By Working Together Teachers and Parents Can Help Every Child Build Confidence to Achieve Their Potential
Assessments play a vital role in your child’s learning journey, providing valuable insights into their progress and helping teachers tailor support. At St. Catherine’s, we use a balanced approach to assessments in Key Stage 3, ensuring students feel confident and prepared. This guide explains our assessment process and how teachers and parents can work together to support student success.
What Assessments are and Why They Matter
In Key Stage 3, we carry out two kinds of assessments: progress tests in the core subjects and subject assessments in most subjects.
| Progress Tests | Subject Assessment | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Track year-on-year progress in core subjects and provide key indicators of likely achievement at GCSE. |
Evaluate student learning of the materials covered in each subject. |
| Format | The progress tests are run by GL Assessment, the leading provider of such assessments in the UK. You can find out more about the GL assessments here. | The format of each assessment varies depending on the subject, skills and knowledge being assessed; students might be asked to create a project, write an essay, or do a knowledge test. |
| Frequency | We run these assessments at the beginning and end of each year. | The frequency of assessment varies depending on the subject, but most subjects will have one big assessment per half term. |
| Student Revision | No | Yes |
During the summer term’s assessment window, we aim to familiarise students with the GCSE and IB format by recreating exam conditions. This means we run assessments simultaneously during lessons across all classes in English, Geography, Greek, History, Maths, Modern Foreign Languages, and Science.
We do our best to reduce assessment stress for students by spreading the assessments across a five-week window, avoiding clashes with planned trips and events and, when possible, ensuring that students do not sit more than two assessments a week.
How We Help Students Prepare
At St. Catherine’s, we help students prepare for their assessments by providing:
- Clear Expectations – Teachers outline objectives and assessment and marking criteria in advance.
- Regular Feedback – Students receive constructive guidance on how to improve in lessons.
- Revision Resources – Students from all classes have access to the same revision resources for every subject.
- Study and Revision Workshops – Assemblies and workshops in form periods before and during the assessment window help students develop effective coping strategies and revision techniques.
- Pastoral and Academic Support – Subject teachers, form tutors, heads of year, and counsellors are available to support students’ wellbeing and academic progress.
How You Can Support Your Child
As parents, you can help your child prepare for their assessments by:
- Encouraging a Growth Mindset – Praise effort over results to build confidence and resilience. Discourage your child from staying home when they don’t feel ready for an assessment.
- Establishing Good Study Habits – Create a quiet, distraction-free study space, and encourage a structured approach to homework and revision.
- Communicating Openly – Discuss assessments with your child, focusing on learning rather than just outcomes.
- Supporting Wellbeing – Balance study with breaks, physical activity, and healthy sleep habits.
- Joining the Partnership with Parents Study Skills for Parents Workshop – Sign up for the Partnership with Parents on KS3 Study Skills on Thursday 10 April. We will be discussing how the teenage brain works and sharing top ten study tips for students and parents,
Assessments: A Stage in the Journey, Not a Destination
It is important that both students and parents understand that assessments are just another stage on each child’s learning journey, not the destination. They are an opportunity for growth, not just a measure of achievement. By working together—teachers, parents, and students—we can help every child in Key Stage 3 build confidence and achieve their potential.
Students are always encouraged to reach out to subject coordinators, heads of department and counsellors with questions. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact your child’s head of year or the head of KS3 (Matthew.Irwin@stcatherines.gr) for guidance.
