Assessment at KS4
Bury C of E High School
Engaging Parents Information
A changing environment
Things are changing for our pupils.
differences between the exams that pupils will
sit in 2017 and the ones taken in recent years;
the changes will continue after 2017 for the
following few years so that they include every
area of the curriculum and every aspect of
assessment.
Changes…
These changes will include (in no particular
order):
• A change of grades available from G – A* to a
new system of 1 – 9 (9 being the highest)
• Different content for each subject/syllabus
• Different forms of examination – a move away
from coursework and practical assessment
and different kinds of exam questions.
• Different tiering arrangements.
Changes…II
• An expectation that nearly all pupils study the English
Baccalaureate subjects (which the language used
describes by implication as good or academic
subjects). These include English (with elements of
literature and language), maths, two science
qualifications, a language, and history or geography.
• GCSE as the main form of qualification (it always has
been here at BCEHS) and the inclusion of academic
elements in all subjects (for example, design and
technology will have many elements of science and
maths in its specification) and more limited choices
(there will not be electronics/product
design/resistant materials but one syllabus in DT).
Timescales
• Most confusing of all, these changes will not
all happen at once. They will continue to
reform a system that has been evolving and
operating in schools since 2011.
2016 - 2020
• There is a clear timescale to the changes, and it will mean that
people need to understand what is going on; it need not be too
confusing or rushed to be able to make out what is going on.
• In 2017, pupils will sit the first new exams in English and maths
using the 1 – 9 grading system. So some of their results for
GCSE will be in numbers (1 – 8 mostly because 9 will not be
fully used until 2018 according to our exam boards). But some
results (all the other subjects)will be in letters, from G – A*.
• In 2018, more subjects will use new syllabi and the number
grades, but not all subjects will. And grade 9 will become a
little more common (it is intended to cover the top half of A*).
• By 2019, all subjects will be using the numbers and have new
specifications.
Finding out more…
• There are a lot of places where you can
research more about the timeline for these
changes. An obvious place to start is the
Department of Education website. Here is a
link to one document on that site about the
changes, although there are lots of other
resources there.
What will the new GCSEs be like?
The intention
of the reforms.
In practice that means…
• Exams will be at the end of the course – not
modules throughout the course.
• Resits will not be available except in a very limited
way – e.g. in English or maths the next November
• There will be more to learn and more to cover in
class – particularly in maths GCSE
• Practical elements of a course in subjects like
design and technology and science will be taught,
marked and awarded differently.
• Pupils must find out about the way a subject is
going to be taught rather than HOW IT USED TO BE
What will the
grades be?
So what do the number grades mean?
• Not exactly the same as the old grades G – A* in
the way they correspond number to letter.
This was the intention (at the start of 2015):
A good pass…
• Used to be considered a grade
C and above.
• In the new system it will be a
grade 5
• Grade 5 is intended to be
equivalent to the better grade
C and lower grade B passes in
the past – a bit higher than at
present.
• The number of those getting
the very top grade will be
fewer than those getting A* the top two grades of 8 and 9
will together make up the A*s.
Colleges, universities and employers
• Will have to navigate their way through the
maze of changes too.
• That has been the case for a long time. If you
were a university lecturer, would you give the
one place you had to a student with A* at A
level or A if other things were equal and you
had to choose? In 2009 it might depend on
whether they had had a gap year or not – A*s
were not available in 2008
• So it does no harm to understand a system
that affects you.
How will we assess and report at
BCEHS?
We have to find a
way to
communicate
effectively to you
whilst we adapt
to new syllabi,
assessment and
systems
Our plans
• We will report a grade 6 times a year online with the data
from the end of each term also being provided in a paper
report.
• We will report to you in the form of grade that will be
used for the particular subject, so pupils in Year 10 2015 16 will have English and maths as a number, other
subjects as a letter, pupils in Year 9 that year will have
most subjects as a number except the few (such as design
and technology) which will remain a letter for a further
year.
• The attainment grade you receive for each subject will tell
you how we think your child would do if they sat the final
exam there and then. You must expect these to be below
their final grade, especially in the first year of study, but to
improve over time.
Target setting
• Every pupil will have a Target to Beat (TTB) set
for each subject
• This target will be set in February of Year 9 and the
process will involve the pupils
• You will be able to compare how each pupil is doing
compared to the target they have been set
• These targets are not ceilings or limits but should set
a reasonable expectation and aspiration for each
pupil. They keep them until the end of Year 11.
Target setting continued
• The expectation should be to at the very least
equal this target but the desire should be to
exceed it – to get a grade higher in the final exam.
How will we set the target?
• Every pupil will have a Key stage 2 score (or we will
establish a baseline for them when they arrive which we
will convert into a compatible figure).
• The government tells us how a pupil who achieved each
level at KS2 did on average across the whole country by
the end of Year 11 (this average changes each year).
• They will give us a way of expressing these figures as a
number, an average score for each pupil. The number
would be a number between 1 and 9 to one decimal place something like 5.3 or 7.2
• This number represents an average GCSE grade
and is called an Attainment 8 Estimate (A8E)
How will we set the target?
• We will use this A8E average GCSE grade to create
the Targets to Beat. Of course, there is no GCSE
grade 6.2, only whole numbers.
• If a pupil has an A8E of, for example, 6.2, that
would mean to get on average what such a pupil
would gain nationally, they could be expected to
get a total points score of 62 in their GCSEs,
(which might mean 8 GCSEs at grade 6 and 2 at
grade 7).
• We will add 0.1 to each pupil’s A8E to add
some aspiration, and tell pupils the figures.
How will we set the target II?
• In our example, the pupil would have a figure
now of 6.3.
• We will ask them to look at the subjects they
study and to set a personal target for each within
the range that we tell them. We want to involve
them in the decision making.
• For this example, the pupil would be asked to set
Targets to Beat of 7 grade 6s and 3 grade 7s.
• That is a good expectation, but not a ceiling.
How will we report to you?
• We want to keep you informed about progress
throughout.
• At the end of each term we will publish what each
subject teacher assesses your child would get at that
point if they sat the GCSE. This will go home on
paper. It will also appear online.
• A further three times a year at half term points we
will publish information online that assesses the
same question. That means there will be 6 data
entry points for each pupil, one for each half term.
These marks will only be available online.
Interpreting these grades
• The Targets to Beat are statements of what a pupil
should aim to get/beat by the end of the course.
The grades that we create 6 times a year are
statements of where they are at that point in the
course.
• The TTB will therefore often be higher than the
attainment grade reported, especially at the start
of the course.
• There should be progress over
the course – if things are going
well, the longer a pupil has
studied a subject, the closer to
attaining or surpassing their
TTB they will be.
Interpreting these grades II
• It is of course much harder to beat a TTB of
grade 8 than one of grade 3. It is impossible to
beat a TTB of grade 9.
• So pupils who gained high results at KS2 and
who therefore have very high TTB’s should
understand that we want them
to achieve these targets but
that we cannot expect them
to surpass them.
The Future…
• As we develop and refine
this system, we will try to
ensure you and your child
understand it, so you are
fully informed.
• Please feel free to contact
us at school with any
questions or concerns –
Mrs Martin about the
system itself, or an
appropriate Head of Year
about specific progress
questions for your child.