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The Lower School Award

To document evidence of student achievement in Y7 & Y8.
To encourage students to develop their self reflection skills. (this is a requirement at IB level for CAS + the EE)
To ensure that CAS(E) are a valued part of the Lower School learning experience.
For tutors (and parents) to have a broader understanding of the learning of students in the Lower School.
For students to value the holistic nature of their Lower School Experience
For students to identify and reflect on their progress in the ATLs throughout Y7 & Y8.
Award ceremony at end of Y8 for students and parents to celebrate their achievements.

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The Lower School Award will focus on the following:

The IB ATLs:

1.Communication

2.Social Collaboration

3.Self Management

4.Research

5.Thinking.

Where can these ATLs be evidenced from?

Learning in different subject areas.
CAS: Extra curricular activities.
Tutor Time.
Outside of school.

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What do students need to do?

Upload evidence to EVIDENCER which shows the students demonstrating ATLs in action.
Write a detailed reflection for each piece of evidence on what they have learned about themselves and their progress with a particular ATL. Students will be given guidance on how to write good reflections.
Present their Evidencer to their tutor during 1-1s.
Students will need to provide a certain no of pieces of evidence for each ATL each Term as well as write quality reflections to gain either a GOLD/SILVER/BRONZE AWARD. (More details on requirements on next slides.)

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Examples of ‘good’ evidence Examples of not so good evidence

A clear photograph which shows them demonstrating an ATL.
A short video clip which shows them demonstrating an ATL.
Upload a piece of work- essay, a ppt presentation, Screenshot.
A photograph or recording of your teacher’s feedback.
Certificates

An unclear photograph.
A video which is to long and isn’t clear what the purpose is.
Forgetting to get the share settings correct if your evidence is a link to a google resource.

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Requirements for the award (This is guidance rather than a rigid set of requirements)

Gold	Silver	Bronze
At least one Gold credit award in Y7 & Y8	At least one Silver credit award in Y7 & Y8	At least one Bronze credit award in Y7 & Y8
Students have reflected on and evidenced all 5 ATLS each term.	Students have reflected on at least 4 of the ATLS each term.	Students have reflected on at least 3 of the ATLS each term.
ATLs must be evidenced from a range of subject areas and CAS activities.	ATLs must be evidenced from a range of subject areas and CAS activities.	ATLs must be evidenced from a range of subject areas and CAS activities.
Reflections are thoughtful and detailed.They have shown how they have progressed in each ATL and set themselves appropriate goals. (Around 300 words per reflection)	Reflections are thoughtful and detailed.They have shown how they have progressed in each ATL and set themselves appropriate goals. (Around 300 words per reflection)	Reflections are thoughtful and detailed.They have shown how they have progressed in each ATL and set themselves appropriate goals. (Around 300 words per reflection)
Total by the end of Y8 (5 terms)	Total by the end of Y8 (5 terms)	Total by the end of Y8 (5 terms)
25 pieces of evidence + reflections.	20 pieces of evidence + reflections	15 pieces of evidence + reflections

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By the end of Y7

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Term 2	Term 2	Term 2
Evidence + Reflections on 5 of the ATLs	Evidence + Reflections on 4 of the ATLs	Evidence + Reflections on 3 of the ATLs
The evidence should be taken from a range of subject + CAS.	The evidence should be taken from a range of subject + CAS.	The evidence should be taken from a range of subject + CAS.
Term 3	Term 3	Term 3
Evidence + Reflections on 5 of the ATLs	Evidence + Reflections on 4 of the ATLs	Evidence + Reflections on 3 of the ATLs
The evidence should be taken from a range of subject + CAS.	The evidence should be taken from a range of subject + CAS.	The evidence should be taken from a range of subject + CAS.
Minimum no of pieces of Evidence and Reflections	Minimum no of pieces of Evidence and Reflections	Minimum no of pieces of Evidence and Reflections
10	8	6

