Exams & Assessments

"Assessment informs our curriculum."

Our aim is simple: to understand how much of our broad, ambitious and knowledge-rich curriculum is being learned and remembered by our students. Learning has only occurred when it has altered long-term memory. Assessment helps us check this, ensuring that every student is making meaningful progress.

Subject-Specific Assessment

Assessment is tailored to each subject. Teachers select the most appropriate methods to evaluate learning, whether through practical work, written tasks, performances, or end-of-unit tests. This ensures that we assess what truly matters in each discipline.

 

In-class Assessment and Feedback

Students learn best when they receive specific feedback about what they need to do to improve. Teachers teach best when they seek feedback about student performance which enables them to refine teaching and planning. As such feedback at Harris Greenwich is any action which aims to close the learning gap. We use three types of in-class feedback:

1. Over the Shoulder Feedback (Immediate)

This is live, in-lesson feedback that allows teachers to identify misconceptions as they arise and intervene immediately. Teachers will be circulating, 'hunting' for misconceptions and looking to correct them over pupils' shoulders. This marking-in-the-moment prevents errors from becoming embedded and ensures students remain on track.

2. Whole-Class Feedback (Summary)

This feedback evaluates learning across the class to identify patterns, strengths, and common misconceptions. This si where typically teachers will use whiteboards in lessons, and respond efficiently by addressing whole class trends. We love whole-class feedback because it maximises impact while also maximising workload efficiency.

3. Green Sheet Feedback (Review)

Green Sheet Feedback is what we use to give feedback away from the point of teaching, over time, to drive achievement over time. Teachers assess whether the intended end points have been met, or not. It enables teachers to assess understanding, set precise improvement targets, and require students to reflect and redraft. This feedback closes learning gaps and builds students’ capacity to act on feedback independently.

 

Summative Assessments (exams)

Key Stage 3

Two formal (summative) assessment windows take place each academic year.

• During these windows, departments assess what students have learned and remembered since Year 7.
• Mini assessments are also conducted throughout the year at times that best suit each subject. These may include short performances or end-of-unit tests.

All assessments contribute to an overall percentage score for each student, indicating the proportion of the curriculum they have successfully learned. This score is reported to parents alongside the year group average, providing a clear and honest picture of progress.

We use low-stakes, high-frequency assessments to give students multiple opportunities to succeed, avoiding unnecessary level descriptors or misleading judgements.

Key Stages 4 and 5

Two or three formal (summative) assessment windows take place each academic year.

These include assessments that mirror national exams, alongside regular mini assessments.

• Students are only assessed on content they have been taught, and mock exams, known as PPEs (Pre-Public Examinations), are sat only when students are ready.

PPEs are a higher-stakes opportunity for students to revise, prepare, and demonstrate their knowledge. Following PPEs, we report a Most Likely Grade (MLG) to parents. This grade reflects the most probable outcome at the end of Year 11 or Year 13, based on:

• Performance in assessments
• Behaviour in lessons
• Effort in lessons
• Homework