Assessment and Reporting

Assessments

At Ormiston Denes Academy, we believe every student can succeed when they are taught a rich, ambitious curriculum and receive high-quality feedback about their learning. Assessment is an integral part of teaching and learning. It helps teachers understand what pupils know and can do, supports pupils to strengthen and retain their learning over time, and provides reliable information about how well pupils are learning the curriculum.Assessment is not an event that happens only at the end of learning. It is a continuous process that informs teaching, supports pupils to improve, and helps leaders evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum.

Purpose of Assessment

At Ormiston Denes Academy, assessment is used for four key purposes:
1. To identify and respond to what pupils know and do not yet know
Teachers use assessment in every lesson to check understanding, identify misconceptions and adapt teaching. This may include questioning, discussion, retrieval activities, mini-whiteboards, written responses and other classroom strategies.
2. Strengthen learning
The act of retrieving knowledge from memory helps pupils learn and remember more. Teachers regularly use low-stakes quizzes, retrieval practice and review activities to strengthen learning and improve long-term retention.
3. To prepare pupils to learn something new
New learning is most successful when it connects to existing knowledge. Assessment helps teachers identify prior knowledge and ensure pupils are ready for new content within the curriculum.
4. To summarise attainment and progress
Occasional summative assessments provide a snapshot of what pupils have learned at a particular point in time. These assessments help teachers, leaders, parents and pupils understand how successfully the curriculum has been learned and where further support may be needed.

Principles of Assessment

Assessment at Ormiston Denes Academy is designed to be:

Closely aligned to the curriculum being taught.
Used primarily to improve learning rather than simply measure performance.
Inclusive and accessible for all pupils.
Reliable and proportionate.
Focused on supporting teaching and learning.
Used to provide meaningful information to pupils, parents and carers.

We believe formative assessment has the greatest impact on pupil achievement. For this reason, teachers routinely use assessment strategies within lessons to check understanding and inform next steps.

Assessing the curriculum

When we assess, we seek to make learning visible. Assessment helps teachers understand what pupils have learned, what they have remembered over time and what they need to learn next.

Assessment takes many forms, including:

Retrieval practice and knowledge checks.
Classroom questioning and discussion.
Extended written responses.
Practical work and performance tasks.
Self and peer assessment.
Low-stakes quizzes.
End-of-unit assessments.
Common summative assessments.

Assessment is therefore much broader than tests or examinations. Effective assessment is woven through everyday classroom practice and supports both teaching and learning.

Common Curriculum and Assessment

As part of Ormiston Academies Trust, students follow a carefully planned and sequenced curriculum that has been developed by subject experts across the Trust.

Through the common curriculum, we aim to ensure that every student:

Has equitable access to powerful knowledge.
Benefits from teaching informed by the latest evidence and subject expertise.
Accesses high-quality curriculum resources.
Experiences a coherent learning journey from Year 7 to Year 11.

Our assessment approach is designed to align closely with this curriculum so that what is assessed reflects what has been taught.

Common Summative Assessments

Students complete common summative assessments at key points throughout the year. We provide further details about the package of support for these assessments, including revision resources, throughout the school year. These assessments are curriculum-aligned and designed to provide meaningful information about how well pupils have learned the intended curriculum.

Common summative assessments support us to:

Identify strengths and gaps in learning.
Inform future curriculum planning and teaching.
Determine where additional support may be required.
Help pupils develop effective revision and study habits.
Prepare pupils for external qualifications and examinations.
Compare outcomes over time and across schools within the Trust.
Provide reliable information to parents and carers about attainment and progress.

For pupils in Years 7-10, assessments are closely aligned to the curriculum content that has been taught. In Year 11, assessments increasingly mirror GCSE and vocational qualification requirements to support examination readiness.

Teaching and Learning Feedback Policy

At Ormiston Denes Academy, feedback is an integral part of effective teaching and learning. Teachers use assessment and feedback routinely to check understanding, identify misconceptions and help students improve their learning. Feedback is most effective when it is timely, actionable and enables students to respond and improve.

