Welcome to Year 10 Briefing Evening

21st October 2015

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A Parent’s Guide to GCSEs

• Mr Darren Jones

• Assistant Headteacher – KS4

The current situation

• GCSEs are now linear – examined at the end of Year 11

• Controlled Assessment component remains

• Exams have become more demanding in terms of the amount of factual knowledge students need to remember

A Year 10 student has 90% attendance. Is that good?

What does this mean?

• 1 week = ½ a day missed a week

• 1 year = 4 weeks of lessons

• 5 years = ½ a school year

What impact does attendance have on exam results?

Research suggests that 17 missed

school days a year = GCSE grade

DROP in achievement. (DfE)

The greater the attendance the greater the achievement

Atte

nd

ance

5 or more A*-C including English and Maths

2013

5 or more A*-C including English and Maths

2014

5 or more A*-C including English and Maths

2015

95%+ 79%

82% 80%

90% - 94.9%

47%

36% 51%

Less than 90%

33%

14% 14%

Parental Support

• Studies have shown that parental support of children is one of the most effective factors in ensuring GCSE success

• You do not need to be an expert on every GCSE subject to have an impact

Top Tips • Ensure that your child attends every day if possible. For

the majority of subjects, lesson content can only be covered once

• Don’t accept the ‘I’ve got no homework’ excuse – they can always be revising content – revision resources on the school website

• Ensure that your child has a suitable place to study with all the required materials and avoiding distractions

• Encourage alternative methods of study- eg subject related TV programmes, newspaper articles

• Let the school know if your child is experiencing any difficulties with any element of their personal or school life

Assessments

Target Grades/Reports

Mr Mark Conroy

Deputy Headteacher

The importance of Year 10

• The time-scale of courses. 5 terms!

• Controlled Assessments throughout the year counting towards the final GCSE grade

Year 10 Assessment Schedule 2015-2016

Autumn Term

Spring Term Summer Term

Year

10

-BTEC Health &

Social Care

Communication

Assignment 3.1

-Drama

Performance

Assessment

-Languages:

Writing

Controlled

Assessment

-BTEC Health &

Social Care

Communication

Assignment 3.2

-BTEC Health &

Social Care

Communication

Assignment 3.3

-BTEC Business

Finance Exam

-Languages:

Speaking

Controlled

Assessment

-Drama

Performance

Assessment

-History

Controlled

Assessment

-Business

Controlled

Assessment

-Science ISA’s*

-Languages:

Speaking

Controlled

Assessment

-Geography

Controlled

Assessment

-Year 10 Exams

New GCSE Grades in English and Maths:

English:

• No tiered papers.

• The speaking and listening exam will not count towards the overall grade.

• No controlled assessment or coursework.

• Greater emphasis on spelling, punctuation and grammar including the use of vocabulary.

• English Literature: a concentration on British literature.

Maths:

• There is more content to teach with harder topics being introduced.

• There is a greater emphasis on problem-solving and mathematical reasoning, with more marks in the GCSE exams being allocated to these higher-order skills.

• The total examination time is increasing with all exams taken at the end of the course.

• Students will also have to memorise formulae.

Target Grades and Reports

Target setting process started this week

Progress tracked against targets

Progress reports - Friday 20th November 2015

Consultation Evening – Thursday 10th March 2016

Strengths and Targets report – Friday 20th May 2016

Assessment week – week beginning Monday 27th June 2016

Assessment Results – Thursday 21st July 2016

Subject

Current Target Effort Behaviour Classwork Homework

English A A Very Good Very Good Very Good Very Good

Media B A Good Good Good Good

Maths C B Good Good Good Good

Science B A Good Very Good Good Very Good

Drama B A Very Good Very Good Very Good Good

French C B Good Good Good Good

History (short) C C Very Good Very Good Good Good

ICT Merit Merit Good Good Good Good

Learn 4 Life Very Good Very Good Very Good

Music C B Very Good Good Very Good Good

PE (core) Good Good Good

RE (short) B Good Very Good Good

The First Half Term

Mr Rob Langstone

Head of Year 10

UPDATE OF CONTACT DETAILS

It is vital that we have up to date contact details of our Parents/Carers

If anything has changed please complete an

‘Update of Contact Details’ slip found on this evening’s sign in desks and post in the

box provided or log on to your Sims Learning Gateway account