Progress Reports

The information below should help you to interpret the data included within your son/ daughter’s Progress Check.

Assessment Periods

The College year is split into assessment periods. They roughly equate to six-week periods/ half terms. The dates for the assessment periods are provided below:

  • Assessment Period 1: Wednesday 4th September – Friday 18th October
  • Assessment Period 2: Monday 21st October – Friday 6th December
  • Assessment Period 3: Monday 9th October – Friday 31st January
  • Assessment Period 4: Monday 3rd February – Friday 21st March
  • Assessment Period 5: Monday 24th March – Friday 9th May

For each assessment period parents/guardians will receive a Student Progress Report with updated information. This will be sent via email to parents/ guardians three weeks after each assessment period finishes.

Attendance

This is given as a percentage. Evidence suggests that attendance provides the clearest indication of success in the sixth form. Research indicates that a drop in attendance of 10% can result in underperformance by at least one grade in a course. All learners should strive for 100% attendance and anything lower than 95% is unacceptable.

Excellent attendance is an indicator of motivation and dedication to learning. It has proven to result in a greater likelihood of progression to higher education, improved grades, engagement, friendships, and better social skills. With this excellent attendance level, your child will have the best chance of achieving their full potential.

Attendance data is provided in two ways:

  • as a percentage figure for the assessment period; and
  • as a year-to-date figure which gives the percentage attendance figure from the start of the year.

Achievement

These grades should reflect the overall performance of the learner, based on all assessments to date, in each of their courses. The achievement grade for a course  replicate the external grading criteria used by the awarding bodies e.g. WJEC, BTEC etc.:

  • AS Level: A-E grades for ‘AS’ Level course (with a ‘U’ grade being ‘Unclassified’);
  • A Level: A*-E grades ‘A’ Level courses (with a ‘U’ grade being ‘Unclassified’)
  • BTEC Level 1, 2 and 3 courses: Pass, Merit, Distinction, *Distinction; and
  • GCSE courses A*-G (with a ‘U’ grade being ‘Unclassified’)

For AS/ A level and GCSE courses, we ‘fine grade’ our achievement grades to give students and parents a little more information regarding how secure we think the grade is. Therefore, a learner’s achievement grade will be in the format of A1, B1, C3, for example.

Fine Grade Meaning Explanation
1 Secure This grade can be achieved and with additional work and support may achieve the next grade.
2 Likely This grade can be achieved provided that the work and support continue to be in place.
3 Vulnerable This grade could be achieved if further work and support is put in place, but could slide to the next lower grade without this.

For example:

  • A1 – a secure ‘A’ grade – further work/ support may push this to an ‘A*’.
  • B2 – a likely ‘B’ grade – continued work/ support will mean that this grade is achieved.
  • C3 – a vulnerable ‘C’ grade – further work or support may secure this grade, but it could drop to a D.

This approach should enable learners to know how close they are to the next grade category and whether they need to focus more to achieve the grade stated.

All AS/A level and GCSE courses should complete at least two ‘significant’ assessments per assessment period, except Assessment Period 3 which only has one assessment because it covers the mock examinations. These are graded and recorded on Student/ Parent Advantage.  One assessment per unit should be included on Student/ Parent Advantage for BTEC courses (grades are only awarded on unit completion).

‘Significant’ assessment should reflect the external requirements of the course. Most ‘significant’ assessments for AS/ A level courses should take the form of questions from past external examination papers, for example, essays or data response-type questions. Assessments for BTEC courses at Level 2 and 3 are likely to be may be more varied, including presentations, formal reports etc.  Assessment for GCSE courses are likely to be past-paper questions.

Please note – the achievement grade is an indicator of progress to date, not a guarantee of future performance.

Target Grade

The target grade is derived from a student’s GCSE score on entry to the College. For an Upper 6 student, their target grade is based upon their GCSE score on entry, however, if a learner’s performance in their AS examination exceeds this target grade, then the target grade may move upwards accordingly. The target grade is a ‘live’ grade and can changed if a learner performs above their initial target grade consistently.

Effort Grades

Effort grades range from 1-4 and are awarded based on the following criteria:

1: Outstanding

2: Good

3: Requires improvement

4: Unacceptable