Why does school do this?

Kingsmead School decided not to use grades and flightpaths with years 7 to 9, because we do not want to create artificial barriers or ceilings for the performance of our students.

The Department for Education and Ofsted have advised that schools not report grades to students in key stage 3, for this very reason.

Historically, Kingsmead teachers observed that younger students who achieved their expected grades early in the school year, began to ‘switch off’ and became more difficult to motivate as the year went on. Similarly, some younger students became very demotivated when they failed to meet an expected grade at the start of the year and then did not make the progress they were capable.

Without percentage score ‘targets’, we believe that students will be motivated to do their best in every assessment and make the progress they are truly capable of.

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