Assessment

What is assessment?

Assessment is the primary source for information that informs planning; the selection of curriculum content, choice of teaching strategies and use of interventions. Assessment is the bridge between teaching and learning.

All teaching staff, pupils and parents are involved in the assessment process. The process is underpinned by a belief that everyone can succeed, achieve and thrive. Assessment is an integral part of our learning culture. Learning goals are shared with pupils in every lesson so that they recognise the standards they are aiming for. Pupils are involved in self assessment. They also receive feedback that helps them recognise where and how they can improve and challenge themselves. All school staff interrogate assessment data and, as a result, plan provision effectively for all groups of pupils.

Why do we assess?

To find out what children know
To help us plan where to go next
To identify misconceptions
To help us understand how we can support individual children
To help children learn (the act of reviewing/recalling previously taught knowledge helps children to learn it)

How do we assess?

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is the cornerstone of successful teaching and learning in all curriculum areas. Formative assessment can be described as:

“ … 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 next, and how best to get them there.’

A helpful way to think of formative assessment is as assessment for learning.

Formative assessment:

occurs during the learning process
improves learning
grows learning
is done with learners

Formative assessment enables:

Teachers to identify how pupils are performing on a continuing basis. Thet 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

See appendix A of our Assessment Policy for more information about the formative assessment strategies we use at Hermitage.

Summative assessment

Summative assessment occurs after a process of learning. We use summative assessment to provide us with information about the achievement of our pupils. The data from summative assessments is analysed by teachers, subject leaders and senior leaders.

A helpful way to think of summative assessment is assessment of learning.

Summative assessments take place at different points in the school year (see appendix B of our Assessment Policy for more information).

Summative assessment:

occurs after the learning
measures learning
is externally referenced
is outcome and achievement focused

In-school summative assessment enables:

Leaders to monitor the performance of pupil cohorts and how well they are learning our curriculum, identify where interventions may be required and work with teachers ensure pupils are supported to reach age-related expectations
Teachers to evaluate what pupils know and can do at the end of units of work. This can then be used to inform planning for future learning and units of work.
Pupils to understand how well they have understood a topic over a period of time and what they need to improve in future

Statutory assessment

We administer a range of statutory national standardised assessments. These include:

Reception Baseline at the beginning of the Reception year
Early Years Foundation Stage Profile at the end of Reception
Phonics Screening Check at the end of years 1 and 2
Multiplication Tables Check at the end of year 4
National Curriculum tests (SATs) and teacher assessments at the end of Ket Stage 2 (year 6)

Statutory standardised assessments enable:

Leaders to monitor the performance & achievement of pupil cohorts, identify where interventions may be required, and work with teachers to ensure pupils are supported to meet age-related standards
Teachers to understand national expectations and assess pupils in a broader national context
Parents to understand how their child is achieving in comparison to pupils nationally

Information from statutory assessments is shared with the Department for Education (DfE) and used by bodies, including Ofsted, to evaluate the performance of the school. School-level data about pupils’ achievement in statutory assessments is also reported publicly and shared on our website.

Collecting and using data

We use INSIGHT, our assessment and tracking tool, to enable professional conversations in a common language about shared expectations.

Teaching staff collect assessment information ‘live’ for reading, writing and maths on the INSIGHT database. They also record summative teacher assessments in line with our assessment policy. INSIGHT provides gap analysis that helps to inform planning for interventions and whole class work.

Leaders analyse assessment information from INSIGHT. This information helps leaders to ask questions about the quality of provision and pupil progress. They can then effectively target support for staff and pupils.

Reporting to parents

We share information about pupil achievement with parents in a variety of ways, including:

Parent consultations

Teachers meet individually with parents in the Autumn and Spring terms. In the Autumn term, teachers and parents agree how they will work together to support the child with carefully chosen focus areas and share information about the curriculum. In the Spring term, teachers and parents discuss the progress the child is making and agree on their next steps.

End-of-year reports

In the Summer term, teachers write a report for each child to share with their parents. In the report parents will see how well their child has been progressing across the different subjects in our curriculum and more widely, for example their interests, relationships at school and attendance information. Parents also find out in the report what their child needs to work on next.

In year groups where statutory assessment takes place, the end-of-year report includes information about the child’s achievement in that assessment.

Parents can arrange to meet the teacher to talk about the report where necessary.