At Queen Elizabeth’s we deliver our lessons using fully guided instruction using the ‘I do, We do, You do’ model (Killian, 2016).

  • I do – teachers, as subject experts, deliver content to students who listen and make notes or annotate, as instructed by the teacher.
  • We do – the teacher models how to apply the new knowledge to a task using questioning to ensure students understand.
  • You do – students work independently on a similar task to that modelled by the teacher.  Teachers circulate the room giving verbal feedback that students can action immediately.

All lessons start with a knowledge retrieval activity to support students to activate the prior knowledge they need for the new content within the lesson. This retrieval can also help to embed core knowledge into long-term memory.

We believe that our teaching model, paired with a knowledge rich curriculum, is the right choice to enable our students to be successful and is based on academic research, for example ‘Why don’t students like school’ (Willingham, 2009) and ‘Principles of Instruction’ (Rosenshine, 2012).

Assessment

Teachers use formative assessment methods every lesson including quizzing, questioning, hinge questions or exit tickets.

Summative assessments are undertaken three times per academic year in all curriculum subjects. They are designed by faculties in advance of testing and checked by the senior leadership team before students sit them. They are aligned to the curriculum area’s core concepts and are cumulative assessments, as shown in the diagram below from Christine Counsell (2019):

To ensure assessments are reliable students sit these in agreed time parameters and with agreed levels of support. Department areas have created clear mark schemes to minimise bias. On completion faculty areas undertake standardisation of marking and moderation of papers. Tests are marked out of the agreed number of marks and students are given a percentage score.

Measuring progress at key stage 3

Progress will be measured by allocating students to an ability band (bands 1-4) using ‘quartile ranking’ of SATs scores. Students without a SAT score will be allocated an ability band based on a CATs assessment.

  • Band 1 – lowest 25% of students based on SAT scores.
  • Bands 2 and 3 – middle 50% of students based on SAT scores [Band 2 = low middle and Band 3 = high middle].
  • Band 4 – top 25% of students based on SAT scores.

At the end of each data collection window, students’ will be placed in one of four attainment bands using ‘quartile ranking’ (band 1 being the lowest and band 4 being the highest). A student’s ability band will then be deducted from their attainment band to give them a score ranging from -3 to +3, e.g. a student with an attainment band of 3 in history who has an ability band of 4 would receive a progress score of -1.

There are four colour coded progress indicators:

  • Above [+1 to + 3] (Dark green)
  • On Track [0] (Light green)
  • Below [-1] (Amber)
  • Well Below [-2 to -3] (Pink)

Key stage 3 – example report

Progress at key stage 4

At key stage 4 students are allocated a nationally recognised GCSE target grade based on their SATs scores from year 6.

After each assessment students are allocated a current and predicted GCSE grade and progress is measured against the recognised target grade.

Key stage 4 – example report