Reporting and Assessment

Tracking student progress is an important part of school life. Students are constantly assessed on an informal basis by their subject teachers and this is used to develop and guide future learning.

More formal assessments are delivered throughout the year at different times by each subject and these are used to report back to parents each term along with challenging ‘target grades’ designed to push students into reaching their full potential. These targets are based on SATs information from primary schools in Year 6.

In the Summer Term students will sit their end of year examinations as part of our Exam Week. These are the most formal and most important assessments of the year and give students the opportunity to ‘show off’ their learning, dedication and hard work. Homework will be replaced by revision during this extremely important time and students will receive guidance from each subject on revision techniques and topics specific to that subject along with more general advice.

Every subject studied at Dormston is part of a 5 Year Curriculum plan working towards a GCSE grade at the end of year 11 and therefore the grades you receive as parents are GCSE grades. These grades range from a 9 (roughly the top 3% of students nationally receive a grade 9) down to a grade 1. The government describes a grade 4 as a ‘Standard Pass’ and a grade 5 as a ‘Strong Pass’. Students that have not yet achieved a level on the GCSE scale will be given a ‘W’ or ‘working towards’ grade. These grades will be available for you to view through the free Go4Schools app. This will also show you if your child is working above, to, or below their target grade.

We also award each student we award an ‘effort grade’. This is as simple as it sounds. Students are awarded a 1(outstanding), 2(good), 3(requires improvement) or 4(inadequate) for the effort they put into each subject they study. This is simply how hard the student is trying and is not linked to their academic achievement. House points are awarded for outstanding effort (5 points) and good effort (3 points) in each subject.

Each student will receive a written report from their tutor, Head of House and a member of the school’s Senior Leadership Team once a year. There will also be a chance to discuss your child’s progress at Parents Consultation Evenings which are held for each year group.

Each student will receive a written report from their tutor, Head of House and a member of the school’s Senior Leadership Team once a year.

Feedback at Dormston

What am I doing well in this subject?

Assessment and feedback is an important to good teaching and learning. The more immediate the feedback the greater the impact for our students. Feedback must encourage our students to take responsibility for improving their own work; it should not take away from this responsibility by adults doing the hard thinking work for the pupil (e.g., making corrections to spellings, punctuation or elements of grammar).

We have developed a feedback policy that should ensure students can answer two questions in subject specific detail –

What do I need to do to improve my work in this subject?

We assess our students to help them learn, challenge their thinking and enable them to take ownership of their learning.We ensure that teaching is responsive to students’ learning and is personalised.Attached is the letter that went out to parents in February 2020 about the new policy and a slide that details the marking codes that you will see on your child’s work. There is also a document that enables your child to reflect on the quality of their written notes. Please encourage your son / daughter to answer those two questions as you talk to them about their work.

Please click the links below to access the resources.

AM I MAKING EFFECTIVE NOTES?

MARKING CODES

LETTER TO PARENTS