Student Progress Report Parent/Carer Guidance 

Please find below guidance and information pertaining to your child’s Student Progress Report (SPR). Please refer to this to help guide your understanding of the SPR, so you’re able to support of your child’s academic progress.

Current Working Grades (Year 10 & 11 SPR)

Year 10 & 11 students receive a current working at grade from their subject teacher. The current working grade indicates where a student is, in terms of GCSE/Level 2 grading, at that point. The grade is objectively determined informed from a sound evidence base – recent assessments and evidence of a student’s performance as exemplified through their class and book work.

Year 10 Current Working Grades colour-coding

Year 11 Current Working Grades colour-coding

GCSE Target Grade: is the minimum grade that the students are expected to achieve at the end of Key Stage 4, and is based upon them making expected progress over the whole of Key Stage 4.

The Challenge Grade: is the grade that the students should achieve at the end of Key Stage 4 if they make better than expected progress

Projected Grades (Year 7, 8 & 9 SPR)

Year 7, 8 & 9 students are assessed during the year using common assessments in order to generate projected grades. These are statistically generated predictions of the grade a student is likely to achieve at GCSE based on their most recent assessment score. All projections are checked, and where necessary adjusted, by staff to ensure that they accurately represent each student’s performance. It is important to understand that this grade is a projection for the end of Year 11 rather than a current ‘working at’ grade showing current performance.
Projected grades will not be shared with parents and carers, rather the focus for students in Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9 will remain on feedback and improvement rather than grading; as such, these students will receive a ‘progress towards target’ only. This gives parents/carers an indication of how close to their target grade their child is in each subject.

• Above: Projected grade at least one grade above the target grade
• On: Projected grade in line with the target grade
• Near: Projected grade is one grade below the target grade
• Below: Projected grade is more than one grade below the target grade

Target Grades

To ensure the process is robust and challenging, target grades are based on the results of the top 5% of schools nationally. They are generated by Fischer Family Trust – a highly regarded institution that generates national data for schools – from each student’s prior attainment. A target grade is never a cap or ceiling to student performance; they are broad targets generated from national statistics where a student is estimated to have at least a 50% chance of achieving them. Some students will inevitably exceed their target grade and some will not achieve them. Where students exceed their target grade they’re encouraged to work towards achieving their Challenge grade as indicated on their Student Progress Report.

Suggested next steps for supporting students:
To continue to make further progress students will have a range of Follow–on Tasks that relate to specific knowledge, skills or understanding from the subjects/topics that they have studied. Following Summative assessments (e.g. tests and exams) and on-going teacher feedback, these Follow–on tasks can be found in their exercise book or folder. We encourage you to look at their books regularly to discuss these with them and support them with their next steps in learning, to become even better.

Learning Habits
Contained within your child’s SPR the learning habits indicator captures their approach to learning in each subject – the ‘learning habits’. We want students to hold themselves to high standards, be reflective in their studies and to manage their emotions to maintain motivation when challenged. Teachers will use their judgement to determine whether a student is ‘Proactive – P’ or ‘Reactive – R’. Inevitably this will be a ‘best fit’ judgement. The criteria is shown below:

• Positive Self-Regulation - I always try to produce my best work and hold myself to high standards. I participate fully in all activities, share my thoughts, listen carefully to others and contribute to the group
• Process not product - I’m a critical thinker, I plan carefully before I begin, monitor how I’m doing, and I evaluate how I might do it better next time. I’m intrinsically motivated, curious about what I learn and value the process as much as the product
• Open to failure and feedback - I am open-minded, brave, willing to take a risk and ready to step out of my comfort zone. I’m hungry for feedback and always use it to help me improve my work further.
• Courageous and Gritty - I show grit and resilience and I keep focused even when the work is challenging I do not give up.

Behaviour and Meeting Deadlines Indicator

Behaviour Points are the number of points accrued by a student for minor misbehaviour in class, such as being off-task. Your child’s Tutor will be happy to give further details on this behaviour information.

Attendance Punctuality and Behaviour

Excellent attendance, punctuality and behaviour are the foundations of successful learning in school. Therefore, we ensure that it is given high status at Higham Lane School and is included in your son / daughter’s SPR.

Behaviour Points

The table below show the Behaviour Description alongside the number of Behaviour Points to support your understanding of the school’s standards and expectations.

Supporting Students with their Progress Reports – How to make the most of the report

We would advise you to discuss the grades awarded with your child so that they can reflect on their recent performance and you can help coach and motivate them to further improvement. To help the process, we have included some practical questions to stimulate reflection and some suggestions of how a student may develop the learning habits characteristics to better effect.
Of course, students will discuss their performance in relation to these new criteria in school also. A useful starting point would be to discuss the grades awarded using the questions below.

• Do you think the grades given are fair? Why? (Years 10-11 only)
• Do any grades deviate from the norm? Why? (Years 10-11 only)
• Can you explain how the Learning Habits reflect your performance in a subject?
• Which of the criteria are your strongest or weakest?
• What does improvement in Learning Habits look like in the classroom?

Of course, these reports are not the only way that parents/carers can follow their child’s achievement during the year. There will also be an opportunity to discuss progress in the annual student progress evening conversations with subject teachers. Parents can also speak to their child’s form tutor as the main point of contact for issues arising and can access a range of attendance and behavioural information on the MyEd app.

This broad range of information is available throughout the year and, for this reason, we do not produce written reports for students. Such documents become out of date very quickly and focus on work produced many weeks previously. Parents can view more up to date feedback on their child’s work in exercise books and the summative assessments in order to monitor progress.

If you wish to get further subject specific advice, please contact the Subject Leader for that subject via the following school email address - contactus@highamlaneschool.co.uk