PARENT GUIDE TO ASSESSMENT

How do we assess students in Year 7, 8 + 9? 

We assess the learning of students in two ways, formative and summative assessment. 

Formative– everyday in-class assessment, which is ungraded and focused on smaller chunks of the curriculum. 

Some examples of Formative Assessment are:

Quizzes and Multiple choice questions

Reading or observing students’ work

Live marking 

Questions

Summative– three to six times a year. Knowledge included will build cumulatively throughout the year. For most subjects this takes the form of a test. 

Assessments at both key stage 3 and 4 reflect parts of the GCSE examinations for each subject. The purpose of these assessments are to prepare students for answering in controlled conditions, set up the expectation that they need to revise and capture the learning gaps for a topic in order to inform the teacher of what needs to be re-taught (as misconceptions or gaps exist) and what students can improve. Assessments are undertaken at the end of every term and are reported to parents, carers and students – most are also linked to a parent/carer evening where the assessment data can be discussed.