Key Stage 3 - Year 7 and Year 8

At Rooks Heath School we monitor students’ progress from the start of Year 7 until their GCSEs. In order to measure their progress, students are put on ‘Flight Paths’ which maps out their progress from their primary school and helps to indicate the minimum GCSE grade they could achieve when they reach the end of Year 11.

Students will be informed of their Flight Paths early in the Autumn Term and parents receive a letter outlining the assessment and reporting program. Parents receive a monitoring report in the Spring term (and every term thereafter) which will inform them of their child’s progress in relation to their Flight Path.

Progress Check	Progress Description compared with Flight Path
Significantly above	Student is making progress far above their Flight Path
In line with or above	Student is making progress in line with their Flight Path, or slightly above their Flight Path
Working towards target	Student is working slightly below their Flight Path
Significantly below	Student is working far below their Flight Path

What is a Flight Path?

It is an estimate of the range of GCSE grades a student should be working towards for the end of Key Stage 4 (Year 11) which is when they sit their GCSE examinations. Teachers have planned the curriculum to reflect the Flight Path expectations for each student. A child’s Flight Path may vary between subjects.

Students are placed on one of the following Flight Paths;

 

What do the Flight Paths mean?

The main objective of the Flight Path model is to enable staff, students and parents to assess whether appropriate progress is being made to achieve the highest possible outcome. Projections based on attainment at primary school (KS2) tell us what grades we would expect students to be achieving at GCSE when they sit exams at the end of Year 11, through a series of checkpoints. Flight Paths show what skills and/or knowledge students would be expected to have acquired, and by when, if they are to be on target to achieve those expected outcomes.

How is the Flight Path for each subject decided?

This is determined by the Assessment Team using KS2 data and CAT test data on entry in Year 7. Teachers use their professional judgement to provide the right level of challenge for individual students in their subject using departmental guidelines, and these are planned in departmental Schemes of Learning. Students have an assembly in November Year 7, where the Flight Paths, progress checks and reports are explained to them. Parents are informed of allocated Flight Paths and progress in the Spring Monitoring Report.

Can students change Flight Paths?

The allocated Flight Path gives a target range for the student to aim for, so we can judge whether they are on track to meet their targets. If a student falls below their Flight Path expectation, then we would put support and intervention in place to help the student get back on track. It would only be in exceptional circumstances that a Flight Path would be lowered. Teachers and subject leaders constantly monitor student performance and should the student’s performance, over time, indicate that the student is consistently performing above their Flight Path expectations in multiple subjects, then it may be reviewed. 

How is information about progress communicated via reports to parents?

The school will send home three monitoring reports per year to parents in order to track a student’s progress.  The report will highlight the subject areas of strength and areas for development. We encourage parents to use these reports as an opportunity to assist with the student’s learning and support us as we work together to achieve the best possible outcomes for your child.

How does the Flight Path model transfer to GCSE targets?

At the beginning of Year 10 and following the completion of the options process, the Flight Path model is replaced with a specific GCSE target grade per subject. The target grade is based on KS2 data which is used to extrapolate most likely outcomes in the final examinations.

 We use the below conversion table to convert KS2 into KS4 outcomes:

Flight Path	Target  GCSE	Target  BTEC
Excelling	8	L2Distinction*
Excelling	7	L2Distinction
Securing	6	L2Merit
Securing	5	L2Merit
Developing	4	L2Pass
Emerging	3	L1Distinction*
Emerging	3	L1Distinction
Emerging	2	L1 Merit
Beginning	1	L1 Pass

Teacher Predicted Grade (TPG = Most Likely Outcome)

An indicator of achievement will be given by a teacher projected grade in each assessment. This is based on current performance in lessons, tests, homework and coursework tasks or a combination of a number of these. Based on the student’s current performance, this grade predicts what grade they are most likely to achieve at the end of the key stage.  

For Year 10 and 11 this will project to the end of KS4 and for Year 12 and 13 this will project to the end of KS5. This grade is the primary means by which the student’s progress is tracked and monitored, as their final results are compared to their target grades. As students get closer to their terminal exams, this grade will also be used as prediction grade for 6^th Form, Colleges and Universities.

