Changes to Progress Reports 2017-18

There will be some slight changes to the progress reports you receive for your child following the half term break. Firstly ‘Attitude To Learning’ will be changing to ‘Learning Habits’ and secondly some of your child’s GCSE targets may be different. The adjustments are explained below:

Learning Habits

As part of the assembly and pastoral cycle this year the academy is working on improving students learning habits to engender a can-do, growth mind-set. To reflect this we are swapping the descriptors that we have previously used on our progress reports from ‘Attitude To Learning’ to ‘Learning Habits’. The new descriptors are as follows:

  • 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
  • I am open minded, brave, willing to take a risk and ready to step out of my comfort zone
  • I show grit and resilience and I keep focus even when the work is challenging
  • I’m hungry for feedback and always use it to help me to do even better the next time
  • I’m a critical thinker, I plan carefully before I begin and I reflect on how I could have done it better once I’ve finished
  • I’m intrinsically motivated, curious about what I learn and value the process as much as the product

Always Meeting = EE Often Meeting = ME Requires Improvement = RI

Progress and Target Grades

Student targets are generated by the Fischer Family Trust (FFT) – a highly regarded institution that generates national data for schools – from each student’s prior attainment. In addition to producing target data for pupils, FFT is also used by the government to produce much of its educational statistics regarding the progress of students. For these reasons we feel confident about the targets they produce.

To ensure our targets are challenging they are based on the results of the top 5% of schools and each student is estimated to haveat leasta 50% chance of achieving them. To enable the academy to track progress more closely, student’s targets are broken down further to create shorter term targets, twice yearly, that create a flight path of progression. The ‘Progress to Target’ indicator on the report is the difference between your child’s ‘current attainment’ and their ‘current target’.

This year maths and English completed the new GCSEs with 1-9 grading. Many other subjects will complete the new GCSEs for the first time next summer. As the outcomes of the new GCSEs become available the models that FFT use to create our targets will be updated. This has led to some changes in students target grades. However, these changes will only be to make the targets more appropriate and accurate for individual students. The targets that we are using with students allow at least a 50% chance of being met. Again this is to make sure student target grades have the right balance of challenge and realism for individuals.

Further information can be found in the curriculum area of the school website: