Introduction
Schools have always set individual student targets. Whether it was done through using ‘expected’ and ‘more than expected’ level of progress between KS2 and KS4 before the demise of the national curriculum levels or, given the school context, by using various FFT models. So in principle, this is not anything new.
DPR adopts a pathway model to target setting. Each pathway indicates a level of challenge associated with it. As the DPR ensures curriculum objectives are sequenced between Year 7 to Year 11, students who are on a given pathway must work towards securing their understanding in the associated learning objectives in order to be on track for their end of KS4 GCSE grades.
Understanding how pathways are linked to subjects
Majority of schools use 4 pathways. pathway A, B, C and D. With pathway A being for the brightest of students and pathway D being assigned to students who need that extra help. Although you are not limited to 4 pathways this is a good base to start.
Before we proceed further, it is important to understand the difference between what we mean by Subject Area and Subject and how they are linked to a pathway.

The key concept to understand from the above illustration is that a student is allocated a pathway for a particular subject, not a subject area. If we use the example above, this means a student can be allocated Pathway A for English Language and Pathway B for English Literature.
The table below attempts to provides some guidance on how to set pathway targets for the end of KS4 given students’ KS2 attainment.

Baseline tests to help set pathways
The table below breaks down and groups different attainment scores from different tests and allocates different pathways to them. Again, this can be adjusted to suit your school context.

For example, for student X:
English
KS2 Scaled Score: 107
Mapped Pathway: A (106-120)
Maths
Maths KS2 Scaled Score: 105
Mapped Pathway: B (99-105)
Other Subjects
Average Scaled KS2 Score: (107 + 105)/2 = 106
Mapped Pathway: A (106-120)
As we all know, learning is not necessarily "linear", therefore, the above should be treated as inspiration for how your school could possibly allocate pathways.
Changing students’ pathways
Target setting that ensures a learning focus is maintained

Example Excel Spreadsheet demonstrating the above has been uploaded to this article
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Comments
0 comments
Please sign in to leave a comment.