Assessment policy

Assessment, Recording and Reporting Policy

Policy No: 8.0

Type of Policy: Curriculum

Effective Date: September 2016

Review Date: January 2017

Contact Name: Akif Naqvi

Contact Title: Deputy Headmaster

Contact Email: a.naqvi@regentschoolabuja.com

Policy Statement:

At The Regent Primary School, it is our policy to use effective and proportionate formative and summative

assessments of pupil achievement and attainment to ensure that learning activities match the needs of each child and that they maximize opportunities for all children to reach their full potential. Our staff are highly skilled in the use of formative data to support learning. School leaders at all levels ensure that the learning needs of all pupils are clearly identified and that an appropriate learning path is devised to enable all pupils to succeed.

It is our policy to link our assessment programme to the requirements of the National Curriculum for England

ensuring that we formally assess pupils at the statutory checkpoints.

It is our policy to use GL Assessments as our preferred assessment partner. GL Assessments are completed at

the start of Reception (GL Reception Baseline), and at the end of each academic year from Reception through

to Year 6 (GL Progress in English, Progress in Maths and Progress in Science) as appropriate. We also use the

EYFS Profile & Early Learning Goals to assess and track EYFS pupils and the UK Year 1 Phonics Check. We use

the Helen Arkell Spelling Test (HAST-2) in Year 3 every year to identify underlying issues with spelling and

reading. We use Classroom Monitor as our preferred partner for the recording and management of all data, to

establish and maintain class mark books to aid formative assessment from Nursery through to Year 6 and to

ensure consistency in our approach. We use GL CAT4 verbal and non-verbal assessment in Year 3 and Year 6.

We also use the PASS Survey from YR to Year 6 biannually to measure pupils’ attitudes to school and their

learning.

 

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Introduction:

Assessment is a key professional competency that requires teachers to:

  • use a range of assessment strategies to assess pupils’ learning;
  • appreciate its uses and limitations;
  • make evidence-based assessment against relevant criteria;
  • involve pupils in assessing their learning and performance;
  • assess pupil performance against relevant benchmarking data;
  • understand the relationship between assessment, setting pupil targets and progression;
  • use assessment information to make teaching more effective; and
  • collaborate with others to make assessment more effective at the classroom and whole-school level.

Assessment is an integral part of The Regent Primary School Curriculum. It must reflect curriculum

requirements to provide constructive, motivating and challenging learning experiences. This enables young

people to gauge their own progress and potential and take informed action towards on-going improvement.

Teachers use a variety of assessment techniques as part of an integrated approach to teaching, learning,

planning and assessment.

When planning assessment, we ensure that it is purposeful and fits in well with the work we are assessing.

Improving assessment literacy is essential for developing teachers’ competency to assess pupils’ learning. This

will help us to be more consistent and understanding in our professional judgements.

This guidance supports all managerial and class-based staff in planning for assessment at individual pupil, class,

and whole-school level and at the end of each phase: Foundation Stage, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.

This policy and associated guidance aims to encourage and promote:

  • effective and manageable assessment planning, marking, judgements and standard-setting;
  • pupils’ more active involvement in peer and self-assessment, including setting and reviewing their own

learning targets and identifying areas for development as appropriate;

  • the constructive use of feedback to improve learning;
  • the effective use of assessment data to inform teaching and learning for tracking progress and to

promote improvement; and

  • the development of coherent and manageable assessment practices that promote equity and fairness

for all individuals and groups and reflect school improvement strategies.

For the purposes of this guidance, we define assessment as the systematic collection, interpretation and use of

information to give a deeper appreciation of what pupils know and understand, their skills and personal

capabilities, and what their learning experiences enable them to do.

 

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Principles of Assessment:

The following five principles underpin quality assessment. It should:

  • be complementary to and supportive of learning;
  • be valid and reliable;
  • be fit for purpose and manageable;
  • support teachers’ professional judgement; and
  • support accountability.

 

The Purposes of Assessment

Assessment can serve different purposes according to how we use the information it provides.

Assessment has four main purposes:

  1. Diagnostic Assessment

Diagnostic assessment identifies strengths and areas for improvement and informs the next steps. It normally

takes place at the beginning of a learning programme. It involves the teacher working closely with the pupil to

identify their strengths and learning needs. Teachers identify the nature of a pupil’s learning difficulties and

use this information to plan interventions to address the issues discovered. They should then share this

information with the pupil to plan the next steps to improve their learning. At The Regent Primary School, we

use the previous year’s GL summative assessment data, CAT4 and the results of the HAST-2 test for this

purpose.

