KS3 Assessment

The academy’s Key Stage 3 curriculum has been developed following extensive consultation and development work with curriculum experts from examination boards and subject leaders from a range of schools across the country.  It is based on the National Curriculum but also contains content that is localised to suit the needs, aspirations and interests of our pupils.

These pages contain information about the topics that pupils study in each subject areas, how their progress and attainment will be assessed and how their progress and attainment will be reported. 

The subject overviews are broken down into half termly segments in order that parents and pupils can easily see what topics are being covered in school at any given time.

Each academic year is split into 3 FORMAL assessment points.

FORMAL assessment points involve pupils sitting a written test, under exam conditions, in each subject, which covers everything that they have learnt in the subject to date in the academic year (this is also known as a synoptic test).  At least 2 of these assessments will be sat by thousands of other pupils across more than 50 United Learning schools, providing valuable comparative data about each child’s performance against a representative data set.

When parents receive their child’s report (3 times per year), they will see that they have been assessed as being on a ‘KPIP’ for each subject.  This stands for ‘Key Performance Indicator for Progress’.  This is derived from the ‘age related grade’ achieved in their assessment for that subject. The grade reported to parents will also take into account their child’s performance in the topics studied previously that academic year within that subject.

Formal Assessment Points

• train pupils to apply their knowledge
• provide opportunities to ‘move up’ (never down)
• enable teachers to carry out Question Level Analysis of pupils’ performance in different aspects of their learning, analyse the impact of their planning and teaching (adapting accordingly), and to intervene where misconceptions or underperformance are evident
• measure progress
• enable informed conversations about learning and progress with senior leaders, heads of  department, pupils, parents and subject advisors
• provide parents and pupils with performance information, each KPIP being awarded is also colour coded so that pupils know if they are exceeding their target (blue), meeting their target (green), one grade below target (amber) or >1 grades below target (red)

Each Assessment Point (roughly 13 weeks in duration) is numbered from 1 (December of Y7) to 9 (July of Y9), which covers pupils’ entire journey through Key Stage 3.

Each pupil is assigned a starting target according to their KS2 APS on entry or scaled score (depending on their age).  Special consideration is given to the placing / setting of pupils with English as an additional language, pupils who did not sit Key Stage 2 tests in primary school, pupils who have made accelerated progress and who are working above expectations as a result, and to a range of other circumstances that might mean that pupils’ can access more challenging learning.

In class, each pupil is expected to make the maximum amount of progress possible.  More able pupils are stretched to access more complex work at higher levels more quickly.

Pupils are initially set according to their Key Stage 2 starting points to enable teachers to ensure that all pupils can be supported to make the maximum amount of progress.

Pupils who make more than the expected level of progress over two formal assessment points may be moved ‘up’ a set in order to ensure that they are continually stretched and challenged to achieve their fullest academic potential.  Pupils who do not meet progress expectations will never be ‘moved down’ and will instead receive bespoke interventions to support their learning, such as small group tutorials, additional homework, enrichment sessions with Head of Department, or bespoke in-class support.

Reporting progress and attainment:

Pupils’ achievement levels and target grades are identified using a number that comes in 2 parts.  This tells you both the level that the pupil is achieving (or aiming for) and the point that they are at on their journey through school.

• The KPIP they have achieved (or is their target) is the FIRST PART.
• The point in the pupil’s learning journey is the SECOND PART

For example, the achievement of a pupil who has achieved KPIP 5 at assessment point 1 of Year 7 would be reported as 5.1

Working at KPIP 5, half term 1 of secondary school (Y7, AP1) 5.1

If they remain working at this level in their next assessment, their achievement would be reported as 5.2 (KPIP 5 at Assessment Point 2)

Working at KPIP 5, half term 2 of secondary school (Y7, AP2)  5.2

and so on, until the end of Year 9, which would be 5.9 (KPIP 5 at Assessment Point 9)

Working at KPIP 5, half term 18 of secondary school (Y9, AP9) 5.9

Progress and attainment in line with targets:

Parents and pupils can easily see if good progress is being made due to a simple system of colour coding.

Red = Performing poorly, more than 1 KPIP below progress expectations

Amber = Not making enough progress, 1 KPIP below progress expectations

Green = Meeting progress expectations & achieving target KPIP

Blue = Meeting progress expectations & exceeding target KPIP