Assessment at Key Stage 3
At the Roundhill Academy we use 2 types of assessment. Formative and summative assessment. The purpose of formative assessment is to monitor student learning and provide ongoing feedback to students. It helps students identify their strengths and weaknesses, can enable them to improve their self-regulatory skills so that they manage their education well and it provides information to staff about the areas students are struggling with so that sufficient support can be put in place.
The aim of summative assessment is to evaluate student learning at the end of a section of work by comparing it against some standard or benchmark. Sometimes, it will be a mark out of a total referenced to standardised mark schemes. Students will be given verbal and written feedback for that unit of study using whole class feedback sheets. Whole class feedback sheets encourage students to reflect on their common errors at whole class level and the onus is on the students to identify where they have gone wrong in their own piece of work. After reflecting on the misconceptions the students made, teachers will then direct students to tasks to complete during their reflection time.
Dates for Parents
Over the course of an academic year parents of students in key stage 3, can expect to receive data home at the following times.
| Year 7 | Year 8 | Year 9 | |
| Data Collection 1 | Autumn term 2
|
Autumn term 2 | GCSE predictions Spring term 1 |
| Data Collection 2 | Summer term 2
|
Summer term 1 | Summer term 1
|
| Parents evening | Thursday 13th March 2025
|
Thursday 12th December 2024 | Wednesday 29th January 2025 |
The data sent home will in include a curriculum level and an attitude to learning.
Curriculum Levels
Each subject across the curriculum has identified key learning objectives (descriptors) relating to the fundamental aspects of knowledge, skills and understanding that students need to grasp within their programme of study for each year. Working towards ‘mastery’ of these key concepts helps students to continue to make good progress over time.
By continuous assessment, formative and summative, teachers can assess how their students are progressing in relation to each of these elements and will make judgements using the following terms:
Emerging: The student must demonstrate some understanding of skills, concepts, and knowledge in each subject.
Secure: The student must demonstrate consistent understanding and application of skills, concepts, and knowledge in each subject.
Exceeding: The student must demonstrate application and understanding of skills, concepts, and knowledge in contexts beyond those taught in each subject. They can independently and convincingly explain the ‘how and ‘why’ aspects of their learning and can apply their learning comfortably in new contexts in each subject.
Attitude to Learning
Attitude to learning will be completed by a numerical scoring system as seen below.
| Score | Descriptor |
| 1 | Excellent attitude to learning and exceptional engagement in lessons |
| 2 | Good attitude to learning and full engagement in lessons |
| 3 | Average attitude to learning and moderate engagement in lessons |
| 4 | Below average attitude to learning and low engagement in lessons |
