Assessment

The Curriculum 2018/2019 & beyond

The curriculum at Whitefield school is innovative and personalised, built around students’ individual needs and based on their ability, capacity and potential. We are responsive to the national agenda and ensure that our students are well taught and are fully prepared for their next steps.

KEY STAGE 3 – YEARS 7 AND 8

At Key Stage 3 students in Years 7 and 8 study broadly:-

English	Geography	Art
Mathematics	History	Drama and Dance
Science	Religious Education	Music
Physical Education	Modern Foreign Languages French / Spanish	Personal Social Health Economic Education(PSHEE)
Information Communication Technology (ICT)	Catering, Food & Nutrition	Design and Technology

Added to this we are fortunate to be one of only nine schools in the UK supported by MiSST (Music in Secondary Schools Trust) scheme. All pupils in Year 7 receive instrumental lessons as part of the core curriculum and are loaned an instrument (currently violin or viola) to take home. This scheme continues throughout Key Stage 3.

Following the Government’s decision to abandon National Curriculum levels at KS3 and allow school’s to develop their own systems for tracking student progress; Whitefield has introduced a system of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to identify student’s current skills and attributes within each subject and set targets for development.

It can be expected that a student will spend some time working within a particular KPI, as they are broader and more skills focused than old national curriculum levels. The benefit of this is that students focus on their individualised targets for development with an open mind set. These targets will be recorded and used in class by teachers to individualise learning and for students to continually track their progress.

An overview of the four KPIs are outlined below, however each subject will be creating extensive subject specific KPIs.

KPI	Expectation	Flight path for GCSEs grades
Mastered	Can successfully apply skills of the subject consistently in a variety of assessments tasks.	8-9
Secured	Good application of subject skills and knowledge demonstrated in assessment tasks.	6-7
Developing	Can apply some skills and a key terminology to assessment tasks	4-5
Emerging	Beginning to understand basics skills and language of the subject	3 or below

Table explained:

KPI: These are the four possible KPIs that a student can achieve.

Expectation: This explains the performance expectations of each KPI. Every subject has created its own specific criteria and for students to be assessed against based on the skills and knowledge required for KS3 study.

Flight path for GCSEs: This shows what GCSE grade a student is on path to achieve if they attain that KPI at the end of KS3. It is important to note that the GCSE grades are an indication of a pupil’s potential attainment; they are not a prediction for GCSE grades in the future.

End of KS3 KPI targets will be set on a student’s KS2 performance, by taking their KS2 Scaled Scores directly for English and Maths, then calculating an average score to set targets for all other subjects. This is outlined in the table below. If a KPI target is achieved before the end of KS3, then further aspirational targets will be set to challenge students further. At the same time, if students are falling below expected progress with KPIs, teachers will put in place intervention to support rapid progress. Every students will be given a targeted of at least Developing.

KS2 scaled score	End of KS3 Target KPI	Flight path for GCSEs grades
105-120	Mastered	8-9
93-104	Secure	6-7
80-92	Developing	4-5

As we continue to roll out this new KPI reporting system, subject specific targets for your child will be shared with you. This will allow you to more effectively support your child outside the classroom.

We believe that KPIs are an innovative response to national change in assessment that will further support the learning of your child and prepare them for the challenge of GCSEs.

If you have any question or queries regarding KPIs and KS3 assessment, please contact your child’s form tutor who will be happy to discuss this with you.

We run Discovery Hour Lectures for all Key Stage 3 students.

Students take part in a Discovery Hour session once each term. The session is run as a 15-20 minute lecture followed by independent study.

Sessions are delivered by members of staff on a topic completely of their own choosing. The session is split in three main parts: Part one is a short session on effective listening and note taking. Part two is the lecture and part three is when students make a start on the piece of work that they will submit.

Students are located in the main hall in exam style seating and work completely independently on producing a piece a work following the lecture.

In Year 7 students are given completely free reign to produce a piece of work linked to the lecture they have heard. This may take the format of a poster, a video, a poem or an extended piece of writing or any other format of their choosing.

In Year 8 the expectation is that the lecture will be posed as a question and students will  write a balanced argument on the question that has been posed.

In Year 9 students will be expected to produce an extended piece of writing in line with the literacy expectations of the school.