Reports to Parents

Reporting on your child’s performance

Reporting is our way of providing you with an informative overview of how your child is performing across the school. We include a range of information so that you have a complete picture of how they are performing at WSE. 

Paper reports

These are sent home with your child at certain points in the year

Years 7-9

  1. 5th February
  2. 17th July

Years 10-11

  1. 13th December
  2. 26th March
  3. 17th July (Y10)

 

These reports include the following pieces of information:

  • Attendance – percentage attended so far this year (students should be aiming for at least 98%)
  • You will find 4 sections under which we report about your child’s performance in each subject area:
  • Academic Standards
  • Homework
  • Percentage Scores
  • Attainment/Knowledge and Skills and Progress

    More detail on each of these areas is shown below.  We hope that you find the report useful in talking to your child about their learning at school and we would encourage you to use the information to support and guide your child in making the best use of their time with us.

    Academic Standards
 

Level

Aspiration

1

Excellent

An excellent student always

  • Arrives ready and prepared to learn with all necessary equipment.
  • Completes all Do Now activities quickly and to the best of their ability.
  • Perseveres and doesn’t give up. 
  • Thinks very hard to answer questions or to solve a problem on their own. 
  • Completes their best work, first time. Leaves no gaps.
  • Has a positive attitude to lessons, showing interest and enthusiasm.

2

Good

A good student typically

  • Arrives ready and prepared to learn with all necessary equipment.
  • Completes Do Now activities to the best of their ability without prompting.
  • Perseveres and doesn’t give up.
  • Thinks hard to answer questions or solve a problem, with reliance on the teacher on some occasions.
  • Completes best work, first time.
    • Has a positive attitude to lessons, showing interest and enthusiasm.

3

Developing

A developing student (will often need reminding)...

  • Arrives ready and prepared to learn, may on occasions forget basic equipment. Punctuality and deadlines may be an issue. Organisation may be an issue.
  • Completes most Do Now activities – does need some occasional prompting.
  • May give up too easily. May have a ‘that will do’ work ethic.
  • Is very reliant on the teacher.
  • Sometimes struggles to complete their best work first time. Standards of work may vary from time to time.
  • Has a varied attitude to lessons, mostly shows interest and enthusiasm.

4

Concerning

A concerning student…

  • May often arrive late and underprepared. Often forgets basic equipment.
  • Punctuality and deadlines are routinely an issue. Organisation is an issue.
  • Is not typically attentive. Instructions may often need repeating. Drifts off task without direct supervision. Left to their own devices would do very little.
  • Standards of work are consistently not best work.
  • Is reluctant in lessons, shows little interest in engaging.
 

Level

Courage

1

 

Excellent

 

An excellent student always

  • Thinks and acts for themselves, is not over reliant on the teacher.
  • Actively engages in improving their work and performance.
  • Embraces risk-taking and learns from mistakes. 
  • Loves a challenge and regularly works at or beyond their stretch zone.
  • Works positively and leads in unfamiliar contexts or in unfamiliar ways whether that be: written work, practical learning or discussion.  
  • Contributes to small-group and class discussions regularly and enthusiastically. 

2

 

Good

A good student typically

  • Thinks and acts for themselves in most lessons.
  • Completes tasks which support improving their work and performance.
  • Increasingly takes risks and is open to learning from mistakes. 
  • Embraces challenges and increasingly works in their stretch zone.
  • Works well in unfamiliar contexts or in unfamiliar ways whether that be: written work, practical learning or discussion.  
  • Contributes to small-group and class discussions regularly. 

3

 

Developing

A developing student (will often need reminding)…

  • Can think and act for themselves, but is reliant on reminders to stay on task.
  • Often attempts to improve work or performance are superficial.
  • Sometimes takes risks. Can avoid learning from mistakes. 
  • Consistently works in their comfort zone.
  • Participates in unfamiliar contexts or in unfamiliar ways whether that be: written work, practical learning or discussion.  
  • Often avoids contributing to small-group or class discussions. 

