Training & Support
Wellingborough School is an Independent school founded in 1595 and situated in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. It is an all-through family of schools for those aged 3-18, consisting of a Nursery, Prep School, Senior School and Sixth Form. Prep School Head of Curriculum, Brendan McKenna, explains how the School utilises key information from our assessment data to help inform conversations with parents.
Embedding confidence in professional judgements
A key priority at Wellingborough is to give parents the reassurance that we are delivering the best education we can for their children. It is therefore important to us that we embed confidence in our community that the judgements we make about learning are, as high-quality professionals, reflected in the targets and schemes of work that we put in place for our learners.
Our teachers provide their own attainment grades for pupils in their end of term reports for parents. These grades are supported by data from the Progress Test in English (PTE) and Progress Test in Maths (PTM). This data is of particular use when it is held over the course of several years, as it can be used to explain to parents how their child’s progress compares to that of others of similar attainment nationally.
Data from the New Group Reading Test (NGRT) helps to unpick a child’s relative strengths or weaknesses as a reader. It also helps to support our teachers’ judgement and it can be useful if a parent questions the level of book their child has been given to read, for example.
We would not usually share all our assessment data with parents as this might lead to confusion if they are unfamiliar with standardised scores, but it is very useful and is often used at one-to-one meetings conducted on a more ad hoc basis. For example, where there may be a question about a child’s perceived limited progress, it is useful to have this objective standardised data.
Standardised data from GL Assessment has also been invaluable to us for referencing the performance of cohorts or year groups against the national average and is regularly used by our Headteacher at meetings with parents of prospective pupils.
Wellingborough Preparatory School is one of our Advocate Partners