Responsive Feedback: Teachers regularly check what students know, understand and can do. Feedback is used to identify gaps in learning, address misconceptions and adapt teaching so that all students can make progress.
Green Pen for Reflection and Improvement: Students use a green pen to reflect on their learning, respond to feedback and improve their work. This may include correcting errors, refining responses, self-assessing against success criteria or acting on teacher guidance.
Live Feedback: While circulating the classroom, teachers provide immediate verbal and written feedback to support learning in the moment. This may include questioning, modelling, prompting or correcting misconceptions. Students are expected to respond to this feedback in green pen.
Literacy Feedback: Teachers support students to develop their literacy across the curriculum. This may include highlighting spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors, identifying areas where written communication can be strengthened and prompting students to edit and improve their work.
Feedback Following Assessment: Following formative or summative assessments, teachers provide feedback that identifies strengths and areas for development. Feedback may be delivered individually, through whole-class feedback or by addressing common misconceptions. Students are expected to act on feedback and demonstrate improvement.
Feedback Leads to Improvement: Feedback is most effective when students act upon it. Dedicated improvement and reflection opportunities are built into lessons, enabling students to revisit learning, refine their work and secure stronger understanding.
Focused on Learning: Effective feedback concentrates on the task, subject knowledge and learning strategies that will help students improve. It encourages students to become reflective, independent learners who take responsibility for their progress.

Target Setting

We believe that high expectations and ambitious aspirations help students achieve their best. Throughout their time at Ormiston Denes Academy, students are encouraged to take pride in their learning, challenge themselves and strive for excellence across the curriculum.

Target grades provide an aspirational benchmark that supports students in understanding the standards they are working towards. These targets are designed to motivate students, promote high achievement and encourage them to take an active role in their learning and progress.

How do you decide what my child’s target will be?

Target grades are informed by a range of information, including prior attainment and national performance data. Through a Trust-wide approach, targets are set to be ambitious, challenging and achievable, reflecting our belief that every student can succeed with the right support, effort and opportunities.

We maintain high expectations for all students and encourage every child to aspire to achieve the strongest outcomes possible. Alongside high aspirations, students receive the teaching, guidance and support needed to help them make sustained progress through the curriculum.

Teachers continuously monitor students’ learning and achievement. Where appropriate, targets may be reviewed to reflect a student’s developing strengths, exceptional progress or particular talents demonstrated within a subject area.

Reporting to Parents and Carers

We are committed to providing clear and meaningful information about pupils’ learning.

Reports and assessment information are used to help parents understand:

How well their child is learning the curriculum.
Areas of strength and areas requiring further practice.
How effectively their child is engaging with learning.
Attendance, behaviour and wider aspects of school life.

Assessment information should always be considered alongside teacher feedback, classroom performance and pupils’ wider development.

What do these targets look like?

As you may be aware, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) has introduced reformed GCSEs. These have more content, a higher focus on literacy and in most cases are assessed through examination only. In addition, the grades awarded are from Grade 9 to Grade 1, instead of A* to G. Therefore, in Year 7-11 targets will also be set as grades 9-1. Some specialist courses that can be chosen from Year 10 such as BTECs have an alternative system (for example, Pass, Merit, Distinction, Distinction*).

New GCSE Grade	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1	U
Old GCSE Grades	A* A			B C			D E F G			U

When is this target set for?

All targets are set at the beginning of the year and remain till the end of the academic year. This means students should be working towards meeting this target throughout the academic year.

What information will I receive about my child’s progress?

At the end of each term, target grades are reported along with progress towards targets to parents and carers using Arbor. The progress of all students is tracked by the academy each term and progress reports are then produced which are available for parental viewing.

Currently, students receive a Current Grade and a Forecast Grade (the grade that the teacher believes a student will reach by the end of year/or GCSE/BTEC course for Year 10 and 11s) through subject based assessments and OAT Common Assessment three times a year.

