| Academic
Beeston Hall encourages each child to fulfil his or her potential and, in the process, instils a genuine desire to learn, a positive attitude to work and an awareness of the need for industry and perseverance. One of the School's great strengths is teaching children to take responsibility for their own learning, ensuring that they do the best they can because they wish to do so. Not least, we hope that, as a consequence, they will find the work challenging, interesting and enjoyable.
An average class size of only 12 enables considerable individual attention and support to be given, and the School is well equipped to deal with both ends of the academic spectrum, as our Common Entrance and Scholarship results testify.
Streaming and Setting
Pupils are streamed in the first three years and ongoing monitoring by staff allows children to be moved between classes should they need to be academically stretched or, conversely, receive greater assistance. If required, children may receive additional one-to-one support. This means that any weaknesses are addressed as soon as possible and individual learning requirements identified and catered for.
From Year 6 onwards each age group is divided three ways. The most able children are streamed into a potential scholars' class, where they work at an accelerated pace, which allows them time to concentrate on the more demanding scholarship style work in their final year. The remaining children are set for English, Maths, Science, French and Latin with other subjects allocated to one of the major subject sets. This enables a child to work in each subject at a speed commensurate with his or her ability. This flexibility is invaluable in the run up to Common Entrance.
Assessment and Reporting
Assessment of pupils at Beeston takes place through a variety of means, both against national norms and relative to their Beeston peers.
For the first 4 years at Beeston, Years 3 to 6, all children participate in the PIPS assessment scheme. PIPS is an assessment scheme used nationally by many schools and stands for Performance Indicators in Primary Schools. These are curriculum based assessments in Maths and Reading, with the addition of Science in Year 6, along with an ability assessment which consists of vocabulary and non-verbal ability assessments. Assessments are quick and easy to administer and the results are then processed at Durham and passed back to Beeston Hall. These provide the school with valuable information related to performance and potential. For certain children, NFER verbal and non-verbal reasoning tests are also administered, so providing a fuller picture of a child's current standing in relation to nationally accepted norms.
Using such information as a starting point, Beeston pupils are then regularly assessed through a number of internal school means. These include:
Continuous monitoring of pupils' progress by their tutors. Three times in the Autumn term and twice in both the Spring and Summer terms there are 'Quarterly Assessments' when the children's efforts and achievements are discussed by the staff and the resulting assessments sent to parents. In addition, detailed reports are sent home at the end of each term, while Parent-Teacher Meetings take place once a year, although additional meetings are available by appointment or informally.
Examinations
In Year 5 the children sit 'tests' in the core subjects of English, Maths and Science, while for children in Years 6 and 7 there are subject examinations in both the Autumn and Summer terms. Year 8 pupils sit exams each term, culminating in the Common Entrance Examination. Results of exams and an appraisal of each child's efforts are given in the children's reports. |
