De Aston School
Academy Trust
Willingham Road  Market Rasen  Lincs  LN8 3RF
Tel
Email:
Company No 07533362
England & Wales
01673 843415  Fax
01673 840823
enquiries@de-aston.lincs.sch.uk
Founded 1863
16 December 2015
Dear Parent/Carer
As you may be aware, the government has made many changes to assessment and qualifications
recently. These changes affect all schools and mean that the old established ways that everyone
understood have now gone. For some year groups, the old systems are not been replaced with any
agreed national system, as is the case with National Curriculum levels. Schools have therefore
needed to devise their own new methods.
The purpose of this letter is to explain how assessment at De Aston works for each of the year
groups. The aim is to try and give you the overview of all the different parts. In addition, we are
hoping to offer a Question and Answer session later in the year for parents/carers.
In this letter we will cover:
 What we believe about teaching and learning and a Growth Mindset.
 Government changes affecting all schools in this academic year.
 How we assess progress over five or seven years with the De Aston flightpath.
 How we report to parents/carers.
 How and why De Aston sets targets at the ‘De Aston Standard’.
There is a lot of information contained below but with the national changes affecting all schools we
felt it important for you to be given as much detail as possible.
What we believe about teaching and learning
Teaching and learning at De Aston should be routinely good or better and should foster a growth
mind-set culture of five or seven-year incremental progression of skills, knowledge and
understanding. At De Aston we believe good or better teaching is an equal opportunity issue for
our learners. In short, we believe that every lesson in every year counts and students develop the
fundamentals over time. We also believe that failure is a necessary part of learning and that our all
students need to learn how to deal with failure to improve. This positive and resilient approach is
called developing a Growth Mindset.
Government Changes
National Curriculum Levels have gone
The government has removed all national curriculum levels that have previously been used in
primary and secondary schools up to Yr9 since the 1990s. It has not replaced these with a new
system. Instead it has left all schools do come up with their own systems of assessment.
Head
Mrs E Beighton MA
Deputy Heads
Mr M Bray BA  Mr S Porter BA
De Aston School
Academy Trust
Willingham Road  Market Rasen  Lincs  LN8 3RF
Tel
Email:
Company No 07533362
England & Wales
01673 843415  Fax
01673 840823
enquiries@de-aston.lincs.sch.uk
Founded 1863
New GCSE Grading system
The government has introduced new GCSE grading system starting with English and Maths in Year
10 and all GCSE subjects from Year 9 onwards. This does not affect Year 11. Traditional grades A* to
G have been removed and replaced with a numerical scale 9 to 1.
New tougher GCSEs and A levels
The government has also introduced new tougher GCSEs in English and Maths first, then other
subjects to follow. There are also tougher A level courses, again with new more difficult content.
Assessment Grades used to assess student’s attainment in each year group.
Yr13 and Yr12 Traditional grades
A level courses use traditional grades A to E are used. Grade A* applies to Yr13 only. Grade U is
used for fails.
BTEC/Applied courses will use the Distinction*- Distinction-Merit-Pass-Fail grading as directed by
the exam boards.
Yr11 Traditional grades
GCSE courses use traditional GCSE grades Legacy A*-G with U grade being used for fails.
BTEC/Applied and OCR Cambridge National courses will use the Distinction*- Distinction-MeritPass-Fail grading as directed by the exam boards.
Yr10 New style GCSE grades introduced for English and Maths only
New style GCSE grades 9-1 (U grade for fail) will apply to English and Maths only. Other subjects
will use A*-G (U).
BTEC/Applied courses will use the Distinction*- Distinction-Merit-Pass-Fail grading as directed by
the exam boards.
Yr9 New style GCSE grades for all GCSE courses
New style GCSE grades 9-1 (U grade for fail) will apply to all subjects except applied courses.
Applied courses will use the Distinction*- Distinction-Merit-Pass-Fail grading as directed by the
exam boards.
Yr7 and Yr8
As the government has removed National Curriculum levels and not replaced them with any new
national system, at De Aston progress and attainment are measured against 5-year aspirational end
of Yr11 targets.
