Setting and achieving aspirational targets with Alps
By Graham Jons, Head of Data and Exams at Charters School.
Charters School is a “Good rated” secondary school academy based in leafy Sunningdale, Berkshire, near Ascot. Covering ages 11 to 19, we have 1730 students on roll with a Published Admission Number of 270 in Year 7. Current Year 10 has an extra form (300 students) and we have 353 students in our Sixth form. Our catchment area spans 2 local authorities – Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead and Bracknell Forest.
Alps at Charters
Charters use of Alps started with the adoption of Alps exam reports in 2009. Having used Alps at my previous school, I was glad to see it actively used to support 16 – 19 KS5 cohort when I joined in 2018. A Level targets are set using Alps Minimum Expected Grades (MEGs) based off KS4 GCSE Average Point Scores (APS). The academic year starts by us collecting statement of results from any new joiners in Year 12 and calculating their GCSE Average Point Scores. Together with known GCSE APS for the students who continued from Year 11, the data is loaded into Alps Connect to generate MEGs. The MEGs are labelled as “Suggested” targets and shared with Heads of Department, who then use “What-if” to modify their targets to those that will achieve an outcome of Alps grade 3 or better for their subjects.
Training on Alps Connect is given to any new Heads of Department. Once the changes have been made, the updated Personalised Targets are loaded into Alps as the Year 12 target gradepoint. Department Improvement Plans are written by Heads of Department and updated after each assessment point. The status of their 6th Form provision is assessed using the Alps Grade.Estimated grade data from 3 assessment points and 2 sets of internal exams is loaded into Alps Connect throughout the academic year. The subject Alps grades from these are added to Department Improvement Plans and Heads of Department present their subjects at Academic Board meetings after each assessment point, giving a holistic view of the current performance of the 6th Form cohort…
Need more information?
If you would like any further information, please contact one of our expert advisers.
