Curriculum ’23 – Assessment | Birchwood Community High School

How do we assess your child at Birchwood?

What is the aim of assessment at KS3?

At Birchwood Community High School, our aim is that our students are taught the curriculum in a way that enables them to know more, remember more and can do more.

To support this approach, we use our key lesson principles and our curriculum principles to ensure that students are assessed regularly and thoroughly.

What is the aim of assessment at KS4?

At KS4, we aim to build upon the knowledge and skills that have been gained at KS3.

The lesson principles and curriculum principles remain a constant. We aim to assess in a way that supports our students in facing the added level of challenge and in tackling formal assessments.

Assessment: The Birchwood Way. What does this look like?

All of our assessments are thoughtfully designed to ensure that they underpin and develop the key knowledge and skills required to flourish in each subject.
Assessment is used to inform teachers about students’ learning and to identify any misconceptions, as well as gaps in knowledge and skills.
Information from assessments is used to plan lessons and provide students with feedback on how to develop and further their learning.
RAP (Respond, Action, Progress) assessments are planned at meaningful points within the curriculum to provide ongoing feedback. RAP assessments are low stakes and are used to help to address misconceptions and inform curriculum planning.
Whilst the principles of assessment remain the same, subjects adapt the nature of their assessments to complement the specific requirements of their subject and their wider curriculum.
Assessment should improve students’ learning – not just measure their learning.
Our assessment and feedback policies are underpinned by our commitment to staff wellbeing. The aim is for this to be manageable for staff and motivating for students.

Feedback at KS3: The Birchwood Way

At Birchwood, we want our KS3 students to understand the purpose of feedback and how it exists to help them to build upon their knowledge and improve their ability to apply subject- specific skills.

To support this process, response lessons and activities are a key part of the feedback loop. Teachers ensure that students are given targeted reteaching, guided modelling and the opportunity to put their refined approach into practice.

Response lessons will take place as part of the RAP (Respond, Action, Progress) model. However, response activities will also take place in response to over-shoulder marking, questioning, low-stakes knowledge tests.

Feedback at KS4: The Birchwood Way

The feedback principles are a constant in KS4. We build upon students’ understanding of the purpose of feedback as a tool to help them to succeed.

A key thread of feedback at KS4 is to ensure that students have the opportunity to respond to feedback given from assessments conducted in a formal setting. The latter is done to help to prepare students for their GCSE examinations.

We also encourage students to access and understand GCSE assessment criteria, as part of the feedback process, to help them to feel as confident as possible.

When and how do we report on student progress in KS3?

In Key Stage 3 we report student performance twice a year:

Mid year: How effectively students are learning the curriculum at this point (informed by ongoing formative and summative classroom assessment.)
End of year: How well students remember what they have learned this year and in their previous learning

We also provide an additional report at the end of half term 1 which solely focusses on effort in class and at home. This is an opportunity for students and staff to reflect on scholarly habits and ensure that students are supported to reach their full potential and remove any barriers that may be posed by any pastoral issues that may arise.

During Key Stage 3, we will set KaSTs (Knowledge and Skills Tests) which will assess cumulative knowledge and skills at key assessment points. This information will be shared with parents at the end of term 1 and at the end of the year.

KaSTs (Knowledge and Skills Tests) will use the following descriptors; Developing, Securing and Extending. Each subject has their own criteria for this which is a triangulation of the KS2, KS3 and KS4 curriculum.

To make the learning journey more personalised and meaningful, we also use a ‘+’ and a ‘-‘ to add more detail as to how well they are progressing within the curriculum.

Each year, the curriculum builds and becomes more challenging over time. Therefore, the criteria underpinning each descriptor also becomes more challenging. A student who maintains the same descriptor (that is in line with their KS2 data) throughout KS3 is therefore making expected progress.

All students at Birchwood will take a learning journey that is individual to them and their learning needs. When a child enters our school, they are placed on a pathway based on prior attainment (taken from Year 6 SATs as well as information from primary schools). This enables all students to access the curriculum at a pace of learning that is correct for their needs. Students’ are continually monitored as part of our KaST assessments and the learning journey that each child takes may change in response to our data. In addition, each year group has a smaller ‘Parvis Magna’ group for students with more specific needs.

Underperformance at KS3 is addressed through the feedback model and the intervention cycle.

The reporting is heavily influenced by the KaST test but students’ work from across the year is also taken into account.

When and how do we report on student progress in KS4?

In Key Stage 4 we report student performance twice a year:

Mid year:

Year 10: Students will receive a forecast grade range based on their learning of the curriculum at this point (informed by ongoing formative and summative classroom assessment.)

Year 11: Students will receive a GCSE grade that is based solely on their performance in their mock examinations, as well an overall forecast grade for the end of the year.

End of year:

Year 10: Students will sit mock examinations at the end of the summer term. They will receive a GCSE grade that is based solely on their performance in their mock examinations, as well an overall forecast grade for the end of the year 11.

Year 11: Students will sit mock examinations in term 2. Again, they will receive a GCSE grade that is based solely on their performance in their mock examinations, as well an overall forecast grade for the end of the year.