How do we assess children's attainment and progress?

 

Every time your child reads or does a piece of work, answers questions or talks about a subject in class, teachers reflect on how this shows their understanding, skills and knowledge in that subject. Staff use this information to plan and support next steps for your child. Staff also use marking to assess what your child can do and next steps, often talking about this with your child 'in the moment'. These are informal approaches to assessment and which contribute to a wider picture of what your child has achieved and attained across the curriculum.

 

Each term we hold an assessment week where children take part in planned activities, tasks and tests (informal or informal, depending on the child's age) to demonstrate their learning and attainment in reading, writing, maths and science. We use these alongside teacher's professional judgements of children's achievements and attainment to make a decision about whether each child is working at age related expectations, below age related expectations or above age related expectations. This information is entered onto our secure tracking system, iTrack, each term to monitor the progress each child has made that term, across the year and beyond. We also use a Learning Ladders system where appropriate to support teachers in setting targets for the next stages of learning. 

We have spent time trialling different assessment material in order to arrive at a whole school system that:

• is appropriate to each of the key stages and the age of child;
• is unobtrusive and does not detract from the day-to-day teaching;
• provides teachers and pupils with useful information in order to learn more effectively;
• provides school leaders with information to track every child's progress and to identify suitable targets for school improvement;
• helps to identify those children who might benefit from additional support.

 

Statutory assessment includes:

• the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (Nursery to Reception);
• Y1 Phonics screening check;
• KS1 teacher assessment (TA) in Reading, Writing, Maths and Science (Y2);
• KS2 SATs and TA in Reading, Writing, Maths and Grammar, punctuation and spelling (GPS).

 

We are often asked by prospective parents about the school's attitude to preparing pupils for the SATs. Our answer is that we do enough preparation to enable children to best show their capabilities but not so much that the planned curriculum is interrupted. Typically this might involve Y6 pupils in two lessons per week over 6 to 8 weeks between Spring half-term and the test period in May. Y2 pupils do something similar but only over three or four weeks. This is usually sufficient for children to become familiar with the style of the tests.

Information about children's progress is shared with parents and carers as follows:

• day-to-day achievements for all pupils are celebrated through the school's messaging service, ClassDojo. Most parents and carers choose to receive these instantly via a smartphone app or by email. Please contact the school office if you are not currently in receipt of these messages;
• progress in reading, writing and maths  for children in Reception to Year 6 is shared through the paper-based iTrack reports given out at parents evening in the Autumn and Spring term. The more detailed summer report also includes other curriculum subjects and a personal and social development report for the whole year together with the results of any statutory assessments;
• progress in Nursery is shared through the children's individual learning journey books which travel between school and home;
• achievement at the end of EYFS is shared through the EYFS profile at the end of Reception.

 

There are numerous opportunities to discuss your child's progress:

• informally with teaching staff at the start or end of day;
• at the Autumn term settling-in evening;
• formally at the Spring term progress and target review evening;
• at the Summer term Open Evening where the work of the year is available for parents and carers and children to review.

 

The headteacher is also available, informally or by appointment, to talk about progress.