• Assessment and Reporting
    If your son is in Years 7-10, you will receive three reports annually, focusing on the Autumn, Spring and Summer Terms. If your son is in Years 11-13, you will receive two reports annually, focusing on the Autumn and Spring Terms. There are two types of report, the progress report and the target report.

    Targets from his teachers and indications of how to improve can be found on your son’s work in each subject (in his books and folders). You are encouraged to discuss with him how he has engaged with these.

    Progress Report
    This report includes, for each of your son’s subjects, a diligence report and a progress report. The diligence report gives information about how hard your son has been working, using the diligence grades explained here. The progress report gives information about the assessments that he has completed and the GCSE grade he is working towards, as well as indicating whether his current progress is a cause for concern.
     
    Target Report
    This includes all of the above information, together with further targets from your son’s subject teachers identifying the most important areas for development from mock examinations.
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    • The departmental Core Concepts that are used to describe progress in Key Stage 3 subjects can be seen on each department's page.
    • The School Assessment Policy can be downloaded here.
    • This document gives detailed criteria for the awarding of diligence grades.
  • Non-Examination Assessment Timetables
    Here you can find the schedule for the non-examination assessments that each Year Group will undertake during the course of the academic year (pdf download). 

    Parents are asked to ensure that they are aware of the tasks that are being undertaken for these and to support their sons in ensuring that deadlines are met. Experience shows that some boys do need close support in undertaking the levels of independent study that are required by some items of these assessments.

    The deadlines indicated are not negotiable. Departments will support boys in organising their work to meet the deadline; and the Head of Department will contact parents in sufficient time if he/she considers a boy to be likely to miss the deadline for any reason.

    Meeting the deadline means presenting work of a good standard.

    Failure to meet the deadlines is never an acceptable option and the department will take in no work after the deadline has passed. Failure to submit coursework on time may result in withdrawal of examination entries.
    • Year 9
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    • Year 11
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    • Year 13
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  • Setting
    Although students at Wilson’s fall within a relatively narrow ability range, we find that setting in a number of subjects is helpful in ensuring that all students attain their potential.

    Setting takes place in Mathematics, Science, Modern Foreign Languages and English from Year 9.

    Our target for all students is that they reach the highest levels of attainment and achieve the highest grades in their public examinations. The setting arrangements are designed to achieve this end.

    The statements below outline individual departmental policies with regard to setting, addressing the following points:

    1. Upon what criteria is setting based?
    2. Are there opportunities for movement between sets?
    3. Does my son’s set have an impact on the examination paper he sits?


    Mathematics


    • In Years 7 and 8, students are taught Mathematics in their form groups.
    • In Year 9, students are split into two parallel cohorts. Each cohort is then split into sets. The setting is based on students’ performance in assessments over the previous year with particular focus on the end of year examinations.
    • In Years 10 and 11 the setting continues in the same structure as Year 9 with changes occasionally being made on an individual basis as appropriate.
    • In Years 12 and 13 students are put in sets according to their performance in their Mathematics GCSE examination.


    Science


    In Years 7 and 8 students are taught Science in their form groups.
     
    In Year 9, 10 and 11 students are split in to two bands (V and W). There are four groups of equal ability in each band, with each group containing around 23 students.

    The classes are reviewed at the end of every year. All boys study specifications for the separate sciences. During Year 11 a decision is made as to whether it is in the best interests of the student to take separate sciences (3 GCSEs) or Combined Science (2 GCSEs).

    Modern Foreign Languages


    Initial placement in sets and subsequent changes are based upon a rank order drawn up from the regular assessments. Membership of sets is reviewed on a termly basis and decisions about movement between sets are reviewed by the staff concerned.

    Extenuating circumstances may be taken into consideration, but there is a certain amount of overlap between the sets and a boy would have to be showing a considerable misplacement to be moved.

    It is presumed that all pupils, regardless of membership of sets, will take the higher level in the reading and listening papers. The other two skills, writing and speaking, will be assessed by two Controlled Assessment for each skill. Any change to setting and level of entry will be made in consultation with the pupil concerned, his parents or carers, his language teacher, the Head of Modern Languages and senior staff.


    English


    In English at KS4 there are two parallel sets for the most able (V1 and W1) and six parallel smaller sets below these (V2 to V4 and W2 to W4).

    Boys are allocated to sets according to a number of criteria:

    • Year 8 examination results
    • End of KS3 Teacher Assessments
    • Prior performance in relevant tests and teacher assessments
    • Departmental consultation

    Between Year 9 and Year 10 there may be some movement between sets according to the performance of pupils. This depends upon pupil performance across all sets rather than within a set. In Years 10 and 11 this is less likely as different sets will be studying different texts for GCSE English Literature.

    In all cases, although setting is mainly arranged using examination results, the professional opinion of the student’s teacher is also taken into account.

Wilson’s School

A boys’ grammar school in the London Borough of Sutton (UK), Wilson’s School is:

  • committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment
  • a charitable company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (no. 7536970). Registered office: Mollison Drive, Wallington, Surrey SM6 9JW
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