Bulletin - 21st June

Hi all,

Many thanks to everyone for your contributions to the INSET day on Friday; it felt like a really purposeful day and we covered a lot of good stuff! I've tried to summarise views about the issue of reporting to parents and will send this around for you to add to or comment on if you would like to.

Admin Assistant

Rejoice! We have an Admin Assistant - all things being well (!), Toni will be starting work with us from next Monday.

Drama Staffing

Kate has asked us to provide four periods of Drama (KS3 I presume) - if you are keen to try this, please let me know ASAP.

Year 9 Assessment

Creative Writing Controlled Assessment

An overview of the specific requirements for this unit is found on page 16 of the specification here: http://store.aqa.org.uk/resourceZone/pdf/english/AQA-4705-W-SP.PDF

The marking criteria are on pages 38 and 39. I will print these out and photocopy; I've also ordered more specs from the board so you should get one ASAP.

The marking works like this:

Each creative writing task is marked out of 10. Students have to submit two, so they get a mark out of 20 for content. They then get a mark out of 10 for accuracy, which comes from looking at both tasks. I suggest therefore that we:

- use the criteria to give a content mark out of 10

- also give and record an accuracy mark for this piece of work

- the accuracy mark can then be adjusted later in the course when they do the second piece of writing.

For full guidance on Controlled Assessment in English, please see the document here: http://store.aqa.org.uk/resourceZone/pdf/english/AQA-ENG-ALL-W-TRB-CASSI.PDF

PLTS

Further to our discussion of the Personal Learning and Thinking Skills framework on Friday, here's the link to a site with ideas about how PLTS can be applied to English: http://curriculum.qcda.gov.uk/key-stages-3-and-4/subjects/key-stage-4/english/PLTS-in-English/index.aspx

National Curriculum Level Descriptors

On Friday, we agreed that we would use the general level descriptors for Reading, Writing and S and L to decide on end of unit grades (alongside the focused APP mid-term formative assessment points). This link takes you to a document which clarifies these descriptors, which have been recently revised: http://curriculum.qcda.gov.uk/uploads/Level_descriptors_English_tcm8-16283.pdf

Have a great week everyone,

Tom