For Triple Science (Physics, Chemistry and Biology), students may be grouped into the same lessons together but assessed for each subject separately. With our template setup detailed below, we'll show you how to set up three separate assessments without changing your scheduled lessons.
If you'll be using an ad hoc assessment, such as UCAS teacher referral comments, Coursework grades or In-house exam results, you can choose whether to create an ad hoc for Physics and an ad hoc for Chemistry and an ad hoc for Biology, or one for all three combined.
- If you want to track them separately, we recommend that you set up three extra courses before you set up your assessments. Our guidance below will cover this scenario.
- If you just want one combined grade, you won't need to complete the instructions in the Setting up your extra courses section.
Once you set everything up using the instructions below, teachers will have three new marksheets - one for each science. On each marksheet will be any Ad Hoc assessments you've linked - e.g on the Physics marksheet you'll see the Physics ad hoc.
When creating report cards, a separate grade will be shown for each subject, and for each of your Ad Hoc assessments.
Permissions
- School: Academic structure: Administer - Create extra courses and enrol students
- School: Assessments: Administer - Set up assessments
- School: Report Cards: Administer - Set up and manage report cards
If you don't have permission, you'll need to ask your admin team to give you permission using these instructions.
Setting up your extra courses
Step 1 - Set up the course
How to set up your additional courses
Go to School > Programmes > Courses. Here you should see your existing Science course.
If you click on the bottom-level course here e.g. Y10 you can see all the students enrolled in these lessons.
We're going to recreate this structure for Physics, Chemistry and Biology, which will allow us to record a separate ad hoc assessment mark for each subject, rather than just one mark.
Click +Add on the School > Programmes > Courses page.
You can only select one year group per course you create. Leave the Year group field blank to be able to create sub-modules assigned to different year groups. When all the details are correct, click on the green Add Course button.
This creates the course (the top-level component). The next step is to set up class groups. To do this, from the Course Overview, click +Add in the Modules section.
In the slide over add the name of the module and fill in the other details. Select the year group then click the green Add Module button.
You will be taken to the module overview. You will then need to add a sub-module within this module by again clicking +Add in the Modules section.
In the slide over add the name of the module and fill in the other details. Then click the green Add Module button.
You will be taken to the module overview. Return to the School > Programmes > Courses page and you will see this sort of structure.
Click into each level to add additional sub-modules where needed. Your setup will end up looking something like the below screenshot.
Do not schedule any lessons.
Repeat this for Biology and Physics.
Step 2 - Add the students
Next, you'll need to enrol the students into the same classes for Chemistry, Biology and Physics as they are in for your main Science class. The easiest way to manage this will depend on whether you use Teaching Groups at your school already to enrol students into classes.
Go to the Table View page from the left-hand menu. Click into one of the bottom-level courses you've just created, then click the Enrol Students button.
Select the students to add. Top Tip: Type in the year group number to select from only students in that year group.
Don't tick any of the boxes to enrol them in other bottom-level courses, add the dates and enrol the students.
We use teaching groups - enrolling automatically
Go to the Teaching Groups > Overview page from the left-hand menu. Select the teaching group with the automatic enrolment into your existing Science course.
Click +Add in the Automatic Enrolments into Courses to select your new courses.
You'll need to repeat this for each bottom-level course.
Setting up the assessments
The next step, like with any assessments in Arbor, is to add them to your site.
Adding the assessments to your site
Add the assessment
Select to create a new Progress 8 assessment.
Change the drop-down menu to Ebacc, and select the Chemistry assessment. Click the Choose assessment button in the slide over.
Add a shorter name if required, then click Next.
Keep the default grade set selected, then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Next. Then on the next page click Complete setup.
Select to add the assessment to your annual policy.
Select the students in your Chemistry course to link to, and select the Chemistry course, then click Add assessment(s).
Repeat this for Biology and Physics.
Add any Ad Hoc assessments
Because you've set up one course for each assessment, you can create three separate Ad Hoc assessments, one for each science subject. You can see how to do this here: Setting up Ad Hoc Assessments
Adding Ad Hocs
When adding the Ad Hoc to your Assessment Framework, choose the marking strategy of One mark per course to collect multiple marks for each student, for each course they are enrolled in (you will be able to select the specific courses later on).
When adding the Ad Hoc assessment to your Annual Policy, choose the assessment details. These settings will impact which students are assessed and when.
- Subjects - If you only want to assess the Triple Science courses, select Science as the subject. If you want to assess all courses, leave this field blank and the assessment will be linked to all the courses.
- Assessment date and assessment periods - Select the same assessment periods as your Science assessments.
Adding baselines and targets
To be able to analyse your overall assessment, you will have needed to input a baseline (to calculate progress) and an Academic Year Teacher Target to get the marksheet to be colour-coded.
Step 1 - Add student baselines and year targets
To add a baseline and year target for each student, the easiest method is to use our import spreadsheet. You can see how to do this here: Using the import spreadsheet
You can fill in the baseline, year target and final target for each student (what they are expected to get at the end of GCSE). Then follow the instructions in the article above to import the baselines and targets back into Arbor.
Target Judgement rules determine how mark sheets are colour coded, depending on how your students are doing in their assessments relative to their targets.
You can change the default judgement thresholds for your Science assessments, so students can be judged as 'on track' even if they're just below what they should be at a certain point in the year. You can see how to do this here: Editing the default Target Judgement Rules or adding more
Marking the assessments
How to get to the marksheet
- As a teacher, follow these instructions: Teachers - Getting to the summative assessment marksheet and adding marks
- As an Administrator or SLT, follow these instructions: Admin or SLT - Get to the summative marksheet and add or import assessment marks
Adding marks - Manually, in bulk or using our import spreadsheet
Click to add a mark, or tick the boxes next to the students and click the Bulk action button to mark in bulk. You can change the date in the filters at the top of the page to look at and add marks for previous assessment periods if you can't see them or edit them in the marksheet.
You can also import assessment grades using these instructions: Using the import spreadsheet
Ensuring marks are entered on time
Use Data Collection Policies to help make sure the marks are entered on time so you can include them in Report Cards.
You can define the collection deadline, who is responsible for inputting marks and when approvals will take place. Staff will automatically get an alert in the To Do section on their Homepage when it's time to input the marks, or you can send them a reminder.
See how to set up Data Collection Policies here: Manage data drops using Data Collection Policies
Sharing grades with guardians or students
You can share all grades through the Parent Portal, or restrict their view to just a few using Report Cards.
On the Parent Portal
If you use the Parent Portal and Arbor App at your school and have chosen to show progress results, guardians can see student's marks for Science.
Guardians can click the View Student Profile button and go to the Progress section of their profile to see all the current and past grades.
By sharing Report cards
If you don't want to make all marks visible, you can choose only to share certain marks on report cards. You can send report cards to parents and students by sending them an email, or by sending it through the Parent Portal or Student Portal.
First, set up your report card. Be sure to add your assessments from the Attainment tab - just click +Add in the Progress Assessments section. For full details on settiing up a report card use this article: How to set up a Report Card
From the Report Cards tab you can click a student's name to view the different attainment sectionsof the report card.
You can update the current mark (this also updates the mark in the assessment's main marksheet), and mark the entry as complete.
Once all mark entry is completed, and the marks have been approved it will no longer be editable in the marksheet.
You can then share the reports using these instructions: Send Report Cards to parents or students
For example, on the Parent Portal guardians can click the View Student Profile button, and go to the Report Cards section to download the Report Card.
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