National Curriculum attainment targets and levels have now been removed from the UK education system as they were considered to be no longer fit for purpose for a number of reasons. This presented schools – including British international schools such as ourselves – with the exciting opportunity to devise their own systems of assessment which were bespoke for both students and contexts, as well as focusing on the purposes and principles of assessment.
Mrs Murphy, Deputy Head Teacher: Curriculum & Learning, explained to parents how we have worked in partnership across the whole school to create AREs for each subject, ensuring continuity and progression in the curriculum from Year 1 all the way through to the end of Year 9. Most importantly, ways in which our new reporting structure can be used to help support learning conversations at home were also shared. Following this presentation, parents had the opportunity to ‘learn through doing’ by exploring how AREs are applied in English, Mathematics, Science, Computing, Geography, History, and PE, by working with our Heads of Department in small groups. Examples of work which exemplified Developing, Meeting and Exceeding were shared and discussed, and it was wonderful to hear such rich and engaging conversations about learning and assessment taking place.
Thank you to those parents who attended to learn more about our assessment practices; we look forward to welcoming you to more workshops in the future. For those of you who were unable to attend, please find the presentation notes below.
Lee Falconer, Assistant Headteacher – Teaching and Learning