Academic requirements
Pupils may join Moorland at any time during the year. Moorland goes up to GCSE level (16 years of age) and has 5 senior years. The
last two years of school (years 10 & 11) are nationally called "key stage
4", this is when public examinations are taken. The latest entry point is
in year 10. Pupils who enter Moorland with English as a second language will often
join in year 9 or earlier. In exceptional cases, pupils with a high academic pedigree
could join the school in year 11. Moorland generally guarantees that a child will
be able to go right through the school. This applies from nursery to preparatory
and also from preparatory to senior.
Entrance depends upon interview and school reports. It is important that pupils
can independently meet the demands of the national curriculum. The national tests
do provide a good indication of ability and we set the tests in a very low key
fashion.
The golden rule
The golden rule of entry is: "bad behaviour = no place". Please see
the school rules.
Entry into year 7 and the early years of senior school
In order to cope with the senior school curriculum, we would prefer that level 4 were achieved in all three subjects ( English,
maths and science). In 2007, two thirds of our of our year 7 pupils achieved at least
one level 5 from these three tests in year 6.
Pupils are routinely given Cognitive Ability Tests at the beginning of year 7 and sometimes at other times. CATs are a measure of the developed cognitive ability of the pupil and are not a test of the curriculum that they have been following. The tests are age standardised so that younger pupils are not at a disadvantage when the tests are taken; the pupil’s marks and their age on the day of the test determine the test score. There are three sections within the test: verbal, quantitative and non verbal and each section assesses the pupils ability to reason in a different way. All the tests are carried out using a computerised system with the marking and data analysis done done onlineThe average score is then calculated from the individual scores in the three sections and it is this mean score that is considered further:
- the average CATs score for all pupils (nationally) is 100;
- a score of 107 or above is regarded as being above average;
- a score of 93 or less is below average;
- approximately 70% of the population will return a score between 85 and 115;
- a pupil with an above average score or very high score will typically be very effective in tasks involving learning and problem solving whilst those with a score that is below average or very low will normally work slowly and need considerable help to achieve objectives.
Moorland uses the CAT scores to predict likely performance at the end of each key stage and at GCSE level thus assisting pupils to set realistic targets and to ensure that everyone achieves their full potential.
Pupils may also enter Moorland in year 8 or 9.
Entry into year 10
The key stage 3 national tests cover English, maths and science. We would expect
that pupils entering year 10 would have a mature approach their work to cope with
the pressures of the final two years.
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