  1. Formative assessment

Formative Assessment often referred to as Assessment for Learning (AfL), is part of the everyday teaching and

learning process. Teachers gather evidence about a pupil’s learning, for example by observing, listening,

questioning, discussing and reviewing pupil work. They can then use this evidence to:

  • identify progress and gaps in learning (including individual support needs);
  • set learning goals and success criteria; and
  • provide feedback to pupils.

‘Assessment for learning is the process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and their

teachers to decide where the learners are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there.’

Teachers use AfL to enable pupils to build on their learning. AfL focuses on how pupils can improve their

learning. The continuous process of dialogue and interaction between teachers, pupils and peers is an

essential part of AfL.

 

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Ten guiding principles underpin AfL.

It should:

  • be part of effective planning;
  • focus on how pupils learn;
  • be central to classroom practice;
  • be a key professional skill;
  • be sensitive and constructive;
  • foster motivation;
  • promote understanding of goals and criteria;
  • help learners know how to improve;
  • develop the capacity for self-assessment; and
  • recognize all educational achievement.

Five key AFL strategies support these ten principles in classroom practice:

  • Focus on learning by sharing learning intentions and success criteria with pupils.
  • Effective questioning encourages pupils to think about their learning.
  • Quality formative feedback allows teachers to identify pupils’ achievements, any gaps in their learning,

and areas for further work (what learners have done well and what they should to do to perform

better).

  • Scaffolding reflection gives pupils time to reflect on their learning, allowing them to think about what

and how they are learning and to adapt their approaches, if necessary, to achieve their goals.

  • Teacher reflection on effectiveness of teaching and learning allows teachers to verify what their pupils

have learned. This helps them decide what they may need to teach again in a different way, or how to

focus future teaching plans.

At The Regent School, we use Classroom Monitor to support AfL, to record our formative assessments and to

track pupils’ on-going progress. We take our learning objectives for each subject area directly from the

National Curriculum for England (2014) and share these with pupils. Pupils are given child friendly learning

targets based upon these learning objectives. We use Rising Stars to provide the child friendly learning targets.

These learning targets link directly with the statements in Classroom Monitor.

In the EYFS we use Classroom Monitor to record assessments against the Early Years Profile and Early Learning

Goals as laid down by the Early Years Foundation Stage in England.

 

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  1. Summative Assessment

Summative assessment gives pupils, parents and teachers valuable information about a pupil’s overall

performance at a specific point in their learning. It provides information about a pupil’s progress in subject

knowledge, understanding and Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities (TSPC).

Summative assessment in the primary school can occur at different intervals such as weekly, on completion of

a topic of work, at the end of each term, or at the end of the year. The information it gives indicates pupil

 

progress and achievement in the knowledge and skills in a particular area of learning, sometimes in grade-

related or numerical terms. Short summative assessments can be relevant and valid when they are part of a

 

wider range of assessment methods used to form a holistic picture of each pupil’s achievements.

Summative assessment should:

  • take account of all the objectives or outcomes of the programme of study/ topic (this is why

summative tests of part of the programme of study are not necessarily valid);

  • make use of several short assessments rather than the ‘big test’ at the end of the year;
  • take account of formative assessments throughout the year, or at the very least in the last term;
  • be formative in its own right;
  • provide feedback on what learners did or did not do well; and
  • provide teachers with insights into what pupils have and have not learned in order to adjust and refine

their teaching.

Teachers can use this information to inform the next steps in their planning or to highlight gaps in pupil

knowledge and identify areas that they may need to re-emphasise. The information gathered from summative

assessment can also be analysed at whole-school level for benchmarking and target setting.

We use GL Assessments for our summative assessments with each child from Y1 – Y6 sitting an online test at

the end of the academic year in Maths, English and Science.

  1. Evaluative Assessment

The main purpose of evaluative assessment is to ensure that there is appropriate accountability at all levels for

the performance of our school.

Evaluative assessment informs curriculum planning and provides information for monitoring and

accountability.

For evaluative purposes, the Board requires information on end of Key Stage 1 (Year 2) and Key Stage 2 (Year

6) assessment outcomes.

The Regent Primary School uses this data for school development and action planning. Teachers can also use

this data to set class targets to improve specific pupil outcomes.

Formative assessment and summative assessment have been seen as serving two separate purposes.

Formative assessment focuses on improving learning.

Summative assessment summarises learning at the end of a period of study.