Assessment and Reporting

There are a few different ways that you can find out about the progress your child is making at Hove Park School. This includes written reports, parents’ consultation and information evenings and contacting staff if you have a specific query.

Written Reports

We regularly report on students’ progress in a formal written report, as follows:

Our reports provide information on academic achievement. attendance, rewards and behaviour. At Key Stage 3 and in Year 9, additional written comments from teachers are also included in reports, as follows:

These written comments provide additional information for parents about the following key aspects of their child’s foundation years at Hove Park School:

1. Transition from primary school to secondary school (Year 7);
2. Progress in subjects before they choose their GCSE options (Year 8);
3. Transition from Key Stage 3 (Valley campus) to Key Stage 4 (Nevill campus).

Parents’ Consultation and Information Evenings

Parents have the opportunity to meet with subject teachers at our parents’ consultation evenings to discuss their child’s progress. For students in Year 7-10 there is one annual parents’ evening. For students in Year 11 and 6^th form there are two parents’ evenings each year.

In addition to this we also run several other information evenings where parents can meet with teachers to find out about how their child is doing in school. More details can be seen on the chart below:

The dates of the above events can be found in the calendar elsewhere on our website.

Contacting Staff

If you have any specific queries about your child’s progress at school please contact the main office and they will be able to forward your query on to the relevant member of staff:

office@hovepark.org.uk

The website and our social media feeds are also an excellent way of finding out about what is going on in more school generally. We also distribute a copy of our Parklife e-magazine every half-term and a termly written and video bulletin is distributed to parents and carers each year team.

Assessment

Key Stage 3 (Year 7 & Year 8)

Assessment at KS3 focuses on the academic progress each student is making towards successfully completing their KS3 courses and eventually going on to achieve their target grade at GCSE. Teachers use the following descriptors on reports to indicate the progress a student is making at KS3:

How do teachers make judgements about progress?

Teachers make judgements about progress at KS3 by comparing the attainment level of a student’s work with their baseline attainment (the attainment they achieved in the testing completed at the end of primary school).

Baseline Attainment

When a student joins the school, we use the results of their Year 6 national curriculum tests (sometimes called SATs) to determine a baseline attainment level:

If a student did not sit the KS2 tests when they were in Year 6, we estimate their baseline, using either CATs (Cognitive Ability Tests) or our own testing in English and maths.

A note about baseline attainment levels:

The KS2 test score - or an estimate - is used by most subjects as the baseline for measuring progress, for example: English, maths, science, humanities (history, geography) and languages. However, some practical and/or creative subjects, such as PE, art, music, drama and technology, do their own baseline testing, because of the specialised nature of the courses.

Assessing Progress at Key Stage 3

Teachers use the student’s baseline attainment level to help them make a judgement about progress, by comparing it to the average level of attainment the student has achieved in work completed over the course of the year at Hove Park School. The difference between the two provides an indicator of the progress they are making.

For example:

If a student has intermediate baseline attainment and the teacher’s assessment of their work is that on average they are working at a high level, then they would report the student is making ‘Above Expected Progress’. If another teacher’s assessment of their work is that they are working at an intermediate level on average then they would report that the student is making ‘expected progress’ and so on.

Assessing the attainment level of a student’s work:

Every subject has their own assessment framework which teachers use to assess the attainment of work at KS3. These set out what students need to achieve to attain at 3 different levels: higher, intermediate and foundation. These have been designed to ensure a progress pathway that supports students towards completing KS3 and starting their GCSE courses at a level that will enable them to progress towards achieving their full potential by the time they leave the school.

Copies of the assessment frameworks can be found here for core curriculum subjects: English, maths, science, humanities (history, geography) and languages.

Key Stage 3/4 (Year 9)

In our curriculum Year 9 is a bridging year between Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4. Students transfer from the Valley Campus to the Nevill Campus and the Year 9 curriculum provides them with further opportunities to develop the skills they will need when they start their GCSE courses. Please see here for further information about our curriculum: https://www.hovepark.org.uk/curriculum

For the first two terms of Year 9, reporting follows the same format as for Key Stage 3, as described in the section above. At the end of the summer term, we report using the Key Stage 4 reporting format, as described below.

Key Stage 4 (Year 10 and Year 11)

Assessment at KS4 focuses on the academic progress each student is making towards achieving their target grade at GCSE.

GCSE Grades

GCSEs are assessed using grades 9-1 as an indicator of attainment. A ‘standard’ pass at GCSE is a Grade 4. A ‘strong’ pass at GCSE is a Grade 5. The 9-1 grading system is well established now, but for reference, an approximate comparison with the old A*-G model of assessment can be made as follows: 9 (A**), 8 (A*), 7 (A), 6 (B), 5 (B-/C+), 4 (C), 3 (D), 2 (E), 1 (F/G).

Target Grades

This is the minimum grade we would expect each student to achieve by the end of Year 11. Targets are calculated by using each student’s prior attainment from KS2 (primary school), or the results of in-school assessment where KS2 information is not available. It is possible for a student’s targets to change as they progress through the school. If teachers feel that the initial target grade should be amended, they can request this; for example, where a student works consistently above target throughout an academic year.

We use the following as a general guide to setting minimum targets, however, targets are often adjusted depending on the needs of each individual student:

Predicted Grades

At reporting points, students are given a predicted grade by their teachers. This is an indication of the GCSE outcome that the student is likely to achieve at the end of Year 11, if they continue to work at the current rate.

With each prediction, a fine grade is indicated using the plus and minus symbols:

Reporting on Attitude to Learning 

In addition to progress, teachers report on attitude to learning (ATL) for all year groups by giving a score between 5 and 0 for each student at every reporting point.

The scores indicate the following:

·        5 = Excellent

·        4 = Good

·        2/3 = Room for improvement

·        0/1 = Cause for concern

The ATL score that is awarded is based on how well the student has met the following criteria:

a) being on time and prepared for learning;

b) having a resilient approach to learning;

c) being well behaved and polite;

d) showing pride in work;

e) responding to and acting on feedback.

Key Stage 5 (6^th Form)

Assessment and reporting at KS5 focuses uses the same format as KS4, with the exception being that target grades are calculated using GCSE attainment as the baseline for determining targets, rather than KS2 test scores.

Students taking A’ Level courses are issued predicted A’ Level grades.edback.