Assessment

Our Philosophy of Assessment

Assessment should have a purpose at every level for everyone involved:

• Pupils should be given appropriate feedback on their learning from the formative assessments carried out by class teachers.
• Class teachers should be able to use formative assessment to support planning and implementation of a curriculum designed to meet the needs of learners.
• Teachers and school leaders should be able to use assessment to help ensure that the pupils who need specific intervention are quickly identified.
• Parents should be able to get a clear and accurate sense of their child’s achievement.
• Governors should be able to use data to ensure the school is supporting pupils learning effectively.

How we assess pupils in our school

The government allows schools to choose their own system for tracking pupil progress through the National Curriculum. After investigating many different assessment & tracking systems, we decided to use our own tracking systems. This allows the school to monitor progress and attainment of individual pupils and against year group expectations.

Children are judged against end of year statements for their year group. The statements fall into 3 categories:

• Emerging— yet to be secure in the end of year expectations.
• Expected—Secure in the majority of the end of year expectations.
• Exceeding—secure in almost all or all the end of year expectations and is able to use and apply their knowledge and skills confidently.

Children who are unlikely to be emerging at the end of the year may work towards the expectations from the year below.

So how does this process in school work? Every week the teachers will have had an opportunity to assess how the children are working. At the start of each year group, every child will be Emerging as they are being judged against the End of Year statements. By using their professional knowledge and judgement, teachers will know what the children can already do and what they think the children can achieve. They will then give a forecast as to where they think a child will be by the end of the academic year. The Government's aim and our schools aim is that the vast majority of children are Expected for their year group by the end of the year.  Ongoing assessments by class teachers are predominantly based on the work in children’s books and responses in class.  Judgements made by teachers are moderated through collaborative working with other teachers in the school, other schools in the Faversham collaboration and with other schools from across Kent.  The progress of pupils is monitored closely by members of the senior leadership team through termly lesson observations, pupil progress meetings and book scrutinies.  Monitoring by the school governors ensures that senior leaders are held to account.

We also use summative testing at key points throughout the year. This helps to give the teachers clear indications about children’s attainment and progress in Reading and Maths. We currently use the PUMA, PIRA and GAPS assessments to complete this. We also use past SATs papers in Year 2 and 6 to support judgements by teachers.

How we inform parents about pupils’ progress and attainment

During the year, when we have conversations with you about your child’s progress at parent consultation meetings. You won’t be given an actual definitive position of where they are on this scale.  Instead, you will be told whether your child is on track to be Expected by the end of the academic year for their year group. It may well be that they are below where they need to be, in which case the school will put extra provision in place to ensure progress. A small number of children will be on track to be Exceeding and the school will support these children to ensure they are challenged further. Parent consultations usually take place during Term 1 and in Term 3.

In the end of year reports that we send out in July you will be informed if your child has achieved the age expected levels for their year group (Expected), whether they are above this (Exceeding) or below (Emerging).

 

If you have any questions about assessment procedures in school then please do not hesitate to Mrs Cottenden, the Assessment Leader.