the best of my ability. I usually try hard to use feedback to improve my work.	I sometimes show resilience but I occasionally give up too easily. I usually complete my work, but I sometimes need to put more effort into completing it. I sometimes need to spend more time and effort improving my work after feedback.	I often give up too easily. I don’t spend enough time on my work in class and I don’t take enough pride in my work. I often don’t put enough effort into my work. I often don’t act upon the feedback I receive.