Assessment

Why do we assess?

Our assessment provides valuable information to help children, teachers, parents and school leaders to acknowledge, analyse and review achievements and progress in learning against expected standards. Our assessments inform our immediate and long term planning. Our assessment gives:

• Children/Students - the learners - an understanding of where they are secure, what it is that they need to do to rectify any gaps and the next steps needed to extend their learning
• Teachers the detailed knowledge of their pupils’ achievements which they can use to inform future learning, their planning and their teaching
• Parents and carers regular reports on their child’s progress in meeting expectations and ensures that teachers, pupils and parents can work together to secure learning and raise standards for all children
• School leaders and governors information that they can analyse and use to make decisions about future actions to improve standards, learning and teaching in the school
• External agencies and partners (such as those schools organisations in which a pupil will receive the next stage of his/her education, or the Council, the DfE and Ofsted) the evidence that a school knows its pupils well and sets and maintains high standards in learning and teaching as part of the school’s public accountability to its pupils’ future.

What are schools and settings statutorily required to assess?

Teachers carry out day to day assessments and checks on pupils’ understanding and progress as part of their day to day teaching. Statutory, formal assessment procedures and examinations also exist to measure attainment against national standards. Our pupils’ achievements are compared nationally with all those pupils of the same age and against schools in the local authority and in England. These formal assessments include:

• An end of Early Years Foundation Stage assessment
  We monitor how well pupils are achieving and the extent to which they are meeting identified expectations in the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile which helps to identify those who are achieving a good level of development and those who we need to give additional help.

• The Phonics Screening Test at the end of Year 1
  It assess pupils’ phonic skills as part of early reading

• End of Key Stage 1
  Schools currently draw on a test and teacher assessments to help us to assess whether pupils are making progress and are achieving national expectations in reading, writing and mathematics. Our teachers also assess pupils’ achievements in speaking and listening and science.

• End of Key Stage 2
  Pupils take statutory tests that assess whether pupils achieve national expectations in reading, writing and mathematics. We also assess pupils’ progress over the key stage.