Assessment Key Stage 3

Whichever primary school your child has joined us from you are likely to find that assessment and reporting here at Thomas Gainsborough School is different, but highly effective in supporting student progress.

We are clearly focussed on giving you access to rich, regular and personalised infromation to help you support your child's learning. We do this through a wide range of activities, tools and people, each of which are detailed on our Assessment & Reporting Overview page. 

In addition to our usual reporting activitie we also use time in Key Stage 3 (Years 7 to 9) to help establish students' own responsibility for their learning, strong relationships between tutors and families, and a confidence to perform well in public examinations.

Curriculum Judgements at Key Stage 3

The aim for all students in Key Stage 3 (Years 7 to 9) is to be secure in the content that we teach. When you receive each end of term report there will be a curriculum judgment showing how well we judge your child has demonstrated their understanding of the curriculum up until that point. The judgements have numbers assigned (Extending (5), Secure (4) etc). These numbers are for sequencing only, they DO NOT relate to GCSE grades.

Examinations in Key Stage 3

To measure students progress and to help plan the next steps in their learning and to increase their confidence in completing exams we have formal exams at the end of each year. These are usually sat in the sports hall at exam desks with invigilators present. We use carefully written papers which assess content and skills taught during the year in the style of the GCSE exams they will sit at the end of Year 11.

We are improving the communication of outcomes of these exams by providing more information in the end of year report.

These exams also help inform any changes to sets made in the following academic year.

Introduction to Assessment and Reporting

We also provide an annual presentation and Question and Answer session to parents about our reporting systems.