Dear Parent/Carer
COGNITIVE ABILITY TESTS (CATs)
Although it is very early days, we hope that your child has settled in well to Jesmond Park Academy and that their transition from primary school has been as smooth as possible in our new ‘normal’ circumstances.
If you recall we wrote to you in July with information about coming to our school in September and we talked about their Form Group and teaching groups. This is an extract of what we said:
Form Groups
We have endeavoured, where possible, to keep students in groupings according to their primary school. The reason for grouping students this way is to help and support children pastorally who may not have been in an educational setting for some time. In addition, we have considered the geographical location that students are traveling into school from. This grouping will be reviewed at October half term, where students will be arranged into mixed ability groups for all subjects except Computer Science, Maths and Science. We will be using internal assessment throughout the first half term, as well as Cognitive Ability Test (CAT) data, to determine sets.
We are undertaking the CATs over the next two weeks and the timetable is detailed below. For your information, it shows the day, lesson number and ICT room. You can find your child’s form group on their timetable.
CATs Week 1 – 14 September
|
Monday
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
|
IT9
|
7.1
|
|
7.3
|
|
7.5
|
|
|
IT10
|
7.2
|
|
7.4
|
|
7.6
|
|
|
Tuesday
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
|
IT9
|
|
|
7.7
|
|
7.9
|
|
|
IT10
|
|
|
7.8
|
|
7.10
|
|
|
Thursday
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
|
IT9
|
|
|
7.11
|
|
7.13
|
|
|
IT10
|
|
|
7.12
|
|
7.1
|
|
|
Friday
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
|
IT9
|
7.2
|
|
7.4
|
|
7.6
|
|
|
IT10
|
7.3
|
|
7.5
|
|
7.7
|
|
CATs Week 2 – 21 September
|
Monday
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
|
IT9
|
7.8
|
|
7.10
|
|
7.12
|
|
|
IT10
|
7.9
|
|
7.11
|
|
7.13
|
|
|
Tuesday
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
|
IT9
|
|
|
7.1
|
|
7.3
|
|
|
IT10
|
|
|
7.2
|
|
7.4
|
|
|
Thursday
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
|
IT9
|
|
|
7.5
|
|
7.7
|
|
|
IT10
|
|
|
7.6
|
|
7.8
|
|
|
Friday
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
|
IT9
|
7.9
|
|
7.11
|
|
7.13
|
|
|
IT10
|
7.10
|
|
7.12
|
|
Catch up
|
|
The CATs comprise of a series of eight short assessments across three separate lessons focussing upon word, number and general cognition (understanding) skills. Please reassure your child that the CATs are nothing to worry about and there is nothing they need to prepare for. Obviously, we would expect that your child takes these assessments seriously and adopts a sensible and calm approach to them. We will give full instructions to all of our Year 7 students prior to the CATs. Their class teacher, a member of the Senior Leadership Team and an invigilating member of staff will be present to ensure that all goes well and that the CATs are carried out in a calm and sensible manner.
Once we have received the results of the CATs, we will use these (alongside internal assessment data and pastoral data) to regroup the teaching and form groups (as explained previously) to create mixed ability teaching groups in all subjects, with the exception of Computer Science, Maths and Science. It is likely that your child will have some new teachers from this point, but their teachers will endeavour to get to know their new classes well as soon as possible.
We anticipate that this will be completed and ready for your child to start in their new teaching and form groups from Monday 2 November.
We will write to you again before the half term break with your child’s new timetable and Form Tutor (if applicable).
Yours faithfully,
Mr N Holmes - Director of Student Progress
Mrs C Walker - Director of Key Stage 3