Sir Thomas Rich's

Please see the school day outline below:

Sir Thomas Rich’s school has devised a new set of grades to reflect a pupil’s approach to their learning. These will be awarded with each Order grade and replace the effort grades which were formerly used.

The grades are based on what the school believes to be the ten most important elements of effective learning behaviour. The grade awarded will be based upon how often a teacher perceives that a pupil has exhibited these good habits during the order period; the qualifiers: Always, Mostly, Sometimes and Rarely are used to complete the following ten statements to describe how the pupil routinely approaches his/her learning.

On pupils reports, the AtL grade will be represented by codes as follows: Al (Always); Mo (Mostly); So (Sometimes) and Ra (Rarely).

At Sir Thomas Rich’s we use our own system of Attainment Grades in order to measure the progress and performance of pupils in Key Stage 3. These have been carefully devised by the school based on academic research, with input from staff, pupils and parents. (They replace the previous system which was reliant on National Curriculum levels which have been removed from the new National Curriculum; each school has been tasked with the job of designing an assessment scheme suited to the needs of their own pupils). These grades will be used for the first time in 2016-17 for Year 7 Order grades – they will be rolled out to the whole of Key Stage 3 in the following two years (subject to ongoing reviews).

For each year group, there is an ascending scale of grades which are associated with descriptors of a pupil’s knowledge and skills of the curriculum in that year. Each descriptor represents a level of knowledge and understanding which is broader and deeper than the next descriptor down. The grades available in Year 7, for example, range from 1 to 5 and the associated generic descriptors for Year 7 can be seen in this table:

Example - Year 7 Attainment Grades:

Grade 5 - Mastered

Pupils demonstrate a deep understanding of the work taught and are able to select from a range of different approaches. They are able to generalise their knowledge and apply it to new areas. They demonstrate a mastery of all skills taught.

Grade 4 - Confident

Pupils demonstrate a deepening understanding of the work taught and are able to combine different strands of the curriculum. They can select and apply skills and apply most skills correctly.

Grade 3 - Secure

Pupils demonstrate a secure knowledge and understanding of the work taught and can identify connections between different areas. They can apply most of the skills covered.

Grade 2 - Developing

Pupils have a basic knowledge and understanding of the work taught and are starting to make simple links. They can apply some skills independently.

Grade 1 - Emerging

Pupils can recall basic facts from the work taught. They are aware of the skills needed and are beginning to use these in some areas with support.

Grades awarded before the end of the year are only judged against content covered up to that point so a grade 5 could still be awarded in Order 1. However, for most pupils, the expectation would be that there would be some improvement over the year as ideas and metacognitive techniques are reinforced (even in topic based subjects).

In Year 7, pupils will be set individual targets which will be published with the second Order grade. These targets will be based on Key Stage 2 entry data, Grammar school entry test results and assessments carried out in every subject at start of Year 7. These would be highlighted using a traffic light system with green indicating on or above target, amber one grade below target and red two or more grades below target.

The grades awarded in subsequent years will be based on a scale which moves up as shown in the table. The changes to the numbers used in Year 8 and Year 9 reflect the increase in how demanding the content of the curricula are in these years.

Targets in Years 8 and 9 should usually be one grade above that of the previous year but these can be adjusted by subject teachers following the final Order grade during the previous year (i.e. by the previous year’s subject teacher).

• Clear pencil case
• Water bottle - without label
• Pens x 3
• Pencils x2
• Full Geometry set (compass, protractor, ruler, set square)
• Pencil sharpener
• Scientific calculator
• *Please ask the subject teacher if you are unsure about what to bring*