Depth of Understanding Grades

Depth of understanding grades (DOUG) are awarded on a 1-9 scale, where a 9 represents a deep and full understanding of the whole curriculum that has been studied so far. For subjects which closely align their KS3 curriculum and the KS4 curriculum you could see this as a grade that students are likely to go on and achieve at GCSE. At KS3 though we are looking at how our students have covered the curriculum, a depth of understanding range of 6-8 at KS3 would suggest a deep understanding of the curriculum.

For each department this will look different, and departments have put together depth of understanding grade descriptors for pupils to see how they can build their depth of understanding grade – you can click on these below and this will download the descriptor for that subject.