Current Attainment Grade

This grade indicates the level at which a student is working currently, for example on a recent topic test. This grade may fluctuate throughout KS4 in topic-based subjects, such as History and Geography. In subjects where each topic builds upon the next (such as MFL or Maths), the current attainment grade is likely to go up incrementally, from a grade 4 in the Autumn of Year 10, to a grade 5 in the Summer to a grade 6 in the Y11 Mocks.

Target Grade

The target is set from students prior data, where available, to be achieved by the end of the key stage as follows:

KS4 – FFT estimates and/or KS2-KS4 expected progress.

KS5 – ALPS A Level target. Target grades are generally set high to motivate students to do well. A student achieving a grade 8 or 9 at GCSE will be given a target grade of A in a subject they are continuing with at KS5. Targets are reviewed throughout the year and will be increased if the class teacher indicates through their projection that it has been set to low.

Key Stage 4 GCSEs

The grades given will range between 1 to 9. The last assessment in Year 11 will represent the GCSE/BTEC predicted grade.

Current Year 9, 10 and 11 will be given projected grades and target grades 1 to 9 in all GCSE reformed subjects.

BTEC Qualifications

BTEC courses are levelled as Distinction*, Distinction, Merit, Pass. These qualifications can be worth the equivalent of GCSEs. At KS5 some students may do a level 3 extended BTEC diploma which is worth the equivalent of 3 A Levels at the end of A2.

Foundation students may be awarded EL1, EL2, or EL3, which indicates performance below GCSE grade

Key Stage 5

The last assessment in Year 13 will represent your A Level/ BTEC predicted grade. The AS and A Level grades given will range between A* to E. If you are doing BTEC courses the student will be awarded a Pass, Merit, Distinction and Distinction*. It is important to note a Year 12 student could be awarded an A* predicted grade, as the projection carries to the end of Year 13.

KS5 Skills Review and Performance Reviews

If a Year 12 or Year 13 students projected grade is below their target grade the class teacher is required to comment on intervention needed. This comment should outline what the student’s weakness are and suggest strategies which the student is to carry out in order to be better equipped to move up to the next grade hopefully before the next assessment point. This will be used by the pastoral team to monitor and mentor students who are underachieving. Heads of Department to quality assure these comments to ensure they are set appropriately and ensure the student is supported in achieving these strategies.

	Year 7	Year 8	Year 9	Year 10	Year 11	Year 12	Year 13
Sep	CAT4 Tests (internal use only)
Oct	Settling In Report and Evening		GLS Reading Assessment	GLS Reading Assessment	Y11 Strive To Be Your Best Evening
Nov	Autumn Monitoring Report	Autumn Monitoring Report	Autumn Monitoring Report	Autumn Monitoring Report	Y11 Mock Exams	Eng and Maths GCSE retakes
						Autumn Review	Autumn Review
Dec				Y10 Parent Consultation Evening	Autumn Monitoring Report	Sixth Form Mocks	Sixth Form Mocks
Jan						Vocational Exams	Vocational Exams
						Winter Review	Winter Review
						Sixth Form Parent Consultation Evening	Sixth Form Parent Consultation Evening
Feb			Spring Monitoring Report		Y11 Spring Mock Exams in Eng/Maths
			Y9 Parent Consultation Evening
			Y9 Options Interviews
Mar	Spring Monitoring Report	Spring Monitoring Report		Spring Monitoring Report	Spring Monitoring Reports	Spring Review	Spring Review
	Y7 Parent Consultation Evening	Y8 Parent Consultation Evening
Apr				Y10 Strive To Be Your Best Evening			Sixth Form Mocks
May	Y7-8 Strive To Be Your Best Evening	Y7-8 Strive To Be Your Best Evening	Y9 Strive To Be Your Best Evening		Public Exams	Summer Review
						Public Exams: AS and BTEC	Public Exams: A Level and BTEC
Jun	Y7 End of Year Exams	Y8 End of Year Exams	Y9 End of Year Exams	Y10 Mocks	Public Exams	Public Exams: AS and BTEC	Public Exams: A Level and BTEC
Jul	Summer Monitoring Report	Summer Monitoring Report	Summer Monitoring Report	Summer Monitoring Report		Y12 End of Year Exams and UCAS Predictions
			GLS Reading Assessment	GLS Reading Assessment
Aug					GCSE and BTEC Results	AS and BTEC Results	A Level and BTEC Results