KEYSTAGE 3

In Years 7-9, students are assessed against grade descriptors. The descriptors make clear what students need to be able to do to achieve ‘Working Towards’, ‘Age Expected’ and ‘Working Above’. Each term, students sit a test which is made up of work from the current term, along with work covered to date during Year 7-9. It is important students develop good study habits and revise previous work covered. The knowledge organisers on our website will help students to do this.

The target grade is what your child should be aiming to achieve in order to make good progress. Targets have been generated by using your child’s results from the online assessments (Cognitive Abilities Test, Progress in Maths Test and Progress in English test) sat in their first term at Monkwearmouth or Y6 SATs scores (if sat).

Working At Grade – You will receive a report in the Spring and Summer term which contains a ‘Working At’ grade for each subject. This is the grade they achieved in their assessment. Each assessment will assess your child on work covered during the term and also work covered throughout Year 7-9 as they progress through the Key Stage 3. It is therefore important your child revises thoroughly for all assessments. Work your child has covered throughout Year 7-9 is assessed on termly assessments to get your child into the good study habit of revision; this is a key skill required for GCSE and beyond.

To help your child with this, a regular task they should be conducting at home is revising their Knowledge Organisers which are available on our website. Where a student is not meeting their target grade, it is important they work hard and follow the support and advice from their teacher, in order to improve.

If your child has met or exceeded their target grade, they will need to continue to work hard to ensure that this is replicated in future assessments, as they will need to recall prior knowledge from a longer time period, thus increasing the challenge.

Throughout Years 7-9, the criteria for WT, AE and WA increases in difficulty. For example, what is expected for AE in Year 8 is more challenging than what is expected for AE is Year 7. Therefore, if your child achieves the same grade or higher in Year 7, 8 and 9, this indicates they are making progress.

KEYSTAGE 4

Year 11

Two formal assessment fortnights are built into the academic year (Term 1 and Term 2). 

Term 1

In the Autumn term, students will sit core (Maths, English and Science) mock exams, formally, in the Hall.  Other subjects will conduct assessments in class. 

The results from these assessments will be reported to Parents before Christmas.  Parents are invited into the Academy for a meeting with a member of the Senior Leadership team in order to discuss results and next steps to secure improvements.  

Term 2

In the Spring Term, students sit a full suite of exams in the examination hall.  This usually takes around 2 weeks to complete.

The results from these assessments will be reported to Parents before Easter.  Parents are invited into the Academy for a meeting with a member of the Senior Leadership team in order to discuss results and next steps to secure improvements.  

Year 10

Term 1

Students will sit an assessment in Term 1 soon after the October half term.  Staff will make parents aware when assessments will be through Class Charts.  The test paper is made up of GCSE content covered so far.  Parents and carers will receive a report before the Christmas break in which teaching staff will indicate how students are progressing towards their target grade.

Term 3

Students will have an exam fortnight.  Core exams will be sat in the examination hall under exam conditions.  Non-core subject exams will take place in class.  Staff will post on Class Charts when these will take place.

Parents and Carers will receive a report before the Summer term which will contain current ‘Working At’ grades.