Assessment at Cold Harbour
Parent Information Booklet (12/02/2016) **NEW**
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 at least expected progress.
- All staff are regularly trained in our approach to assessment through half termly assessment meetings in Phases, annual updates and support from the Head Teacher based upon school, local and national data and individual 1:1 support coaching where required.
- The Head Teacher assumes overall responsibility for assessment; however individual senior leaders are held accountable for understanding and challenging the data for its robustness and key point for future development.
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 local 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 continued use of P scales and associated trackers within school will remain crucial to ensure progression for some of our most vulnerable learners whose progress may only be measured in exceedingly small steps.
- The achievement of each pupil is assessed against all the relevant criteria at appropriate times of the school year. Current practice within our school is half termly as not only does this identify ‘coasting children’ more swiftly than termly checking it also ensures that targets can be re-set to reflect an ambitious learning trajectory for each child.
- It is our intention that with effect from September 2014, each pupil is assessed as either ‘developing’, ‘meeting’ or ‘exceeding’ each relevant criterion contained in our expectations for that year. Whilst we believe that the criteria themselves may well be combined to provide the qualitative statement of a pupil’s achievements, teachers well may need to provide a quantitative summary. It will be the development of this quantitative summary approach that will take place during the academic year; therefore until such time that staff are secure in this renewed approach to assessing without levels, we will continue to track progress in the established levelling manner.
- 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 peer colleagues in school (within and across Phase teams), Leaders of subject alongside the HT/DHT 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.