Chapter 1:
The Report Card
Seeing as I titled my blog "A Sixth Form Story", I may as well continue the analogy
As you probably guessed from the title, this post is about my termly report card. I think this would also be a good time to discuss what I did during my first term of A-Levels. My school uses a "traffic light" system for grades, and I'll try to copy that throughout this post (although I really don't like this system - see the end of the post).
English: TLDR; Love English, we spent the first term on drama (A Streetcar Named Desire) and we were assessed on an essay that we wrote.
Grade:
B History: TLDR; Even though we're studying the same stuff as GCSE, I'm still loving history, and I got full marks on my essay
.
Grade:
A* Maths: TLDR; My Maths teacher is brill, puns (you're going to have to read it now
) and I hate the equation for the area of a triangle.
Grade:
B Music: TLDR; I was so disappointed when music became boring, but I'm still doing alright at it - 100%!
Grade:
A* For reference, my target grades are all As.
I thought I might finish up by explaining why I don't really like our "traffic light" approach to grades. Whilst they do give parents a nice visual as to how us pupils are doing, it doesn't give them a full picture. Even if you're 1% below your target grade, you are flagged up as underachieving - and that is then referred to our Year Head. And when you are achieving your target grade, you are awarded an orange - even if your target grade is an A*! What I think would be much better (and fairer) would be to introduce a system where our percentage attained is sent out (instead of a very broad grade), and the colours could be revised so that if you're within, say 3-5% of your target percentage band (of maybe class width 5%), you receive an orange, and if you get above this (or above 90%) you automatically are given the "green light".
What do you guys think:
Is using a "traffic light" system a good way to give out reports?
That's me for this evening! This week has been very busy, so I'm planning on posting two more (maybe mini) updates tomorrow. Also, should I start a tag-list? You are more than welcome to join in the conversation, and I look forward to reading through any comments!
Ciao!!