Assessment
How do we assess pupils' learning?
Nurture, Inspire, Prepare
We believe that if we Nurture, Inspire and Prepare our children, that every one of them can achieve. All of our staff have the mind-set of ‘what more can I do to enable this child to achieve?’
Knowing where our children are currently at, where they need to go and how they will get there are the underlying principles of our approach to teaching and learning at Swaffield. Staff continually evaluate children’s knowledge, skills and understanding, establishing what children can do and what their next learning steps should be.
How do we use assessment to monitor and ensure progress?
- Assessment is used every day in the classroom to raise children’s achievement and aspirations. We believe that pupils will make the most progress if they understand the aim of their learning, where they are in relation to this aim and how they can achieve it.
- We provide children with clear and precise feedback, in oral and written forms, that will support their learning. We will always expect children to engage with this feedback and act on it. The quality and value of teachers’ feedback can be evaluated by how great an impact it has on their pupils’ progress.
- During whole class teaching, we have a “no hands up” approach where teachers target pupils for questioning. This ensures that questions are tailored to challenge and extend all children based on their individual understanding at that moment in time. It also ensures that all children are prepared and alert, knowing that they could be asked a question at any given time during the session.
- We involve children at all times in the assessment process, supporting them to understand that the continual effort to improve is a crucial life skill. Assessment feedback should inspire children to believe that through commitment, hard work and practice more can be achieved.
- Reading, Writing and Maths are formally assessed at the end of every term using NTS assessment papers for Reading and Maths.
- As children progress through the school, it is important to ensure that the knowledge and skills have been committed to their long-term memory. We assess this during Pupil Conference sessions which happen fortnightly across the whole school. In Key Stage 2, pupils share their learning in the Foundation Subjects with children in another year group. While allowing the younger children to articulate their learning over the past academic year, it also means that the older year group can revisit and consolidate their prior learning of the previous year.
- Teacher assessments for Reading, Writing and Maths are moderated within a phase and teachers in Year 2 and 6 also attend cross-school writing moderation sessions run by the LA.
- The other curriculum subjects are assessed using a quiz and/or a knowledge catcher at the beginning and end of each unit of work.
- Teachers use the information from these assessments to inform their future planning.
How we share this information with parents
Parents meet with their child’s class teacher in the Autumn and the Spring term to discuss progress and next steps. Parents also get the opportunity to look at their child’s books.
In the Summer term, parents receive an end of year report which informs parents of the level their child is working at across the curriculum with more detail and next steps given for Reading, Writing and Maths. They will also receive the outcomes of any statutory assessments taken by their child.
Statutory Assessments
Reception – Baseline, EYFS profile
Year 1 (and Year 2 for re-takes) - Phonics Check
Year 4 - Multiplication tables check
Year 6 - End of Key Stage assessments in Reading, Writing, Maths and Science
End of Year Expectations
These are the end of year expectations in Maths and English for the end of each year group from Year 1 to Year 6.
