Assessment, Feedback and Reporting

Assessment is integral to high quality teaching and learning at Oxted School. As stated by the EEF, “providing high-quality feedback to pupils is integral to effective teaching. Equally, gathering feedback on how well pupils have learned a topic is important in enabling teachers to address any misunderstanding and provide the right level of challenge in future lessons.”

Broadly, assessment takes two forms – formative and summative. 

Formative assessment takes place on a day-to-day basis during lessons, allowing teachers and students to assess attainment and progress more frequently. Formative assessments may be questions, tasks, quizzes or more formal assessments. 

Summative assessment sums up what a pupil has achieved at the end of a period of time, relative to the learning aims and the relevant national standards. There may be an assessment at the end of a topic, at the end of a term or half-term, or at the end of a year.  A summative assessment may be a written test or a task. Summative assessments show what has been achieved and provide individual and cohort data that will be useful for tracking progress and for informing stakeholders (e.g. parents, governors, etc).

Each faculty has their own policy for how assessment takes place in their faculty.  When creating this policy, leaders have considered the opportunity costs of assessment – recognising that the time and effort spent on assessment must be as valuable – if not more so – than other ‘opportunities’ such as teaching time. 

Oxted School Feedback

Feedback and marking should be meaningful, manageable and motivating. At Oxted School we believe that the methods and timing of feedback should be left to a teacher’s professional judgement. When and how to offer feedback is most appropriately answered by the teacher responding to the particular learning context of an individual student. 

Feedback should focus on moving learning forward. Feedback can focus on the task, the subject and self-regulation strategies. It is important that feedback is used and acted upon by students in order for it to be impactful. Teachers can carry out a range of post-feedback activities. When responding to feedback, students write in a different colour pen so that it is easily identified. 

Reporting

Progress and Attitude to Learning is reported during each academic year as follows:

Pastoral Reports

The pastoral report shares information on attendance, achievement and behaviour points, approach to learning and homework (for KS4 and KS5).

The Approach to Learning grade indicates a student’s general approach towards their studies, with a focus on effort and learning skills. The descriptors are:  

The Homework grade indicates a student’s approach towards homework. The descriptors for KS4 and KS5 are:  

Academic Reports in Year 10, Year 11, Year 12 and Year 13

The academic report includes all information in the pastoral report, as well as the following: 

The Flight Path Grade (FPG) is a professional prediction by the teacher and is the final grade the student is likely to achieve at the end of their KS4 or KS5 course if they continue to work as they currently are. FPGs take into account the recent mock exams, as well as a holistic view of classwork and assessments over a longer period of time.

All Flight Path Grades at KS4 and KS5 are ‘fine graded’. Each ‘fine grade’ (a grade with a +, -, or = sign next to it) indicates how secure the grade is. For example:

• 6- indicates that a student has the potential to drop to a Grade 5
• 6= indicates that the grade 6 is secure
• 6+ indicates that a student could improve to a Grade 7 

FPGs are graded on the 9-1 scale. This diagram shows how the new 9-1 grades equate to the old system. 

The Student Target Grade (STG) is a target grade which the student themselves has set, informed by statistical information on their achievement at the end of KS2 and following conversations with teachers and parents/carers. The target grades should be aspirational yet realistic. In 2023-24, students complete this target-setting activity as follows: 

Academic Reports in Year 9

The academic report includes all information in the pastoral report, as well as the following: 

The Flight Path Grade (FPG) is a professional prediction by the teacher and is the final grade the student is likely to achieve at the end of their KS4 course if they continue to work as they currently are. FPGs take into account a holistic view of classwork and assessments over a longer period of time. 

FPGs are graded on the 9-1 scale. This diagram shows how the new 9-1 grades equate to the old system. 

Progress

Our Progress grades report on how a student is progressing based on their prior attainment at KS2. The descriptors are: 

Academic Reports in Year 7 and Year 8

The academic report includes all information in the pastoral report, as well as the following: 

Attainment

In Year 7 and 8 we report student attainment as a percentage for English, Maths, Science, Geography, History and French/Spanish. This percentage will be an average of all assessments up until the point of reporting. The cohort average is also shared to give context. 

Progress

Our Progress grades report on how a student is progressing based on their prior attainment at KS2.  The descriptors are: 

We do not report GCSE predictions in Year 7 and Year 8.  Instead we report on what students are learning now. We want to promote resilient and reflective learners, focusing on building firm foundations for learning.