Assessment & Reporting
Assessment at FIC helps every student understand where they are, where they are heading, and how to get there. It empowers students to become confident, independent learners; helps teachers plan for each individual’s needs; and gives parents a clear picture of their child’s progress.
We aspire to help our pupils become happy, confident, caring and resilient young people who enjoy their studies, fulfil their academic potential, make good choices, and develop the skills and goals they will need at university and in the world of work.
How We Assess at FIC
Since the removal of National Curriculum levels in 2014, schools have been free to develop their own approaches to assessment. Ours gives students, teachers and parents one clear, consistent picture of progress at every stage.
|
KS3 & GCSE We use the GCSE 9–1 grading system for all year groups from Year 6 to Year 11, so students and parents work with one scale and progress can be tracked seamlessly through to GCSE. |
A Level In the Sixth Form, we use the national A Level grading scale of A*–E, with A* the highest grade. Current and target grades are reported on this scale throughout Years 12 and 13. |
Non-Examined Subjects We track the substantive and disciplinary knowledge each student achieves — what they know, and how they think and work within the subject — so progress is visible across the whole curriculum. |
The guide below explains our KS3 and GCSE grading in more detail:
Download the grades guide (PDF)
Principles of Assessment
Assessment serves three audiences, and it must work for all of them:
|
For Students Understanding their own attainment — and how to progress beyond it. |
For Teachers Understanding each student’s needs, so targets are meaningful and inform teaching. |
For Parents Knowing clearly how their child is attaining — and how they can maximise achievement. |
Every assessment at FIC should celebrate individual success, be based on clear learning objectives, show students how judgements are reached, shape targets and next steps, and be accessible to parents — our reports are written so that families unfamiliar with the English grading system can take an informed part in their child’s education.
Reporting to Students and Parents
We measure all aspects of progress — including communication, social skills, resilience and independence — and recognise effort as well as outcomes. Effort grades sit alongside current attainment, target attainment and tutorial feedback in our reporting, together with each term’s attendance and behaviour records.
|
Tutorial Summaries every term Drawing on tutorials with subject teachers, pastoral staff and personal tutors, these summarise discussions about the student’s attainment and life at FIC, and highlight areas for improvement alongside the support offered. |
Data Reports every term Reports include current and target grades for each examined subject. We do not expect progress to be linear, but over a key stage a student should aim for an average of three levels of progression. |
Interventions as needed Where a student is underachieving, targeted interventions are put in place, shared through tutorials, and parents are notified and involved throughout. |
Everyone Plays a Part
|
Teachers Teachers assess every student’s progress accurately and use the results to plan lessons, set meaningful targets and intervene early where a student risks underachieving. Every lesson has clear objectives that students understand, every half term includes an assessment that students self-evaluate with an action plan to follow, and every student can discuss their attainment individually. |
Students Students take an active part in assessment: acting on feedback, keeping track of their target grades, evaluating their own work, agreeing and following an action plan, discussing their attainment with their tutor and teachers, and supporting one another in peer assessment. |
|
Parents Parents discuss with their child the termly assessment report, which summarises current and target grades for each examined subject, and the termly tutorials report, which summarises the support and guidance given by academic staff — and liaise with the school about any concerns their child’s assessments raise. |
|
Questions about your child’s assessment or reports? Please contact the Senior Leadership Team in the first instance.