Assessment -  The Haselworth Way

 Introduction

Assessment is integral to high quality teaching and learning and lies at the heart of the process of promoting children’s learning. It helps us to ensure that teaching is appropriate and that learners are making expected progress. It provides a framework for setting educational objectives, monitoring and communicating children’s progress. At Haselworth Primary, assessment must be a part of all teaching strategies, to help identify areas for development and track progress.

• Provide clear guidelines on our approach to formative and summative assessment.
• Establish a consistent and coherent approach to recording summative assessment outcomes and reporting to parents.
• Clearly set out how and when assessment practice will be monitored and evaluated.

 Principles of assessment

The key assessment principle for Haselworth Primary School, is to ensure that the purpose and the use of assessment and data is clear, relevant and in-line with school’s aims and values.

• To gather, only necessary, information about the performance of individual pupils, groups, and cohorts which is used to set specific targets, related to learning, at different levels and to ensure that effective interventions are in place.
• To provide information for planning, teaching and curriculum development, as well as part of our SEN monitoring and interventions.
• To ensure that assessment procedures are fair and consistent for all pupils.
• To inform parents of their children’s progress at parent consultations in the autumn and spring terms and annual report in July.
• To ensure that efficient assessment and recording are key parts of Haselworth’s performance management policy.
• To ensure that assessment is used to inform curriculum provision.
• To allow pupils to show what they know, understand and can do in their learning; as well as helping them understand what they need to do next to achieve their targets.

 Assessment procedures

• Formative – the information gained affects the next learning experience and the age related objectives that are tracked on INSIGHT.
• Diagnostic – finding out which attitudes, knowledge, understanding and/or skills are / are not acquired/embedded and how these affect the pupils’ progress across a subject area by using hot and cold tasks. This will also include dyslexia screening, York Assessment for Reading and any other SEND diagnostic tools that might be required.
• Summative - systematic recording of information to provide a summary of where pupils are - at a given point in time – which contributes to the identification of progress over a period of time. This includes the proactive use of PUMA, NFER, past SATs papers and Phonics Screening at least termly.
• Evaluative – informs the strategic planning and direction of the school through evaluation of the impact of planning, teaching and the curriculum on pupils’ achievements

Effective in-school formative assessment enables:

• Teachers to understand how pupils are performing on a continuing basis and to use this information to provide appropriate support or extension, evaluate teaching and plan future lessons.
• Pupils to measure their knowledge and understanding against learning objectives, and identify areas in which they need to improve
• Parents to gain a broad picture of where their child’s strengths and weaknesses lie, and what they need to do to improve

At Haselworth Primary School, we ensure that formative assessment is pivotal in each lesson and forms the basis for the next steps of learning which will be taking place. We adopt a wide range of formative assessment strategies and techniques in school. The main strategies are listed below:

• Marking and feedback forms part of formative assessment.
• Questioning is the main part of any classroom teaching and at Haselworth Primary, we strive to ensure effective questioning is central to understanding, developing and consolidating new skills and concepts.
• Self-assessment and peer-assessment are used throughout the learning journey.
• Learning objectives are always shared at the beginning of each lesson with the children to ensure that they know the expectation and the outcome that they should have secured.
• Oral feedback (to ensure timely intervention) is used alongside written feedback.
• Children are always encouraged to recognise and evaluate their work against the lesson objective.
• Teachers and children, reflect on performance and set targets for further development.

Effective in-school summative assessment enables:

School leaders to monitor the performance of pupil cohorts, identify where interventions may be required, and work with teachers to ensure pupils are supported to achieve sufficient progress and attainment.

Teachers to evaluate learning at the end of a unit or period and the impact of their own teaching.

Pupils to understand how well they have learned and understood a topic or course of work taught over a period of time. It should be used to provide feedback on how they can improve.

Parents to stay informed about the achievement, progress and wider outcomes of their child across a period.

• At Haselworth Primary School, we use the outcomes of assessment to check and support our teaching standards and help us improve. Working with other schools, is crucial in this process, along with using external tests and assessments.

• The achievement of each pupil is assessed against all the relevant criteria three times per year, at the end of the: autumn, spring and summer terms, for reading, writing, mathematics, science and for foundation subjects. Within this, children are continually assessed against their age-related expectation with: ‘EXS’ being at the expected standard, ‘WTS’ working towards the expected standard and ‘Below’ being for those children who have not met their age related expectations. ‘GDS’ is given to the children who are working within their age-related expectation at greater depth.

• If a pupil is working below the end of key stage standards, the Pre-Key Stage Guidance for Teacher Assessment will be used.

• 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.

An overview of assessments used are detailed below by subject:

In maths:

• PUMA assessments are used at the end of each term. These assessments allow teachers to make informed judgements along with a child’s end of unit tests, work within their book and along with discussions how a child has performed over the term and then this outcome will be recorded on INSIGHT.