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Gold	This award can be given to students who have included consistent evidence of all 5 ATLS each term throughout Y7 & Y8. Reflections are detailed and insightful showing self awareness and metacognition of approaches to learning. Gold awards should not be given to students who have not demonstrated regular ongoing engagement in the reflection on ATLS.
Silver	This award can be given to students who have in places have achieved Gold standard reflections but this is not consistent across the 2 years. For example a student may have reflected in depth on 5 ATLS in one term but have only completed reflections on 4 ATLS in another term. Or in some terms the quality of reflection is underdeveloped.
Bronze	This award can be given to students who have made an attempt to reflect on 3 or less ATLS each term. The quality of their reflections is adequate in places but lacking in depth.

Rubrics for the Lower School Award

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The role of the tutor

EVIDENCER provides Tutors with a resource to know more about each student.
Term 2 1-1. This will be at some point after 19th March. Each student will present their Evidencer to their tutor. Y7 students will receive training on how to lead this conversation in GTS.The Tutor will traffic light their progress.
Fridays will be ‘Evidencer’ dedicated time in tutor time. This can involve students uploading evidence, presenting exemplar reflections, tutor providing verbal feedback to students. There will also be tasks to complete which focus on an ATL. Y9 SL will also help with this.

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Each Term the tutor will traffic light the student’s Evidencer to monitor their progress.

i)High quality reflections on all 5 ATLS.(Green)

ii)Adequate reflections with a range of ATLs referenced.(Amber)

iii)Inadequate numbers of ATLs referenced and insufficient depth of reflection.(Red)

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The following slides provide some research on the importance of Reflection in education

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The purpose of the Lower School Award..

Bransford, Brown & Cocking (2000) which is a vary widely regarded and quoted text about learning.The report aimed to understand ideas about learning from the last 50 years and drew three general conclusions and several major implications for teaching and learning: (pp. 10-13):

Students come to the classroom with preconceptions about how the world works. If their initial understanding is not engaged, they may fail to grasp the new concepts and information that are taught, or they may learn them for purposes of a test but revert to their preconceptions outside the classroom.
To develop competence in an area of inquiry, students must: (a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge, (b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and (c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application.
A “metacognitive” approach to instruction can help students learn to take control of their own learning by defining learning goals and monitoring their progress in achieving them.

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In a (meta) study of 800 meta-studies of factors affecting student achievement Hattie (2009)found that the most uniformly positive results in terms of academic engagement, understanding, transfer skills and high performance in assessments come about through a focus in the classroom on learning strategy training in a metacognitive, self -regulated context in connection with specific content.

The purpose of the Lower School Award.

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The purpose of the Lower School Award...

Lance King:https://mypchat.wikispaces.com/file/view/TAOlearn+handout.pdf

The best students in the world, those whose study is most effective in helping them to achieve their desired qualifications, all have one characteristic in common, metacognitive awareness. In other words they have learned how to critically analyse their own learning and evaluate the effectiveness of the strategies they are using. They treat learning as a process requiring many different techniques and strategies depending on the subject and the context . They actively seek out options for every stage of the learning process, they try out different things and they notice what works and what doesn’t. To do this the best students are continuously engaged with both the subject matter they are learning and the processes they are using to learn that subject matter. They view any learning failure as a failure of process rather than that of the individual, they find better processes and apply them, they reflect on the results and they continually improve the success of their learning efforts (Derry, & Murphy, 1986, Hattie et al, 1996, Kobayashi, 2004, Yaworski, Weber, & Ibrahim,2000).

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Lance King

What are the most important skills for success in the 21st century?

Oral and written communication skills
Critical thinking and problem solving skills
Professionalism and work ethic
Collaboration across networks
Literacy, numeracy and ICT skills

ATL skills are not subject matter in themselves but a collection of the processes, skills and techniques and strategies needed to learn any subject.

ATL skills are not more content to be learned they are processes to be experienced and improved.

http://www.taolearn.com/articles/article114.pdf

The purpose of the Lower School Award...