Assessment

At Brian Clarke we see assessment as integral to teaching and learning and inextricably linked to curriculum design. Carefully constructed assessment enables the classroom teacher to diagnose what students know and understand during lessons/over time and critically provides support through feedback to move the learning on.

Assessment and meaningful feedback are also crucial to students who need to be able to master key content and make progress through their various curriculum journeys.

Baselining on Entry
On entry we use the Key Stage 2 published data, supplemented by:

NGRT Assessments
EAL proficiency levels as appropriate

Assessment Approaches
Our suite of assessment incorporates purposefully designed formative and summative approaches to allow teachers to check on pupils’ developing knowledge and understanding.

Formative assessment
The purpose of formative assessment is to enable:

Teachers to identify how students are performing on a continuing basis. To identify gaps and misconceptions and to use this information to adapt learning in the moment in order to provide additional support or extension where needed.
Students to measure their knowledge and understanding against learning objectives and identify areas in which they need to improve.

At Brian Clarke there are two strands to formative assessment:

In-lesson formative assessment
Formative assessment is a feature in every Brian Clarke lesson. It takes many forms, including questioning, mini-whiteboard checks and peer- and self-assessment tasks. Teachers are well-trained to use methods that effectively check the developing understanding of all pupils in the class.

Masters of Knowledge checks
The approach to home learning at Brian Clarke allows pupils to practice and rehearse the knowledge that underpins their learning. The aim is for this core learning to become embedded in their long term memory through regular retrieval. Teachers will set regular quizzes on the knowledge that pupils have practiced through their home learning tasks. This allows both teachers and pupils to check that their masters of knowledge home learning is helping them to remember more over time.

Masters of Knowledge checks take place in core subjects only at KS3, and in every qualification subject at KS4.

Summative assessment:
The purpose of summative assessment is to enable:

Teachers to identify how individual students/ cohorts of students are performing on a continuing basis. To identify gaps and misconceptions and to use this information to provide appropriate support or extension, evaluate teaching and inform future lessons and curriculum design.
Students to understand how well they have learned and understood a topic or course of work over a period of time. Through appropriate feedback students will know and understand what they need to do to improve.
Parents to be informed about their child’s progress through the curriculum.
Senior leaders to monitor the performance of student cohorts, identify where interventions may be required and to work with subject leads and teachers to ensure students are supported to achieve excellent progress.

At Brian Clarke there are also two strands to summative assessment:

Checkpoints
Every subject carries out checkpoint assessments, at both KS3 and KS4. These assessments are completed in lesson time, usually at the end of a unit of work. Assessments are designed to test how well pupils can apply the knowledge they have learned across a series of lessons. They may also test pupils’ ability to recall and apply knowledge and skills learnt from previous units and years of study where this underpins their current learning.

The structure and style of checkpoints vary depending on the subject taught and year that pupils are in. This reflects the different demands of subject content and the learning journey that pupils are on in different subject areas. Checkpoints are centrally set in departments.

Subject examinations
Twice yearly pupils will sit exams during assessment week. Exams are synoptic, which means that they are designed to check on pupils’ learning over time. They are designed to test pupils’ ability to recall and apply knowledge and skills learnt during their time at the school.

Exams run on a centralised timetable with all pupils sitting the exams at the same time to ensure fairness. Pupils who miss an exam due to absence will be required to complete that exam on their return to school.

In KS3, pupils sit exams in core subjects only. In KS4, pupils sit exams in examined subjects (however, in a small number of subjects, it may not be appropriate for pupils to sit exams due to the nature or timeline of the subject).

Nationally standardised summative assessment
Nationally standardised summative assessments take the form of GCSEs and vocational qualifications at the end of Key Stage 4.

Nationally standardised summative assessment enables:

Students and parents to understand how students are performing in comparison to students nationally
Teachers to understand national expectations and assess their own performance in the broader national context
School leaders to monitor the performance of student cohorts, identify where interventions may be required, and work with teachers to ensure students are supported to achieve excellent progress and attainment

Reporting to Parents
At Key Stage 3 (Years 7-9) parents will receive three reports per year:

In the Autumn term this will be Attitude to Learning descriptors only.
In the Spring and Summer terms this will be Attitude to Learning alongside a measure of how the student is progressing through the subject curriculum. These reports will inform parents of what their child knows, understands and can do in relation to the curriculum covered.

At Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11) parents will receive three reports per year:

For Year 10 this will be Attitude to Learning only in the Autumn term. A current working grade will be issued in the Spring and Summer terms, as will as an indication of whether the student is on track to achieve their target grade.
For Year 11 this will be Attitude to Learning and a current working grade in the Autumn term and at the end of the Spring term before Easter. Early in the Spring term, students will receive a report with their mock examination results. In all three reports, there will be an indication of whether the student is on track to achieve their student target grade.

Progress will also be discussed at parents evenings with tutors or class teachers.

Achievement for All (inclusion)
We have the same high expectations and aspirations for all students at Brian Clarke.

The principles of this assessment approach applies to all students, including those with special educational needs or disabilities.

Assessment is used diagnostically to contribute to the early identification of SEN and any requirements for support and intervention for all students including those who struggle with literacy. We use meaningful ways of measuring and reporting on all aspects of progress including communication, social skills physical development, resilience, and independence. For students working below the national expected level of attainment, our assessment arrangements will consider progress relative to student starting points and take this into account alongside the nature of the student’s learning difficulties.

Tracking System and Student Level Data Handling
Within the Cranmer Education Trust tracking data from each cycle is monitored by subject/faculty leaders, senior leaders responsible for the quality of learning, standards and achievement and by the strategic group of academies headteachers, with the CEO and data analyst, to ensure that good practice can be shared, and underperformance addressed quickly. This includes monitoring of progress of key groups. Student data is always current; both current data and predictions in Years 11, 6 and 13 against targets, are reported to the Local Governing Committee and the Standards Committee of the Trust Board, in late Spring.

Moderation of GCSE assessment will take place in conjunction with Blue Coat School and other secondaries on the processing of joining the trust and will be externally checked by Specialist Leaders of Education (SLEs) to ensure accuracy.

Target Setting
We do not set targets for pupils’ achievement, as we do not wish to place a ceiling on the achievement of our young people. Rather, when pupils reach KS4 we inform them (and their parents) of what a pupil with a similar academic background would typically achieve in each subject.

These “typicalities” are calculated using prior attainment data from Key Stage 2, plus DfE value-added models as well as modelling from the Fischer Family Trust (FFT), to set a benchmark for progress by the end of Year 11. This allows pupils and their families to measure their progress against others, and allow them to identify and address any areas of underperformance.

No gaps in expectation will be built in on the grounds of gender, disadvantage, ethnicity, prior attainment banding or SEN, so the size of the disadvantaged cohort is never a limiting factor on the aspirations of the school. Additional challenge is added to targets for the EAL cohort using the FFT analysis of contextual factors to reflect the acceleration that EAL learners typically make at national level (though not always at local level) throughout Key Stage 4.

Students are on a 5-year learning journey which will culminate in public examinations. This is divided into 2 distinct phases – Years 7-9 which is broad, deep and rich, and which lays the foundations of subject mastery, and Years 10-11 which remains broad through EBacc, and also offers opportunities for greater depth, some specialization and some branching out into new disciplines and courses linked to potential employment routes.