The Kingsbrook School

Assessment & Reporting

Assessment

Assessing pupils is important in schools because it helps teachers understand how well pupils are learning, and how they can help pupils to improve. 

At The Kingsbrook School, we use assessment to:

• Identify learning gaps - Assessments can help teachers identify areas where students might need more help or practice.
• Provide feedback - Assessments can help students improve by providing feedback that helps them identify their strengths and weaknesses.
• Track progress - Assessments can help teachers monitor student progress and plan how to help students make further progress.
• Involve parents - Assessments can help schools report information to parents about their child's learning.
• Set goals - Assessments can help schools set targets for the future and measure their performance.
• Inform professional development - Assessments can provide data that informs professional development and training for teachers.
• Help students make choices - Assessments can help older students make choices about their examination courses, qualifications, and careers (e.g. GCSE Options).

There are different types of assessments we use at Kingsbrook, including:

• Diagnostic assessments - Used at the beginning of a course or unit to assess students' prior knowledge and skills
• Summative assessments - Used to assess how far a child has come and what they have achieved, such as end of topic tests, GSCEs, and A Levels
• Self & Peer assessments - Involves students evaluating each other's work, which can help students develop communication and collaboration skills

KS3  Assessment

Since the abolition of National Curriculum Levels for Key Stage 3, all schools have developed their own ways to assess and report attainment at Key Stage 3.

Recognising the benefits of developing a shared approach to assessment across IAT, staff developed shared, subject-specific assessment criteria that are used by all IAT Secondary Schools. Schools assessed students against these criteria, enabling the identification of students’ strengths and gaps in knowledge and, therefore, the areas they needed to focus on or required further support with. These level descriptors, along with an explanation of how ‘attainment’ and ‘progress’ were reported, can be found in the Key Stage 3 Level Descriptor booklets.

• TKS Y7 IAT Key Stage 3 Assessment Criteria SB download_for_offline
  download_for_offlineTKS Y7 IAT Key Stage 3 Assessment Criteria SB
• TKS Y8 IAT Key Stage 3 Assessment Criteria SB download_for_offline
  download_for_offlineTKS Y8 IAT Key Stage 3 Assessment Criteria SB
• TKS Y9 IAT Key Stage 3 Assessment Criteria SB download_for_offline
  download_for_offlineTKS Y9 IAT Key Stage 3 Assessment Criteria SB

Alongside the use of these shared level descriptors, IAT schools adopted a tracking system called Pupil Progress. This enabled details of both attainment and progress to be reported to parents and carers through detailed subject-specific reports and via a parent app.

 

KS4 & KS5 Assessment

In September 2024, IAT Secondary Schools started using a tracking platform called Pupil Progress to record students’ attainment and progress throughout Key Stage 4 and 5.

This platform enables attainment to be reported for a specific assessment, for example, a mock examination grade, or as an average grade across a number of assessments. Progress grades compared a student’s attainment against their Minimum Target Grade.

IAT schools have now moved Key Stage 4 and 5 reporting over to Pupil Progress. We are, therefore, now able to share detailed information with students, parents, and carers, including identified gaps in knowledge and areas for improvement, via a parent app and detailed reports.

GCSE Mock Examinations

During Key Stage 4, pupils will participate in three Mock GCSE examination series. 

These are as follows:

Year 10 - First 2/3 weeks of June

Year 11 - First 2/3 weeks of November

Year 11 - First 2/3 weeks after February Half Term

Reporting Attainment & Progress to Parents & Carers

At The Kingsbrook School, we value the importance of collaborative working between home and school. A pupils' journey through school is not solely within the walls of the classroom - It's a shared endeavour between teaching staff and parents/carers. Recent research underscores the positive influence of home-school partnerships on a pupils' learning and development. When parents are actively engaged in their child's education, pupils tend to have better attendance, improved behaviour, and higher academic achievement. 

Every academic year, we provide parents and carers to come into school to view pupils' learning in school and meet with teachers to discuss attainment and progress across our curriculum. In addition, parents receive two reports home every academic year which detail attainments and progress in all curriculum subjects. The key dates for the 2024-2025 academic year can be found below.

Academic Report will be sent home as follows:

Years 7, 8 & 9 - Two reports are shared annually - these will be sent home during the last week of term in February and July. 

Years 10 & 11- Three reports are shared annually - these will be sent home during the last week of term in December, March and July.