Dinas a Sir Abertawe/City and County of Swansea Ysgol Gymunedol Cefn Hengoed Community School Heol Caldicot Road, Winch Wen, Abertawe/Swansea, SA1 7HX Pennaeth - Mrs S Y Hollister – Headteacher Dirprwy Bennaeth, Academaidd – Mr C Bale – Deputy Headteacher, Academic Rheolwr Cyllid/Masnachau – Mrs G Price – Finance/Business Manager
Tel: 01792 773464 Fax: 01792 793087 E-bost/E-mail: [email protected]
April 2017
Dear Years 7 and 8 Parent/Carers,
In order to support your child’s preparation for examinations, I would like to invite you to an informal evening in Hall 1 on Thursday 18th May 2017 at 6pm. Literacy Manager, Mrs E Varney, Numeracy Manager, Mrs C Bowen and Mrs R Perkins, our Basic Skills Co-ordinator will talk to you about how best to support your child’s development in Literacy and Numeracy, whilst Mr Bale, Deputy Headteacher Academic, will show you how we monitor your child’s progress here at Cefn Hengoed.
I hope you will be able to join us in what should be an informative but informal evening. Refreshments will be provided.
As you are already aware from your own school days, the summer term is traditionally when annual examinations are set. The pupils will sit English, Mathematics and Science examinations in the usual way i.e. they will sit these examinations in a formal setting where pupils will recall information from the whole year. In all other subjects the pupils will have a formal ‘Rich’ assessment in lesson time. This assessment will further inform our school assessment policy where pupils currently have a formal assessment in both the winter and spring terms. They have a third ‘Rich’ assessment instead of an end of year examination in the summer term in subjects OTHER THAN English, Mathematics and Science. The end of year grade on the report will be an average of the 3 Assessment grades, except for English, Mathematics and Science, where it will be the examination grade. There will also be a Literacy and Numeracy report for every subject.
The reasons we now adopt this approach are:–
the pupils are having additional statutory National Reading and Numeracy Tests directed by the Welsh Government, which will continue this summer and which add to the pressure on pupils of testing and examinations – we are trying to reduce this stress by reducing the number of other examinations they sit. as pupils move into Year 10 and begin their GCSE courses, they are often required to sit an examination at the end of a module and not at the end of their two year course, so this approach better prepares them. reducing the number of examinations and using instead an additional formal assessment allows us more time to focus on teaching and significantly increases your child’s learning time in the non-core subjects which in turn will enhance their opportunity to progress.
Examination dates in English, Mathematics and Science are as follows: Year 7: Between Wednesday 7th – Friday 9th June 2017 Year 8: Between Monday 12th – Wednesday 14th June 2017 The timetable for the Year 7, 8 and 9 National Literacy and Numeracy tests is shown here for your information and has been sent to you previously. The tests are well underway. These test results are recorded by the Welsh Government and are used to inform National Government Policy in Literacy and Numeracy.
Year 7 Wednesday 26th April 2017 Lesson 4 Numeracy Procedural Test Friday 28th April 2017 Lesson 4 Numeracy Reasoning Test Monday 8th May 2017 Lesson 1 & 2 Reading Test
Year 8 Thursday 27th April 2017 Lesson 1 & 2 Reading Test Tuesday 2nd May 2017 Lesson 5 Numeracy procedural Test Thursday 4th May 2017 Lesson 4 Numeracy Reasoning Test
Year 9 Thursday 27th April 2017 Lesson 3 & 4 Reading Test Thursday 4th May 2017 Lesson 3 Numeracy Procedural Test Friday 5th May 2017 Lesson 4 Numeracy Reasoning Test
Yours faithfully
S Y Hollister Headteacher