Students in Foundation Academy are expected to spend their lesson time developing their character, resilience and aspirations.
This means that the focus through years 7 to 9 is on how to improve from their current position, rather than aiming for a distant exam grade. Assessment in each subject is designed to support students in learning the skills and knowledge they will need later, but most importantly in becoming resilient and reflective.
Families receive live updates on our online platform GO 4 Schools, along with more traditional reports throughout the year. In Foundation Academy, we will let students and parents know roughly what a student might be expected to achieve at the end of year 11 exams so that you know if a child is likely to excel in a particular area – but our focus is on achieving at what they are learning right now. Our targets are based on a very large national database which gives an estimate for how a student might progress between year 7 and the end of their school career.
This means that you will be told if your child is on track, but you will not be told what grade they are ‘working at’ – this would not make sense, as there are no grades for the courses in Foundation Academy.
Our assessment regime is built on the Embedding Formative Assessment programme to provide useful, effective assessment for students throughout their school career. This will take many forms, including verbal and written classwork and traditional written or performance ‘tests’.
More information on our assessment strategies will be published soon.