Assessment
Click here for our Assessment Policy
As the children progress from Year 1 through to Year 6 they follow the National Curriculum 2014, with learning experiences enriched and enhanced by the school curriculum. The National Curriculum defines attainment targets and programmes of study for the statutory subjects, with English and Mathematics assessed termly in all year groups but published data at the end of Key Stage 1 (Age 7) and Key Stage 2 (Age 11). Further information about the detailed content of the curriculum can be found on the DfE Website. In addition to this, all subjects taught in school are assessed throughout the year in order to support next steps in learning and individual progress for all children across the curriculum.
Schools are free to decide how they assess children and to devise their own systems and processes.
UNDERPINNING PRINCIPLES FOR ASSESSMENT AT ST. WULSTAN'S Adapted from the NAHT guidance
- Assessment is at the heart of teaching and learning.
- Assessment provides evidence to guide teaching and learning.
- Assessment provides the opportunity for students to demonstrate and review their progress.
- Assessment is fair.
- Assessment is inclusive of all abilities.
- Assessment is free from bias towards factors that are not relevant to what the assessment intends to address.
- Assessment is honest.
- Assessment outcomes are used in ways that minimise undesirable effects.
- Assessment outcomes are conveyed in an open, honest and transparent way to assist pupils with their learning.
- Assessment judgements are moderated by experienced professionals to ensure their accuracy.
- Assessment is ambitious.
- Assessment places achievement in context against nationally standardised criteria and expected standards.
- Assessment embodies, through objective criteria, a pathway of progress and development for every child.
- Assessment objectives set high expectations for learners.
- Assessment is appropriate.
- The purpose of any assessment process should be clearly stated.
- Conclusions regarding pupil achievement are valid when the assessment method is appropriate (to age, to the task and to the desired feedback information).
- Assessment should draw on a wide range of evidence to provide a complete picture of student achievement.
- Assessment should demand no more procedures or records than are practically required to allow pupils, their parents and teachers to plan future learning.
- Assessment is consistent.
- Judgements are formed according to common principles.
- The results are readily understandable by third parties.
- A school’s results are capable of comparison with other schools, both locally and nationally.
- Assessment outcomes provide meaningful and understandable information for:
- pupils in developing their learning;
- parents in supporting children with their learning;
- teachers in planning teaching and learning.
Assessment must provide information that justifies the time spent:
- school leaders and governors in planning and allocating resources; and
- government and agents of government.
- Assessment feedback should inspire greater effort and a belief that, through hard work and practice, more can be achieved.
ASSESSMENT AT ST. WULSTAN’S
Design Checklist Using NAHT guidance materials
Our approach to assessment
- Assessment is integral to high quality teaching and learning. It helps us to ensure that our teaching is appropriate and that learners are making expected progress.
- All staff are regularly trained in our approach to assessment.
- We have senior leaders who are responsible for assessment.
Our method of assessment
- Assessment serves many purposes but the main purpose of assessment in our school is to help teachers, parents and pupils plan their next steps in learning.
- We also use the outcomes of assessment to check and support our teaching standards and help us improve.
- Through working with other schools and using external tests and assessments, we will compare our performance with that of other schools.
- We assess pupils against assessment criteria, which are short, discrete, qualitative and concrete descriptions of what a pupil is expected to know and be able to do.
- Assessment criteria are derived from the school curriculum, which is composed of the National Curriculum and our own design
- Assessment criteria for periodic assessment are arranged into a hierarchy, setting out what children are normally expected to have mastered by the end of each year.
- The achievement of each pupil is assessed against all the relevant criteria at appropriate times of the school year.
- Each pupil is assessed as either ‘emerging’, ‘expected’ or ‘exceeding’ each relevant criterion contained in our expectations for that year.
- Where a pupil is assessed as exceeding the relevant criteria in a subject for that year they will also be assessed against the criteria in that subject for the next year. For those pupils meeting and exceeding the expected standards, we provide more challenging work.
- Assessment judgements are recorded and backed by a body of evidence created using observations, records of work and testing.
- Assessment judgements are moderated by colleagues in school and by colleagues in other schools to make sure our assessments are fair, reliable and valid.
Our use of assessment
- Teachers use the outcomes of our assessments to summarise and analyse attainment and progress for their pupils and classes.
- Teachers use this data to plan the learning for every pupil to ensure they meet or exceed expectations. Teachers and leaders analyse the data across the school to ensure that pupils identified as vulnerable or at particular risk in this school are making appropriate progress and that all pupils are suitably stretched.
- The information from assessment is communicated to parents and pupils on a termly basis through a structured conversation. Parents and pupils receive rich, qualitative profiles of what has been achieved and indications of what they need to do next.
- We celebrate all achievements across a broad and balanced curriculum, including sport, art and performance, behaviour, and social and emotional development.