Each term we communicate directly with parents through either a Parents’ Evening, and or Progress Report. Full details of Parents’ Evening dates for each year group are available on the school calendar.

How We Report

In the reports you will receive three key pieces of information:

Attitude to Learning:	How well a pupil is applying themselves.
Achievement/Attainment:	How well a pupil is performing compared to national levels.
Pupil Progress:	How well a pupil is performing compared to where we would expect for them personally at this stage.

In the full report there will also be comments made by the tutor and head of year.

If there have been any particularly important internal assessments (such as mock exams), these will also be reported.

Attitude to Learning will be reported with the following grades:

Grade	4 Exceeds Expectations	3 Meets Expectations	2 Below Expectations	1 Well Below Expectations
Punctual and ready to learn	Is always on time.	May have been late once or twice.	Has been late more than twice.	Is often late.
Respectful	Is always polite and follows all instructions.	Is polite and follows instructions.	Can occasionally be rude. May be slow to follow instructions.	Often rude and defiant.
Individually responsible	Takes full responsibility for their learning and takes pride in their work. Always has equipment, kit or ingredients.	Usually shows pride in their work. usually has equipment, kit or ingredients.	Is usually ready to learn but occasionally forgets equipment, kit or ingredients. Can show pride in their work, but not consistently.	Often not ready to learn and missing equipment, kit or ingredients. Work is often at a standard that fails to show ambition or perseverance.
Determined and Ambitious	Is ambitious with challenges and perseveres with tasks.	Follows teacher’s guidance to attempt challenging activities and usually perseveres with tasks.	Sometimes responds negatively to setbacks.	Needs frequent reminders to attempt tasks, especially if they are ambitious or challenging.
Enjoys Learning	Helps others appropriately and is never off-task or disruptive.	Focusses on their work and allows others to learn.	Can become off-task and needs prompting to stay focused. Occasionally distracts others.	Regularly distracts others.

Achievement/Attainment be reported as follows:

Achievement/Attainment	Description
Skilful at the Nationally expected levels.	Accomplished at the skills taught so far.
Confident at the Nationally expected levels.	Able to meet the challenges with a measure of confidence and independence that leads to consistently secure achievement in the subject.
Working at the Nationally expected levels.	Is able, with a measure of support, to meet most of the challenges of the curriculum covered so far (minimum national standards).
Working towards the Nationally expected levels.	In some aspects of the subject covered so far, may be secure, given additional support. Some areas of the subject may be more challenging.
Emerging towards the Nationally expected levels.	Not yet securely demonstrating skills against aspects of the curriculum that have been covered.

Achievement/Attainment will be reported as 9-1 GCSE targets at the end of year 10 and for year 11 instead of these comparisons to nationally expected levels. Only then has enough of the GCSE syllabus been taught to be able to give an accurate indication of how we believe a pupil is performing. This grade is intended to be aspirational but achievable and in no way a limit on what a pupil can achieve.

Pupil Progress will be reported as follows:

Progress grade	Description
Working above expected levels for them personally.	The pupil is currently achieving at a higher level than their prior attainment would have predicted.
Working at expected levels for them personally.	The pupil is currently achieving at a level that matches their prior attainment.
Working below expected levels for them personally.	The pupil is currently achieving below the level we would expect, based on their prior attainment.

These will be reported as 9-1 GCSE predictions at the end of year 10 and year 11 to make it easier to compare with their target grades. Again, only then has enough of the GCSE syllabus been taught to be able to give an accurate indication of how we believe a pupil will perform at the end of the syllabus. The Progress grades will always be holistic (not just taking into account one key assessment or test but using a range of information). Therefore, the 9-1 grade might not be the grade the pupil is currently working at – more a professional judgement based on all available evidence of what is likely to be achieved is the pupil continues to perform as they are currently.

Examples:

Pupil A

Attitude to Learning: 4           Achievement/Attainment: Working towards             Progress: Working above

This pupil has low prior attainment but is doing everything they can to improve – and is in fact doing better than expected as a result. This is probably due to the excellent attitude to learning that they have, and the pupil should be commended for their efforts.

Pupil B

Attitude to Learning: 2           Achievement/Attainment: Confident                         Progress: Working below

This pupil is working above the national expectation. However, this pupil should be achieving even better than this and should be in the “Skilful” category for achievement. The attitude to learning is probably the reason for this and (if this hasn’t already happened) communication between the teacher and home would be imminent about how this could be improved, what mitigating factors might need to be taken into account and how – as a team – we can work together to support this pupil.

Pupil C

Attitude to Learning: 3           Achievement/Attainment: Working at                       Progress: Working at

This pupil is working at the nationally expected levels – which is roughly where they should be according to their prior attainment. The pupil is no trouble and usually tries their best. At Test Valley school we want all pupils to be in “pursuit of personal excellence” – so whilst this pupil is doing well we will still be trying to find ways to work with home to help the pupil do even better and achieve higher than their expected levels.

Pupil D

Attitude to Learning: 3           Target grade: 5           Predicted grade: 5

This pupil is very similar to “Pupil C” – but this example is of a pupil at the end of year 10 or in year 11. We will be working with home so together we can support this pupil to achieve the highest grade possible – even though they are currently doing well.

GCSE Assessment Information

To view the comparison of new GCSE 9-1 grade system with old system please click here.

Please click the link below to view the subject grade descriptors for GCSE’s grades 9-1

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/grade-descriptors-for-gcses-graded-9-to-1