Key Stage 4

Twice a year students sit their Progress Tests. These assess what students have been learning during the academic year and will test both their declarative and their procedural knowledge. Regular testing of key curricula concepts enables us to monitor this knowledge over time on Key Stage 4 (KS4) courses. 

These tests enable teachers to know how ‘secure’ a students’ knowledge is and at Key Stage 4 most tests are based on examination style questions like those that they will meet in their Examinations at the end of Year 11. This means that students gain an understanding of how their knowledge will be tested, they learn the techniques needed to respond to the demands of a KS4 Exam, and they learn how to apply their knowledge to unfamiliar situations which will enable them to access the higher grades. 

At CHS South, we continue to assess as we have done for several years at KS4 (see below). 

When assessing and reporting home to parents we want to be able to: 

Assess how well students have learnt the curriculum so that we know that students are secure in their knowledge and can be successful in their Y11 Examinations. 

Assess their attitude, approach and learning habits using the CHS South Effort grade so that they can become confident independent learners. 

Year 10 sit Progress tests twice a year in the Spring 1 half term, and Summer 2 half term. 

Year 11 has three Examination seasons, the College Entry Mock Examinations in November, March mocks in the Spring Term before their final examinations in May/June. Further information on Examinations can be found in the Examinations section of the website here. 

Reporting using current grades 

At CHS we report the attainment of students at KS4 using ‘Current Grades’. These grades are based on the students’ performance at the current time and are not projected or predicted grades. It is important that the student understands what this grade means in relation to curriculum coverage and class teachers will explain this in more depth during the ‘feedback fortnights’ after the test weeks. 

Grades and Targets at Key Stage 4 

Grades at Key Stage 4 are numbered from 9-1 and have been with us for years. It is quite difficult sometimes to put them into perspective if we are used to the old A*-G grades, the image below gives a rough equivalence. 

Grade 4 is regarded as a standard pass and is often needed to access courses at college. 

A grade 5 is regarded as a strong pass and students often need grade 5s in English and Math's to access higher level courses at college. 

A grade 6 (or 7) is needed to continue to study that subject at A-level. 

Targets 

At CHS we give our KS4 students, where possible, a target grade. These are based on Key Stage 2 performance and average student performance of similar students across the country. We use aspirational targets so that our students are given target grades that are only obtained by the top 20% of students.