Examinations

Mrs N Smith

Our Examinations Officer. You can contact them by email or by calling the school.

Assessment and Progress

Throughout the academic year, students’ progress is monitored through a planned programme of Trust-wide and school-based assessments. These assessments are designed to evaluate both subject knowledge and the application of skills, ensuring a balanced picture of each student’s attainment and development.

Assessment takes place regularly within lessons through low-stakes activities such as questioning, retrieval practice, short written tasks, practical demonstrations and structured discussion, as well as through more formal assessments at key points in the year. Depending on the subject, these may include written assessments, practical tasks, and oracy based activities, allowing students to demonstrate learning in different ways.

Assessment outcomes are used by teachers to identify strengths, gaps in knowledge, and areas for further skill development. Personalised feedback, provided verbally or in written form, supports students in understanding how to improve and progress. This ongoing assessment and feedback cycle ensures that teaching is responsive and that students are clear about expectations and next steps in their learning.

NGRTs

The New Group Reading Test (NGRT) is a simple assessment Lift Winton uses to understand how well students read and understand text. It is taken on a computer and adapts to each child’s level, so the questions get a bit easier or harder depending on their answers.

NGRT looks at two main skills:
- Sentence completion (understanding vocabulary and grammar)
- Passage comprehension (understanding what they read)

The results help teachers see each student’s reading strengths and where they may need extra support. It’s not a test to pass or fail — it’s a tool to help your child grow as a reader. We will use this assessment to inform our intervention offer for your child if it is required.

Parents’ Evening and Reports

We believe that a strong partnership between school and home is vital to student success, and we are committed to ensuring parents have a clear understanding of their child’s academic journey. Throughout the year, scheduled face-to-face parents' evenings will take place, as an opportunity to discuss your child’s progress. These events occur once a year for students in Years 7 through 10, with Year 11 benefiting from two evenings per year to provide additional support during their final examination season.

In Key Stage 3, formal progress reports are issued twice per academic year, while Key Stage 4 students receive three reports annually to reflect the increased pace of the GCSE curriculum.

Year 11

Our exam team at Winton consists of our fantastic exam officers Nicola Smith nsmith@liftwinton.org and Sam Bance sbance@liftwinton.org

‍Ensuring the academic success of every student is the central mission of our Examinations Team. To support progress throughout Key Stage 4, we implement a rigorous series of mock examinations designed with two primary objectives: to provide robust data that allows us to monitor students progress and intervene where necessary, and to provide students with the vital experience of formal examination conditions. This ensures that by the time they reach their final GCSEs, they are both academically prepared and confident in their ability to perform under pressure.

In Year 10, students participate in three distinct mock examination periods. The first two series are conducted during scheduled lesson time using modified examination papers specifically tailored to fit the classroom timetable. The final series in the Summer term transitions into a formal hall-based environment to mirror the external exam experience. Following each period, data is analysed and reported centrally, with progress updates shared directly with parents via our reporting cycle.

In Year 11, the focus intensifies with two full series of formal mock examinations. The first occurs during the Autumn term in November, followed by a second series in the Spring term during February. These assessments are critical milestones that allow us to refine predicted outcomes and identify specific areas for development. Data from these exams is shared with parents through formal reports and is a focal point of our Year 11 parents' evenings. These meetings provide a vital opportunity for teachers and families to discuss individual progress and agree upon the specific support actions required to maximize achievement at the conclusion of Year 11.

Please see below useful information for year 11 and GCSE formal examinations. Please check the exam timetable and also ensure you keep the 24th June 2026 free for you child as this is an exam contingency day. All students must keep this date free.

GCSE exam results day is 20th August 2026. If your student is unable to attend they will need to give written permission to collect results.

‍External exam Summer exam timetable

‍Exam Parent handbook

Exam boards

We are one the largest providers of qualifications for schools, academies, sixth form and further education colleges across England, offering valued qualifications to suit a range of abilities. Each and every one of our qualifications is carefully designed to stimulate students and to equip them for the next stage of their lives.

We are the UK's largest awarding body and we are regulated by Ofqual (England), CCEA Accreditation (Northern Ireland) and Qualifications Wales (Wales). We offer academic and vocational qualifications that are globally recognised and benchmarked, with educational excellence rooted in names like Edexcel and BTEC.

OCR is a leading UK awarding body. We provide qualifications which engage people of all ages and abilities at school, college, in work or through part-time learning programmes.

Our general and vocational qualifications equip students with the knowledge and skills they need for their future, helping them achieve their full potential..

Our UK qualifications are highly valued by employers and universities around the world. They are taught mainly in schools and colleges and include GCSEs, AS and A-levels, the Extended Project Qualification and Technical Awards.

We set and mark over half of all GCSEs and A-levels taken in the UK every year. As an independent education charity, our income is reinvested back into AQA’s charitable activities. It also funds our cutting-edge research, which sits at the heart of our assessments and supports our initiatives to help young people facing challenges in life realise their potential.

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