5th March 2021

Dear Parent/Carer

As you may be aware, it was announced earlier in the year that students will receive grades determined by teachers, with pupils only assessed on what they have been taught and not what they may have missed. 

We want to ensure all of our students can have the confidence that, despite exams not going ahead, they will still receive a grade that reflects their ability and enables them to progress to the next stage of their education, training, or employment.  Fairness is at the heart of the system designed to replace exams.

Grades will be based on what students have been taught, not what they’ve missed.

We as teachers have given clear guidance on how to assess our students.  We will be using a range of evidence, which could include attendance, mock exams, coursework, and other work completed as part of a student’s course, such as essays or in-class tests.

As part of our evidence gathering we are assessing your child’s knowledge of the keywords from the Knowledge Organisers that your child will have been learning throughout this last ten weeks. 

We are sharing the assessment timetable below that outlines exactly when each KIP quiz is throughout the week beginning 15th March 2021. Students will be able to use this timetable to thoroughly prepare for these assessment quizzes.  

What homework do they do for weeks 11 and 12? 

During weeks 11 and 12 your child’s Homework practice book will be used to practice any definitions from the previous 10 weeks that they do not know. The rest of the letter will explain why this is so important. 

What will they need to learn for the assessments? 

In exactly the same way as we did in Unit 1, the assessments link directly to the work completed for homework and in online lessons. Your child will be given a list of definitions and they will be asked to write next to each definition the keyword that it is describing. These are all the words from the Knowledge Organisers that students have been memorising for homeworks and using in lessons. Since we are in the second part of the assessment cycle, students will be assessed as follows:  

• Subjects with 10 weeks of information in the knowledge Organisers will have 75 definitions in their assessment: 50 from Unit 2 & 25 from Unit 1
• All other subjects will have 30 definitions in their assessment: 20 from Unit 2 & 10 from Unit 1

Students will be tested over the week on each subject according to the timetable I have written below. 

How will you know how well they do in each assessment? 

Your child’s assessment will be marked immediately and the percentage of words they get correct will be recorded by their teacher.  Students with additional needs will have had the support they need to complete the test so they are not at a disadvantage.  The mark they receive for this assessment will be used as supportive evidence for their final grade but will not be the only piece of evidence we will use. 

What will the school do with the assessment scores? 

If you have any questions around assessments at all please contact me using the email jwatson@gloucesteracademy.co.uk

Yours faithfully

Mr J Watson

Assistant Headteacher

Year 11	Week 12 (Week beginning 15th March 2021)
Subject	15th March	16th March	17th March	18th March	19th March
Science		All groups Science
Maths
English	All groups Eng Lit	All groups Eng Lang
Geography		11A		11D
History		11A	11B	11D
Spanish					11A/D
French					11D
Engineering	11C
Construction		11B
Rs
HSC					11B
Art	11A/C	11B
Music	11A	11B
Hospitality & Catering		11A 11B		11C
Sport				11C
Drama	11C
Business			11B P1 11C P2