Students will be assessed twice a year, across their subjects, in a focussed assessment cycle.

Rank Order Assessment (ROA) is used in many schools, locally and in the Greenshaw Learning Trust. It is the most accurate way to track a student’s progress from assessment to assessment in subjects and gives students a true picture of the impact. The information video seen by students will also be released to you that fully explores the rationale and benefits that this type of data gathering will bring. You can also find the response to some frequently asked questions below

Frequently Asked Questions

Will these assessments happen in all subjects?
PE and Creative Arts are taught and assessed on a rotation and so June results would not be easily compared to January results. Students are still assessed and they will provide a percent and a rank order in the subject on the progress report but this will not be part of the assessment cycle and will not be counted towards their overall rank.

Who will see the rank order?
The rank order will appear on the progress report for the student and their families to see. The school will use the rank order data internally. It is their information to choose to share with others or not.

How will the rank order be generated?
In subjects, the percentage will be used to rank order students. If more than one student has the same % they will all receive the same highest possible ranking. The next student after this will be ranked after this group of students.

• Student A – 54% Rank 21
• Student B – 52% Rank 22
• Student C – 52% Rank 22
• Student D – 52% Rank 22
• Student E – 50% Rank 25

For the year groups, subjects will receive different weighting as represented by time in lessons. English, maths and science ranking will count double to a student’s overall ranking to represent that they spend more time in these lessons.

Why is ROA a more accurate way to assess students and their progress?
There is no agreed standard for any level of work and learning, even in GCSE and A Level, that can provide guidance to assess work. Grades are actually assigned at these times as a comparison against all the other students who take the examination. The top 0.1% will get an A* or 9. The top 2% get an A or 8, and so on. Therefore, what is required to get a student’s certain target grade is not consistent from year to year.

Will this impact set changes? (in Maths, English and Science)
It may do. This move to a dedicated assessment cycle twice a year is about giving the agency to change their outcomes and so a significant increase or decrease in rank may show they are no longer in the appropriate set.

What happens if a student is 210th out of the year group?
The students who find themselves at the very lowest rank are those who miss lessons persistently or refuse to engage in lessons. These students will already be receiving support for their attendance or behaviour and this data will enable us to accurately measure the impact of this. All interventions will be monitored through this process: SEN students should be supported to access their education and make at least as much progress as anyone else so this will identify where interventions are having success and any that need amendment. Over time, should a student move more than 10% down we will see this as a need for us to support them more: if a student is making the progress that they should be they will stay around the same rank as they move through KS3.

What will get tested on? How can students find out what to revise?
There are no assessments to revise for in PE and Creative Arts (Art, DT, Food and Textiles) and there is one assessment in Performing arts that will cover Music, Dance and Drama. All other subjects will have one, in-class assessment, and the class teacher will explain what this is like. An assessment manifest received from the tutor will list what they need to revise/be able to do for each subject. Students will have 2 lessons to revise with their teacher and 2 weeks prior to do their own independent revision.

What happens if they miss an assessment?
If they miss an assessment they will need to try and catch this up and the class teacher will help them do this in a lesson shortly after the planned assessment. If this cannot be caught up by the time the data gets collected the student will not receive a % and this will affect your ranking for the subject and the school, as it would if a student missed an exam in year 11. Anyone in this position will be contacted prior to the progress reports being released.