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Assessment & Reporting

KS3 Reporting at Thornden (Year 7 - 9)

For KS3 reports in 2023 and onward, you will see a change to our reporting systems.

We will no longer provide a “Thornden grade”, which was a number grade. These “Thornden grades” were created when KS3 national levels were removed. The reason for changing to a new system is that feedback indicated a confusion over what the numbers and the sublevels meant and confusion over how these grades translated into GCSE grades.

Parents and carers wanted to know, from a report, how well their child has progressed in each subject. Taking this on board whilst reviewing our systems for reporting, student reports will now have a progress statement for each subject at KS3 rather than a number, in order to provide clarity on student progress.

The progress statements that students will be given for each subject will be one of the following:

Limited progress 

Some progress 

Expected progress 

Better than expected progress

And relate to the progress that each subject would expect students to make in their curriculum up to the point of reporting, or between reports within a year.

If students are making good progress at KS3 at Thornden then they will be working well towards achieving positive outcomes at GCSE.

Where students are making expected or better than expected progress, then both the school and parents and carers should be pleased with the report.

In addition to the progress statements, there will be target statements on the report card, which will give you an indication of what your child can do to either maintain their good progress or to help them make better progress in a subject.

An example of a section from a report card can be seen here:

If a student has made limited progress in only a couple of subjects and at least expected progress in other subjects, then there may be a cause for concern in those subjects. Please see the target statements for that subject for guidance on what can be done in that subject to improve their progress.

If a student has a significant number of limited progress grades across their subjects then the school will identify this, and we will work with you on next steps to support the student as there made be broader, common issues that together we can work on.

 

What does progress at Thornden look like across 5 years of education?

Outcomes at the end of KS4 are measured nationally by a “Progress 8” measure. Schools are given an average of all the students' individual Progress 8 scores. This score is based on comparing individual students' grades to the average grades of every student in the country who had similar prior attainment at KS2.

The student is then given a score above or below 0 (or 0 if they are at the average). 

The average score of all students in a school becomes the "Progress 8" score for the school. Since the measure was created, the Progress 8 score at Thornden has always been positive, and we have always been at the top of the progress 8 scores in Hampshire. This means that, on average, students at Thornden outperform progress made by their peers nationally.

The two most recent example scores are from 2022, where our Progress 8 score was 0.61 and in 2023, where our Progress 8 score was 0.5. This places the school in the “well above average" category for progress.

 

If a student is given expected progress grades in their subjects at KS3 then they will be on the right path for success at KS4.

 

Core (non GCSE) PE reporting

The PE department will be using a separate grading system for Core PE which will give you an indication of student performance across 3 areas: Head, Heart and Hands, where students will be given a developing or secure grade in award levels from Bronze to Diamond. Pleasethe PDF documents below for information on how what each award level means in each area.

 

Reporting at KS4 (Year 10 and Year 11)

At the start of year 10, we provide a report in the first half-term which is designed to give you an early indication as to how positive your child’s learning behaviours are, in their GCSE subjects. At such an early stage in the GCSE courses, staff will not have collected enough summative or formative assessment to provide a current working GCSE grade.

 

All subsequent reports will contain current working GCSE grades and, where relevant, they will also include trial exam grades. 

GCSE grades are on a scale of 9 to 1, where 4 is a standard pass and 5 is a strong pass. Grade 9 is considered to be better than an A* on the previous GCSE grading scale.

You can read more about GCSE grades on these webpages:

https://ofqual.blog.gov.uk/2018/03/02/gcse-9-to-1-grades-a-brief-guide-for-parents/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-48993830

 

Reporting on Behaviour for learning

In all reports, students will still receive grades for behaviour for learning in class and home learning (see the PDF file at the bottom of this page, for details on these) as well as a statement regarding their progress.

 

School performance data

For reference, our 2023 Progress 8 score was 0.5 which places the school in the highest banding on the "compare schools" website. Further performance data can also be found here: (https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/136715/thornden-school/secondary)