4

 

Concerning

A concerning student…

  • Is completely reliant on staff to stay on task.
  • Demonstrates little interest in improving work.
  • Switches off when things get difficult.
  • Consistently does the bare minimum.
  • Gives up quickly without trying to figure things out. 

Homework

We use Class Charts to set and record whether homework has been done.  Not all subjects set homework in KS3 so the numbers will be variable here.  Please see the proportion of homeworks submitted against the number set. 

Attainment and Progress

All our judgements about attainment and progress hinge upon performance in key assessments.  There well may be a difference between how students conduct themselves in regular lessons and how well they perform in assessments.  This can indicate a need to revise more or focus on retention of key knowledge.

Years 7-9

We provide a percentage score.  This is the score achieved on an interim assessment or a collection of interim assessments.  This is usually a test that covers a wide variety of content some of which may been learnt some time ago.  Obviously higher scores are better – but tests can be of differing difficulty so we interpret the scores for you in the next two columns.

We compare to the rest of the year group (knowledge and skills) and judge whether this performance is at the expected level, above or below the expected level.  In some cases, students might be considered to be significantly above or below compared to other students of that age. 

5 = Significantly above what is expected at this stage

4 = Above what is expected at this stage

3 = Meeting the expected level

2 = Below the expected level

1 = Significantly below the expected level

At GCSE the expected level is Grades 4 and 5, so the knowledge and skills rating can be considered a rough predictor of grades we might be heading for in a few years’ time (i.e. 5à8/9, 4à6/7, 3à4/5, 2à2/3, 1à1).  You should compare your child’s knowledge and skills judgement with the one made about their progress (see below).

We also compare your child’s score to the results of children who performed similarly in previous tests (such as SATs/CATs, or previous WSE exams).  This we call “Progress”.  Their performance is then rated as significantly above, above, as expected, below or even significantly below these similar students.  

This helps to put the score and the knowledge-skills rating above into context.  Their knowledge and skills may be below the expected level but they may still be making good progress towards it.  Or, they may have above average knowledge and skills but perhaps could be doing even more when similar students are considered. 

5 = Significantly above other similar students

4 = Above similar students

3 = In line with other similar students

2 = Below other similar students

1 = Significantly below other similar students

Years 10-11

Assessments students done are used to estimate students’ predicted grade.  The prediction is based on the idea that if you continue to work as hard as you are this is what you will get.  The target grade will have been discussed with the student to be an ambitious but achievable goal given their previous performance in tests such as SATs, CATs and end of year exams.  The target is designed to motivate and push students to achieve their best work and help them see what they could be capable of. 

Predicted grades should be compared to target grades to give a sense of how well students are performing.  Also, comparing to what students know they will need for the college courses of their choice can be very useful in Y10 and Y11.

Baseline scores

KS2 - if students sat their SATs we showed their scaled scores. The typical range is 95-105.

CATs - when students arrive at WSE they sit computer-based Cognitive Ability Tests or (CATs).  CATs test students’ ability to reason in four areas: verbal; non-verbal, quantitative and spatial.  The typical range is 90-110.

We use a combination of these scores to help us challenge students appropriately, monitor them, make judgments about their progress and identify areas where they might need extra support. 

Interim Assessments (IAs)

We want parents to be really clear on what is being learnt in school and how their children are doing and we recognise that waiting until December or even February to find out is a long time to wait!  For this reason we will be sharing the results of what we call Interim Assessments with you via Class Charts.  These are topic tests that happen roughly every 6-12 depending on the subject.  These are given a percentage score and in upper school a GCSE grade.  More detailed information about IAs is available on our website.  At several points in the year books will come home so that parents can see the assessments themselves and be really clear on the topics being studied, what is going well and what could be improved.  

Class Charts

Of course, also available is daily feedback on how your child is doing in lessons in Class Charts.  Here you can see all positive and negative points awarded by teachers.  We encourage all parents to download this app.  This information is not included on the paper reports. 

Reporting - A Parent Timeline

If you have any questions  regarding your child's report please do contact your child’s tutor in the first instance, who will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Staff E-mail Addresses