What does each of the Grades mean? 

Current Grade – The grade your child is currently working at. This is based on their current level of work and assessments. 

Forecast Grade – The grade your child is predicted to gain at the end of the academic year (or GCSE/BTEC course for Year 10 and 11s). This is based on their current level of work and their teacher’s professional judgement as to their likely progression with them continuing their current level of effort. 

Student Target Grade – The grade your child should be attempting to achieve by the end of the academic year (or GCSE/BTEC course for Year 10 and 11s). All targets are aspirational and challenging and based on a target setting process used across the trust. 

When can I expect a progress report?

We aim to send a progress report to parents at the end of the final week of half term or the week immediately following a school break (depending on the length of the half term). Year 7-10 will receive three full progress reports at the end of each term supported by Attitude to Learning judgements made by teachers. As Year 11 students’ academic year is shorter, parents will receive two, one at the end of the Autumn term and then one at the end of the Spring term (the forecast grades of both can be used required for college applications).

Academic Reports

Reports will be issued via Arbor to parents and students in the last week of each school term. Reports will include:

Target Grade

Current Grade

Forecast Grade

Attitude to Learning Grade

Attendance Percentage

Reading Age data (Autumn and Summer Term only)

Also available through Arbor:

Timetables – daily and weekly timetable.

Attendance – Shown from the start of the academic year.

Rewards and Behaviour information.

Parents are encouraged to go through the report carefully with their child, highlighting areas for improvement and considering action points for further progression. Where there is a corresponding parents evening this may be done with the support of class teachers.

At the beginning of every half term, students work with their form tutor to set academic targets in the planners to help them improve over the next half term. These action points will then be reviewed and adjusted through the next reporting cycle. At the academy, we follow a coloured coded system to help us identify those students who need further support and to celebrate and reward students who are doing well.

Attitude to Learning Grade 

Through the academic year, students will receive attitude to learning grades which show how they have been responding in lessons, how much effort they have been putting into their learning and the quality and frequency of the home learning. These grades are used by both the academic and pastoral teams to support students who are struggling to reach their full potential as learners and to celebrate and reward others who are striving to achieve theirs.  

This academic year, we have refined the Attitude to Learning (AtL) descriptors this year to raise expectations and further challenge our students. Last year, they demonstrated remarkable potential for improvement, and we want to ensure that progress continues rather than plateau.

Whilst we acknowledge we are asking more of our students, we also provide greater support through our universal offer in lesson, through our targeted form-time and assembly programme and where required more bespoke support for some students because we believe all our students deserve the very best opportunities to succeed.  

The table below shows how teachers make these judgments. 

New ATL Descriptors 26 Download

Teaching and Learning Feedback Policy

All teachers check what students know and can do well enough and provide timely and relevant feedback during the lesson. Effective responsive and adaptive teaching requires an effective feedback process. Through this, gaps are identified in student learning or understanding, and students are provided with the next steps for improvement.

Green Pen for metacognition: students will use green pen during their lessons to reflect on their work, develop in response to teacher feedback and correct errors. For example, marking answers as right or wrong, self/peer assessing according to a checklist, addressing feedback at hinge points.

Live Feedback: teachers will use red pens in books while circulating to support student development. For example, developmental questions and corrections. Students respond to this in green.

Pink Highlighter for Literacy: When circulating, teachers will use pink highlighters to support literacy development. For example, highlighting misspelled words, highlighting in the margin where sentences need reformulating, dots to seek out an error. Students respond in green.

Summative and Formative assessments: Teachers will use red pens to offer feedback on formative or summative assessments. For example, WWW and EBI, written feedback on specific errors, whole-class feedback. Students will be responsible for acting on feedback in green.

Practice makes permanent: feedback requires students to act. High-quality feedback at Denes is well-timed and gives students an appropriate task to show that they have improved.

Appropriate feedback responses are focused on the task, subject or self-regulation strategies that make students successful.