5th March 2021

Dear Parent/Carer

I am writing to share with you your child’s assessment timetable which starts from Monday 15th March 2021.

The second assessment cycle of this academic year is fast approaching and as such your child will sit a series of assessments allowing them to demonstrate their learning over the previous twelve weeks.  These assessments will take place in their usual lessons between the 15th and 19th March 2021. 

What homework do they do for weeks 11 and 12? 

During weeks 11 and 12 your child’s Homework practice book will be used to practice any definitions from the previous 10 weeks that they do not know.  The rest of the letter will explain why this is so important. 

What will they need to learn for the assessments? 

In exactly the same way as we did in Unit 1, the assessments link directly to the work completed for homework and in class.  Your child will be given a list of definitions and they will be asked to write next to each definition the keyword that it is describing.  These are all the words from the Knowledge Organisers that students have been memorising for homeworks and using in lessons. Since we are in the second part of the assessment cycle, students will be assessed as follows:  

• Subjects with 10 weeks of information in the knowledge Organisers will have 75 definitions in their assessment: 50 from Unit 2 & 25 from Unit 1
• All other subjects will have 30 definitions in their assessment: 20 from Unit 2 & 10 from Unit 1

Students will be tested over the week on each subject according to the timetable I have written below. 

How can you help your child? 

You can help prepare your child for these assessments by quizzing them. Simply find the subject they would like to revise in the knowledge organiser, then read the definition to your child and ask them to say what the key word is. For example, you would say to your child:

‘This is a device for measuring the atmospheric pressure of a place’

Hopefully your child will remember the keyword is ‘Barometer’ and you could tick it in their Knowledge Organiser, it is as simple as that. If they cannot remember, simply tell them the correct answer, then quiz them on it again later. 

Please remember there is a video in the “Students” section of the school website demonstrating how students should be memorising this information when they do their homework. It would be worth rewatching this to aid revision.

We understand that households can be very busy and you may not have time to test your child and if this is the case we just ask that you support your child by checking they understand what it is they need to learn and they have the space to do this. 

How will you know how well they do in each assessment? 

Your child’s assessment will be marked immediately and the percentage of words they get correct will be recorded by their teacher. Students with additional needs will have had the support they need to complete the test so they are not at a disadvantage. 

A report will then be sent home to you to explain how well your child has done in each subject compared to the year group and how well they are doing overall. The report will also explain how much progress your child has made in each subject which is the main focus of the assessments. 

What will the school do with the assessment scores? 

Once we have all the assessment information we will reset the classes to ensure the right students are obtaining the right support to progress even further as they enter the next twelve weeks of the school year. You and your child will be told of any class movements and a conversation will be had with the Head of Year if there are any concerns. 

The dates for each assessment that your child will sit are on the next page of the letter and have been designed so you can easily display them in the house. 

If your child misses an assessment they will have to take it at a later date. 

If you have any questions around assessments at all please contact me using the email jwatson@gloucesteracademy.co.uk

Yours faithfully

Mr J Watson

Assistant Headteacher

Year 8	Week 12 (Week beginning 15th March 2021)
Class Code	15th March	16th March	17th March	18th March	19th March
8G	History	Drama  Maths Science PE	Geography Spanish	English  RS DT	Art  Music
8L	Drama Music DT	RS  Maths Science	History PE  Geography	English	Art  Spanish
8O	History Music DT	Geography Maths Science PE	Drama	English Spanish	Art
8U	History Music DT	Geography Maths Science	RS PE	Drama English	Art  Spanish
8C	Geography  Spanish DT	History Maths RS Science	Music PE	Drama English	Art