KS3 Interim Glossary

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Key Stage 3

Interim Glossary

How to understand your interim report - Bandings

With the help of parents, we have improved our assessment and reporting information at Key Stage 3, and are using Bandings to indicate current performance. Over time, this will show you how students are performing, and how much progress they are making.

What does B1 to B9 mean?

B stands for Band. There are 9 bands, ranging from B1 (lowest performance), through to B9 (highest performance).

How are the bandings worked out?

Students have been assessed in their subjects in a variety of ways. Teachers will use these tests and assessments to rank each child in the year group, in that subject. This determines what band they are currently performing in.

Why 9 bands?

This system is called Stanines (Standard Nines), and is used in various educational settings, to compare cohorts of students. For a more detailed description of this process, we hosted a webcast. The video of this can be found on our website: KS3 parent forum on assessment

How do I know if my child is making progress?

Students will get three interim reports per year, so you will be able to see if students have changed in their bandings in each curriculum area. We also include the banding on entry to school, which has been arrived at using Key Stage 2 SATS results and national benchmarks.

What does Student Action mean?

If there is a concern in a subject, and if a student is performing well below their last banding (or banding on entry), the teacher will indicate one simple action the student can take to make a difference. We have included a glossary with your report to help you with this. There is a list of possible actions, and what the codes mean. Click on the Student Action Codes tab at the top of the page.

What about Approach to Learning, Attendance, Achievement and Behaviour points

Click here for more information about these categories

Student Action

If there is a concern in a subject, and if a student is performing well below their last banding (or banding on entry), the teacher will indicate one simple action the student can take to make a difference. Here is a glossary of all possible actions that we currently use. They are designed to give you an idea of what might be done as a “quick win”, and to initiate a discussion between you (parent/ carer) and your son or daughter.

Meeting deadlines

Exam technique

Act on feedback

Independent reading

Engagement with home learning

Practical skills

Improve performance skills

Engage with Sparx homework

Check all work thoroughly

Use subject specific terms

Show method and workings

Be organised, ready to learn

Ask for support when needed

Improve behaviour for learning

Practise coding in Python

Effective revision

Increase attendance

Active Listening

Interim Glossary: Years 7,8,9

Achievement Points

Awarded to students for demonstrating good and effective learning behaviour in lessons and around school.

Behaviour Points

These are sanctions put in place for when behaviour or learning is inappropriate or a student fails to meet expected standards.

Attendance Expectations

At HCCS we consider attendance of utmost importance and are currently working in partnership with Cheshire East Local Authority. All students have a minimum attendance target of 98%. It is a legal requirement for a child to be present in school. You may be prosecuted if you do not give your child an education. You will normally get warnings and offers of help from the local council first.

98 – 100% Attendance No of weeks of lost learning Excellent! Keep it up!

95 – 97% Attendance 1-10 days of lost learning Good. Can you reach 98%+ ?

90 – 94% Attendance Between 2 and 4 weeks of lost learning Becoming a cause for concern

85% Attendance Almost 6 weeks of lost learning – 150 missed lessons Poor attendance

80% Attendance 7 weeks and 3 days of learning missed – 200 lessons Totally unacceptable. This is a serious concern.

75% Attendance 9 weeks and 1 day of learning missed – 250 missed lessons This is a safeguarding concern - neglect

Approach to Learning

OUTSTANDING – when given the opportunity a student always demonstrates effective Learning.

VERY GOOD – when given the opportunity a student demonstrates effective learning most of the time.

GOOD - when given the opportunity a student frequently demonstrates effective learning.

VARIABLE - when given the opportunity a student inconsistently demonstrates effective learning.

POOR - when given the opportunity a student rarely demonstrates our effective learning.

Reading Assessments

How do we report reading?

We report reading by using standardised scores. We will report students’ baseline (Yr 7) and latest score and this means students and parents can compare their latest scores with their baseline. In school, we will track scores across tests.

What is a standardised score?

A standardised score is a test result that's converted to a common scale so that students' performance can be compared. Standardised scores are based on the performance of a nationally representative sample of students, and are useful for comparing the performance of different groups of students.

How are they calculated

Standardised scores are calculated from a student's raw score in the STAR reader test by determining how far above or below the mean the raw score is.

What they're used for

Standardised scores are used to compare students' performance against a national average, and to identify strengths and weaknesses across the curriculum.

What the average is

The mean (average) standardised score is set at 100, regardless of the difficulty of the test.

How they're interpreted

A score of greater than 100 means a student has scored above average, a score of less than 100 means they have scored below average..

How they're used in comparison to scaled scores

Scaled scores (like KS2 SATS) indicate whether a student has met an expected standard - so 100 is, effectively, a pass mark. Standardised scores are norm-referenced, meaning they compare students' performance against a national average- so 100 is the score that the ‘middle’ or ‘most average’ student in any sample gets- half of the sample will score higher and half lower.