How do you track progress at KS3? We have these little labels (21 fit on a sheet) to record all our data captures and stick them on te front of kids books so they can see their progress since the Baseline BL test in September. What do you guys do?

A very simple sheet reduced at A5 that all pupils in KS3 fill in after every assessment so they are constantly aware of their current level for each skill (listening, reading, writing and speaking) and how to improve. We have a big stash of these in our classrooms and constantly assess, evaluate, redraft every longer piece of work and assessment. The kids respond quite well to it and see it as routine.

I have acquired a lot of plastic fruit / veg / pretend food from my little girl over the years but you can get it cheap from charity shops/ amazon etc.

I try and bring in a plastic toy version of each new food word we learn and pass them around while we repeat the word. Then we play “The Power of Three”

1) Make sure at least six kids have a piece of food (or flash card or prop)

2) kids have to try and remember who has each item to “steal” it back by asking “Bob as-tu la pomme?” Etc

3) you can’t ask someone sitting opposite or beside you – otherwise you are a “tricheur” and made to wear my dunces cap…

4) The is over when someone has “the power of three!” – ie 3 pieces of fruit / flash cards

You can also do this with school subjects for example “Bob aimes-tu les maths?” and pictures of school subjects on flash cards

I can’t rate these highly enough – I’ve had them for about three years and now own 4 sets – one for my bag, a class set, one for my box of primary school portable kit and a spare (just in case) Basically a form of voting, whole class response with no batteries or WiFi needed… There’s also ready made PowerPoint for templates on the Class Pops website for voting ABCD or you can just shout out if you think x show me A or red for false, green for true etc. Shamelessly stole this pic from google images to show you what they look like. Very study plastic all of mine still in great condition 3 years on, they cost about £6 per set on ClassPops website.

So my lovely colleague shared this with my Year 11 just before the speaking exams and it was a sure fire hit –

1) Type up / cut and paste all the speaking questions and cut into strips.

2) Fold em up and put in a pretty “magic box”

3) Kiddos each take one (or two or more depending on class size) question strip and hide it from their neighbours and read it. (Reading)

4) They then have 1 min to prep on a mini whiteboard (Writing)

5) use a name selector or lolly sticks to choose a random pupil who then reads their answer aloud (speaking)

6) Other pupils have to guess which question they are answering to win points for their team (active listening)

That’s all there is to it – and you can use the same box over and over again and change up the questions.