In reading:

• NFER standardised assessments are used at the end of each term in years 3 to 5.
• Years 6 use a range of past SATs practise papers
• The aim of the above is to provide teachers with the basis to form a judgement, along with work within a child’s English book and reading journal along with discussions how a child has performed over the term and then this outcome will be recorded on INSIGHT.

In writing:

• Independent writing tasks take place during each half term from years 1-6. These tasks, along with other pieces of independent writing, are used to make a judgement on a child’s writing outcome. This outcome will be recorded on INSIGHT termly.

Nationally standardised summative assessment enables:

• School leaders to monitor the performance of pupil cohorts, identify where interventions may be required, and work with teachers to ensure pupils are supported to achieve sufficient progress and attainment.
• Teachers to understand national expectations and assess their own performance in the broader national context.
• Pupils and parents to understand how pupils are performing in comparison to pupils nationally.

At Haselworth Primary School nationally standardised summative assessments include:

• Reception Baseline Test in the first 6 weeks of entering Reception
• Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) profile at the end of Reception
• Phonics screening check in Year 1 and 2
• Multiplication Tables Check in Year 4
• National Curriculum tests and teacher assessments at the end of Key Stage 2 (Year 6)

Target-setting

• The school sets targets in Mathematics and English for every year group. Phonics targets are also set for Year 1 and 2.
• Individual targets for each pupil are based upon end of year attainment and progress.
• The progress of each child is reviewed half termly and new targets set as part of Pupil Progress Meetings. 

Assessment records and reporting

• The type of assessment varies from subject to subject, but will only be recorded if it affects future learning.
• All pupils have assessment records – including the electronic records stored on INSIGHT
• Records are passed on to the next class teacher – together with relevant transfer documentation as and when appropriate.
• Written reports on individual pupils are compiled for parents / carers on an annual basis – Summer Term, although interim reports are given to parents on a termly basis as part of the Pupil Progress Update Meetings.
• Consultation sessions are timetabled for parents / carers to discuss their child’s progress.

Reporting to parents:

• Parents are encouraged to contact the school if they have concerns about any aspect of their child’s work.
• Parents are offered the opportunity to meet their child’s teacher. At the first meeting of the school year (November) the discussion centres on how the child has begun the year and areas to be focused on for the coming terms.
• At the second meeting (March) we review the progress that has been made throughout the year and identify next steps for the coming school year. This meeting is led by the child.
• During the summer term we give all parents a written report of their child’s progress and achievements during the year.
• End of Key Stage results are reported for Year 6, and for the Year 1 and Year 2 phonic screening.
• Parents of pupils in Reception are given the opportunity to discuss their child’s Foundation Stage Profile with the teacher.
• At the start of each term teachers provide parents with an overview of the main areas of study for that year group through the school website.

Inclusion and assessment for learning

• Our school aims to be an inclusive school.
• We actively seek to remove the barriers to learning and participation that can hinder or exclude individual pupils, or groups of pupils.
• We believe in identifying children’s strengths as well as difficulties, and we work hard to ensure that we do not define children in terms of difficulty.
• We achieve educational inclusion by continually reviewing what we do, by monitoring data, and through asking ourselves questions about the performance of these individuals and groups of pupils.
• Through the above we make judgements about how successful we are being at promoting racial and gender equality, and including pupils with disabilities or special educational needs and those receiving Pupil Premium Funding.

Roles and responsibilities

Headteacher

• To plan and organise meetings where common objectives can be agreed and the development and implementation of the assessment policy can be discussed
• To support and monitor the work of the school in relation to raising standards and ensuring good pupil progress
• To ensure that the school staff are aware of the most recent assessment developments – at both local and national levels
• To ensure that agreed implementation procedures are happening school-wide
• To ensure that statutory tests are carried out to agreed timetables

Subject Leader

• To promote a consistency of approach school-wide
• To provide guidance when statutory judgements are made.
• To be a key staff member in monitoring, marking and assessment practices and evaluate their effectiveness in raising standards
• To proactively use assessment information to inform future curricular planning
• Study samples of children’s work within their subject area as part of their monitoring activities to make judgements about the standards of the children’s work with all teaching staff leading to common understanding of the expectations in each subject across different year groups
• Attend Core Provision or subject specific CPD to ensure they are up to date with current developments

Class teacher

• To plan for assessment opportunities on a daily basis
• To plan for statutory / optional assessments
• To focus mark children’s work so that children know how well they are doing and what they need to do to improve further using critique
• To record assessment outcomes
• To use teacher assessment – including the proactive use of INSIGHT – backed up by tests / tasks – to identify strengths and areas for development and to inform planning of future teaching and learning
• To report to parents / carers on pupil progress and statutory assessments
• To participate in Pupil Progress Meetings, the monitoring and evaluation of policies and procedures on assessment, recording and reporting

Monitoring and evaluation

The Head teacher and the SLT ensure that this policy is implemented consistently throughout school through:-

·         Discussion with teaching staff, children, parents / carers

·         Sampling pupil records and reports

·         Sampling teachers’ planning and assessment record