Assessment and Reporting Overview

Reporting and Assesment 

Reporting and assessment at Glyn has two threads:

• Regular low stakes assessment/testing/checking with feedback that takes place in every lesson.
• Cumulative summative assessment: at certain points during the school year, students take summative assessments to assess the students’ learning over the course of a term or year. The assessment will cover a sample of questions from everything the students have been taught. These tests provide us with data to help to identify patterns of performance.

Regular Low Stakes Assessment/Testing/Checking with Feedback

By fostering a positive climate, students respond favourably to regular testing/checking/assessing that is ‘high- challenge and low-threat’ in every lesson through:

• Responsive assessment: frequent lesson activities where teachers see answers from every student and are able to tailor their teaching accordingly.
• Formative assessment: This will happen frequently throughout the term and assesses students’ understanding after a sequence of learning through ‘mini tests’ and quizzes in class.

Cumulative Summative Assesment

The below graphic is a general example of a year group’s assessment timeline:

On reports:

• We do not provide any form of GCSE grading until the end of Year 10 and throughout Year 11.
• Most other reports will contain a percentage score for the respective progress check, with the exception of Year 7 PR2 which will only include progress data for English and Maths.

Our data is focused and used for highlighting individual student progress and identifying individual learning gaps within the classroom: how can it improve the support and teaching for the individual student? We do not use progress data to evaluate the quality of teaching for which we have a separate process. Learning and progress is not a linear flight-path and curriculum impact is not measured exclusively by outcomes until Key Stage 4.

How GCSE Targets are Created

Targets are set via an organisation named Fischer Family Trust (FFT). The FFT processes the National Pupil Database for the Department of Education and provides data and analyses to all schools in England and Wales. They provide the benchmark (target grades) for student attainment at the end of KS4, and schools subsequently share these with students, usually at the start of the GCSE course in Year 10.

The FFT targets are based on Key Stage 2 (Year 6) SATS scores. The FFT look at the historic GCSE scores nationally of all the students who got the same scores as pupils when they were in Year 6 and then use that algorithm to estimate a current pupils’ GCSE grade. These datasets are updated each year.

Key Stage 2 Assessments are related specifically to English and Maths, so the FFT use this as the starting point for their analysis, eventually working out what children who achieved similar SATs scores, achieved for other subjects when they took their GCSEs in Year 11. In short, they look at the range of results achieved by ‘similar pupils’ who took GCSEs in the same subjects in the past. The FFT definition of ‘similar pupils’ is ‘pupils with the same prior attainment (their English and Maths KS2 scores), gender and month of birth’. Schools will then take this data and provide the target grade to families.

  At Glyn the target grade generated is exactly that: a target. It is not a prediction, nor is it defined by teachers as an ‘expected’ grade –  as a school we are tenaciously ambitious and aspirational for our students and indeed see it as part of our mission and purpose that    students far exceed the estimates the FFT provides.

 Additional note on Target Grades

 Target Grades for students who were in Year 6 during the pandemic did not sit KS2 SATS. As a result, many schools, including Glyn,   completed their own baseline/benchmark assessments when children arrived in Year 7: the CAT4 tests were completed by all   students at this time. We provided this data to the FFT, who, using the methodology described above, generated target grades for all   students.

Key Stage 5

At each ‘data drop’ associated with a PPE the following is collected for Key Stage 5 students:

• Current Assessed Grade (CAG): Teachers should input a grade that best represents the quality of a student’s work up to that point in time. This will be based upon a specific assessment or PPE and/or coursework. The explanation reported to Parents and Carers will read: Considering all evidence available, including the latest assessments, this is the grade that the teacher believes your son or daughter is currently at.
• Teacher Predicted Grade (TPG): Teachers should input a grade that best represents the most likely grade a student would get at the end of Year 13 for Key Stage 5 students. The grade should be based on evidence, i.e. coursework, classwork and examination performance. The TPG is a shadow grade which is not sent home to parents, instead of being used for internal monitoring and strategic interventions.
• Students` percentage score on an assessment - for reference purposes, parents are provided with the highest and average percentage score in the cohort.

Key Stage 5 Targets

 These are primarily based upon students` Key Stage 4 results since these are the measures the Government uses. The target   setting  methodology we use is based on the nationally used FFT model. The FFT processes the National Pupil Database for the   Department of Education and provides data and analyses to all schools in England and Wales. Using a students GCSE grades, they   provide the benchmark (target grades) for students attainment at the end of KS5 and schools subsequently share these with   students,  usually at the start of the course in Year 12. The targets given to Key Stage 5 students are for the end of Year 13. As with   GCSE Targets, the grade generated by the FFT is exactly that: a target. It is not a prediction, nor is it defined by teachers as an  ‘expected’ grade – as a school we are tenaciously ambitious and aspirational for our students and indeed see it as part of our mission   and purpose that students far exceed the estimates the FFT provides.

The Accelerated Reader Programme

Students in Years 7, 8 and 9 will take part in the Accelerated Reader Programme and their NRSS is reported to Parents and Carers. This is determined using the Accelerated Reader Programme and details can be found on their website http://www.renlearn.co.uk/success-story/glyn-school/.

The NRSS converts the students’ reading score (based on their STAR test and Accelerated Reader quizzes) to a standardised score. This considers the student’s age to show how the student is performing relative to a national sample of students of the same age. The average national score is 100. A score of 115 or higher exceeds expectations.

New Group Reading Test (NGRT)

 The New Group Reading Test (NGRT) is a standardised reading assessment used to measure a student’s reading ability against   national age-related expectations. It assesses key aspects of reading, including sentence completion, comprehension and reading   accuracy, and generates a Standard Age Score (SAS), reading age and comparison data. The assessment enables teachers to   identify students who are below expected reading levels, monitor progress over time and target intervention precisely. At Glyn, the   NGRT is used as a diagnostic tool to identify students requiring literacy support, informing interventions and targeted reading   programmes. It also provides reliable evidence of reading development and helps evaluate the impact of literacy provision/support,   by tracking how quickly students close gaps from their starting points. The NGRT is sat by all Year Groups in Key Stage 3 and 4.