WLD Update Sunday 7th October 2018

Sometimes these updates will cover just one topic - and this is the case today.  We are making some changes to the way in which we report to parents and carers on your son or daughter's progress in school.

Firstly some principles

• All our study of individual student results shows us one thing - those students who work hard, work with us not against us and attend school, do well.  Simple, really!  So the most important thing for us to look at when reporting to you is the young person's attitude to learning.  We look at that in 5 ways (effort, behaviour, homework, classwork, assessments) and the descriptors that we use are on the website (https://www.waltonledale.lancs.sch.uk/curriculum/examinations);
• The changes to GCSE examinations mean that predicting GCSE grades has become unreliable as the grade boundaries move around depending upon how other students perform nationally.  We simply want your son or daughter to aim for the highest possible grades;
• We think that you should formally hear from us once each term about your son or daughter's progress, either through a report or through a parents' evening.  We believe that you should be able to contact us whenever you wish if you are concerned and we believe that we should contact you if we have concerns about your child's progress in school.

So we will report to you in these ways:

• Year 7 parents and carers receive a "WLD Profile" for their child later this term.  This is the starting point for assessing your son or daughter's progress and includes all the information that we have about your child from primary school and from our own initial assessments;
• Throughout school students will have their attitude to learning assessed against the five areas of effort, behaviour, classwork, homework and assessments;
• Throughout school students will be assessed as making "expected", "good", "exceptional" or "less than expected" progress from their starting point; 
• In years 9, 10 and 11 teachers will give a tentative current GCSE or BTEC grade as an additional indicator of the young person's progress.  This will be for Maths, English, Science and ICT in Year 9 and for all subjects in Years 10 & 11;
• Each year group will receive 1 interim report, 1 full report (including form teacher's and headteacher's comment) and have 1 parents' evening.  Full report dates and parents' evening dates are indicated on the calendar (https://www.waltonledale.lancs.sch.uk/calendar).  Year 11 will receive an additional second interim report.  

The "Guide to Assessment for Parents and Carers" which you will find on our website (https://www.waltonledale.lancs.sch.uk/curriculum/examinations) summarises our approach. 

I hope that this makes sense!  Should you have any queries or concerns, as always, please do not hesitate to contact me (or Mrs Withers, Assistant Headteacher in charge of assessment) at school.

Have a good week.

James Harris

Headteacher