Assessment

The previous system of levels have been removed and since September 2014 school shave developed new systems of assessments to run alongside the new expectations in each subject.

Assessment is a vital part of teaching and learning and as such helps teachers in planning work, identifying misconceptions and gaps in their learning and helping children to make progress.Assessment of pupil progress in each subject aims to assist pupils in understanding their own progress, as well as informing the school’s monitoring of progression and attainment. Therefore, children assess their work and understanding in accordance with the school’s marking policy using the success criteria every lesson.Teachers should ensure that children strive to achieve the success criteria each lesson. Teachers ensure that all learning is marked and teacher assessed every lesson in accordance with the school’s marking policy.

Assessment is an on-going process throughout the child’s school journey. Teachers use both formal and informal opportunities to assess children’s progress and achievements. Assessment can be on a day-to-day basis, which informs teaching and learning. This may be carried out through questioning, observing and marking, which is on-going. It is used on a daily basis to inform the planning for the week.

Foundation Subjects (Including Science)

Using the National Curriculum, our school curriculum has been planned to ensure that there are progressive objectives throughout each year group at school and that children are given the opportunity to build on prior knowledge. For each subject, we have a progression grid that shows how the National Curriculum Objectives for Key Stage 1 and 2 (apart from in Science where they are given in year groups) have been broken down in to more manageable steps. These can be seen on the subject progression pages here. 

For each topic teachers are aware of what a ‘Forever Firs Child’ should know and be able to do so they can plan from their prior learning to the new objectives. From the progression document for each subject, teachers are given a set list of knowledge and skills to teach the children. These are then assessed against and recorded at the end of the half term. We assess under the following titles:

• Children who are achieving below ARE – these are children who are not accessing the age related learning objectives independently and need lots of support to do this
• Children who are working towards ARE – these are children who have achieved some of the age related learning objectives independently and can recall and explain some of their learning to others. They may need additional support, scaffolding or intervention some of the time.
• Children working at ARE – these are children who have achieved the age related learning objectives independently and can recall and explain their learning to others. They are able to apply their knowledge and skills from lesson to lesson.
• Children working above ARE – these are children who achieve higher than the age related expectations regularly and require more challenging within lessons through questioning or opportunities to apply what they have learnt to different situations.

To know whether a child is working under a specific title teachers will:

• Talk to pupils and ask questions during and after the lesson
• Discuss pupils’ work with them
• Mark work against the learning objectives
• Observe practical tasks and activities
• Use pupils’ self-assessment of their work and whether they have met the success criteria
• Set additional tasks to apply and recall what the children have learnt

English and Maths

Every term, teachers will complete ‘Teacher Assessments’ for each pupils in Writing and SPaG. These Teacher Assessments are made against the National Curriculum expectations for English but also the Firs Writing Progression Grid that has been created. Teachers will use a range of opportunities and methods to assess the pupils:

• Talk to pupils and ask questions during and after the lesson
• Discuss pupils’ work with them
• Mark work against the learning objectives
• Use pupils’ self-assessment of their work and whether they have met the success criteria
• Set additional tasks to apply and recall what the children have learnt
• For Writing, teacher’s will use the ‘Hot Task’ that children have completed independently
• For SPaG, as well as using the child’s writing from English, they may use the scores from the SPaG test (GaPs)
• Where children are not meeting near age related objectives, the relevant documents will be used to assess the children such as the Engagement Model or Pre-Key Stage standards.

Children are assessed using the following codes: B, W, N, A. They can also be assessed as sub-standards within bands using ‘-‘ or ‘+.’

For Maths and Reading, every term children will complete the NTS Tests designed by Rising Stars. This information is then inserted in to MARK (click here) where it is analsyed to find out whether children are W, N or A and provide the teacher with key reports of interventions (using SHINE click here) that are required to address gaps and misconceptions in children’s learning. This ensures that teachers have an accurate report of children’s attainment and teachers can provide timely, well-planned interventions to ensure the gap is reduced. In addition to this, teachers will also use their knowledge of the whole child to give a teacher assessment judgement in Reading and Maths.

All of our assessments are inputted in to Fisher Family Trust Aspire (click here)

Also, we have the more formal SATs for Year 2 and Year 6 at the end of the year.

Parents

Parents can discuss their child’s progress and attainment at Parents’ Evenings in the Autumn and Spring terms and will received a detailed report of their child’s learning in the Summer Term End of Year Report.

For parents of year 2 and year 6 children, they will also receive their child’s SATs results.