Head
Mrs E Beighton MA
Deputy Heads
Mr M Bray BA  Mr S Porter BA
De Aston School
Academy Trust
Willingham Road  Market Rasen  Lincs  LN8 3RF
Tel
Email:
Company No 07533362
England & Wales
01673 843415  Fax
01673 840823
enquiries@de-aston.lincs.sch.uk
Founded 1863
How we talk about Progress over time
The phrasing used at De Aston reflects the student’s progress based on a flight-path towards the
expected position in Yr11. Students in Yr7 and Yr8 are allowed to develop their skills, knowledge
and understanding for two years before being assessed on the new GCSE grading in Yr9. The
government has not provided any national assessment system for use with younger students. At De
Aston we use the following phrases to describe how students are progressing towards their end of
Yr11 target:
 Significantly Above
 Above
 On Track
 Below
 Significantly Below
How Progress and Assessment is mapped over time on a flightpath
New
New
KS2 (the National Curriculum level
GCSE
1-9
GCSE 1De Aston
students enter De Aston with in
levels
9 levels
Thresholds
Yr7)
Year 9
Year 10
6a
6
8
Excellence
6b
5
7
6c
5
7
5a
5
6
Secure
5b
4
6
5c
4
6
4a
4
5
Advancing
4b
3
5
4c
3
4
3a
3
4
Developing
3b
2
3
3c
2
3
2a
2
2
2b
1
2
Emerging
2c
1
2
B/N
1
1
New
GCSE 19 levels
Year 11
9
9
8
8
7
7
6
6
5
5
4
4
3
3
3
2
Old GCSE
grades
A*-G
A*
A*
A*
A
A
A
B
B
B
C
C
C
D
D
D
E
Skills, knowledge and understanding
Each subject area identifies the core knowledge, understanding and skills that students need to
master in order to be successful.
We describe the core knowledge, understanding and skills using the following thresholds:
Head
Mrs E Beighton MA
Deputy Heads
Mr M Bray BA  Mr S Porter BA
De Aston School
Academy Trust
Willingham Road  Market Rasen  Lincs  LN8 3RF
Tel
Email:
Company No 07533362
England & Wales
01673 843415  Fax
01673 840823
enquiries@de-aston.lincs.sch.uk
Founded 1863





Excellent – working at significant above national standards
Secure – working above national standards
Advancing – working on or around national standards
Developing – working below but moving towards national standards
Emerging – working significantly below but towards national standards
How and when do we report to parents
At a formal level there are three basic procedures for reporting to parents about the progress of
their children:
 Parent-Teaching meetings (Parents Evening);
 Formal Written Report to Parents once a year;
 Written Progress Update to Parents twice a year.
Content of Reports and Updates
The formal reports have more detail and a narrative comment. The Progress Update will have core
information about attainment and progress. We will comment on the following:
 Target Grades = what we aspire for the learner to achieve by the end of the course, based on
prior attainment. These grades reflect a forecast plus an element of challenge. They are set to be
ambitious. Target grades can move up or down to always reflect the appropriate level of
challenge but they will never fall lower than the original aspirational level set at the start;
 Attainment Grade = the teacher’s judgement of current attainment taking into account wider
assessments than just test results;
 Subject Progress = how the student is progressing from starting point towards an aspirational
target;
 Test Grades = recorded from formal tests and internal exams;
 Skills, knowledge and understanding – progress in these key subject areas that are required to
make exceptional progress;
 Attitude to learning – the learner’s commitment and attitude;
 Learning beyond the classroom – this includes homework, research and independent study etc.
 Action Target - a suggestion of how the learner can improve to reach the target grade.
How the Target Grades are arrived at:
We set all our students high targets based on their baseline. Our target setting is in line with schools
nationally. We set ambitious targets as the De Aston Standard. Targets will be raised higher if the
situation requires. Targets are not lowered below the original aspirational grade but they may go up
or down in line with the teacher’s forecast of their likely outcome.
Head
Mrs E Beighton MA
Deputy Heads
Mr M Bray BA  Mr S Porter BA
De Aston School
Willingham Road  Market Rasen  Lincs  LN8 3RF
Academy Trust
Tel
Email:
Company No 07533362
England & Wales
01673 843415  Fax
01673 840823
enquiries@de-aston.lincs.sch.uk
Founded 1863
Year 7, 8, 9 and 10 – learners are set 5 year targets for the end of Year 11, derived from the Key Stage
2 (primary school) assessment information. If Key Stage 2 information is unavailable, Cognitive
Ability Tests (CATs) are used and learners are set matched-targets to students of similar ability.
Targets are set to lead to aspirational outcomes by the end of Yr11.
Year 11 – students finishing their exams in 2016 have GCSE and Vocational course target grades
based on Key Stage 2 levels, these are set at an aspirational level, the equivalent of making four
levels of progress from primary school Year 6. CATs test data is used where Key Stage 2 data is
unavailable. This system is very similar to most schools nationally.
Year 12 – GCSE results provide the baseline, however, but we use external guidance to provide
likely predictions for post-16 courses. A whole grade is added for the target. If there is no GCSE
data available, external test results are used. This system is very similar to most schools nationally.
Yr13 – As Year 12, but there is no review following the AS results. Year 13 targets are set at the same
time as Year 12 targets.
We have covered a lot of information because the national changes have had a huge impact on all
schools. However, we hope that by sharing all this with you it will help you to understand how
your child is assessed and reported on. It is a time of great change in education, particularly in
assessment and we are constantly striving to refine what we do. We value your support and
feedback.
Best wishes for the Christmas period.
Yours sincerely
Paul Williams
Simon Porter
Paul Williams
Assistant Headteacher
Simon Porter
Deputy Headteacher
Head
Mrs E Beighton MA
Deputy Heads
Mr M Bray BA  Mr S Porter BA