ASSESSMENT AND SUPPORT

Frequently asked questions

To help you get to grips with the assessment and support systems at SHSG, we have put together this FAQ. If you have any other questions that are not dealt with here, please email Mr Andrews and he will let you know the answer and, if it’s something other people have asked too, he will add it to this list.

Q1. If I go to a lunchtime session to take a Bonus Skill Check but I get a minus, will I lose my streak?

No, you won’t. If you go along to Skills Day and take either of the Bonus Skill Checks you cannot lose your Streak, no matter what happens.

However, you can extend your streak through the Bonus Skill Checks. So, if you take both Bonus Skill Checks and get = or more in both, then you will add 2 to your Skill Check Streak.

Q2. If I lose my Skill Check Streak but I can't make it to Skills Day at the required time because I have another lunchtime commitment or because I’m ill, can I still regain my streak?

Yes, you can. All you need to do is let Mr Andrews know that you want to come to Skills Day but can’t, and he will arrange another day in the Assessment Window for you to take the Bonus Skill Check(s) that you need to take. You’ll may need to do it at the same time as some students from another year group are doing their Bonus Skill Checks, but we can definitely make it work. If you can’t do any other lunchtimes, but really want to take the Bonus Skill Check, just speak to your teacher or to Mr Andrews and we’ll arrange something — you could do it at breaktime for example.

Q3. If I lose my Skill Check Streak and don’t take the Bonus Skill Checks in the next assessment window, can I get my streak back later in the year?

No, you can’t. You only have one chance to regain your Skill Check Streak, which is by taking the necessary Bonus Skill Check in the next assessment window. See the answer to Q2 if you can’t make that lunchtime session for some reason — we will do our best to accommodate you, but it’ll need to be at the time and not weeks later.

Q4. If I lose my Skill Check Streak of 8, but I get it back by doing a bonus Skill Check, will my streak be 8 again or will it now be 9?

It will be 8. If you’ve lost your streak, you will regain it as it was, but you won’t extend it.

However, if you take a Bonus Skill Check when you haven’t lost your streak, you will extend your streak through this. (See the answer to Q1.)

Q5. Do we keep our Enrichment work in our blue Progress Books?

No. It’ll likely be too big for that little book, and you don’t really want to have to fold it all up. You should keep your Enrichment work inside your Enrichment Book, ideally, at least to start with. Just pop it in between a couple of the pages at the back.

If you do loads and loads of Enrichment work and it starts to get unwieldy, we can give you a little cardboard folder to keep it in. You can put that cardboard folder inside your main plastic English folder to keep everything together.

Q6. Can I choose to research a writer of my own choice for the research Enrichment task, rather than one of the underlined ones?

Not really, no. The purpose of these tasks is to encourage you to familiarise yourself with writers who are have significant importance in the realm of English Literature, and you will only have time at school to research a limited number of possible writers. As such, we have underlined certain writers to get you to focus on the most important ones first.

If you want to research another writer just because you’re interested, that’s fine, but you won’t be awareded Enrichment Levels for it. If you’ve already research all of the underlined writers and want to conduct even more research, then we can talk about other writers, but that’s probably a long way off, especially if you’ve actually absorbed all the information from your research.