Target setting, tracking and reporting

Case study extract

The project followed from a whole school decision to change the style of reports for fifth year so that short summative reports would be sent out three times a year instead of as one detailed written report. As these reports were essentially summative and did not explain how the student could improve, the group wanted to introduce some sort of personal learning planning to fifth years so that they would become more aware of their own strengths and their next steps for improvement.

The group found that the students overall found target setting beneficial. At the start of the project some students did not enjoy setting targets as completing them often involved a lot of work. However, by the end of the project all the students agreed that they helped improve their learning. Through discussion with the students it also became obvious that this project had impacted positively on their learning and that this way of working would be useful to them in the future.

Through discussion it became clear that all of the teachers in the group thought that the project was a success and that the focus in class had shifted from teaching onto the individual needs of the learners. Although spending time on targets was an issue, all members of the group felt that they would use this technique in the future, but over time, there was awareness on the part of students as to where they had gone wrong and what they had to do to rectify the error.

Development of the project would ensure the focus would be on the students self- assessing and setting their own targets so that time becomes less of a problem.