ASSESSMENT AND REPORTING

What Makes Great Assessment? 

There are three key pillars of education: pedagogy, curriculum and assessment. For too long we have allowed the third of these to act as a dispassionate judge of our teaching instead of building our expertise as assessors.’

Great assessment enables both children and teachers to understand what has been learnt and identifies specific areas where misconceptions have occurred or where more practice is needed. Assessment that is used formatively, actively informs pedagogy.’

Great assessment is great responsive teaching. Assessment is inextricable from teaching, and the quality of one is dependent on the quality of the other.

Dame Alison Peacock

The Assessment Model at The Calder Learning Trust

Formative Assessment

• Classroom based formative assessments occur frequently, are low stakes and provide rapid feedback. This is the most common form of assessment in our classrooms.
• Formative assessment tests specific knowledge and skills to identify gaps and have an immediate impact on lesson planning.
• Formative assessment tasks are designed to strengthen retrieval and improve retention.
• Their aim is to identifying consequences/ a course of action (e.g. immediate impact on the curriculum focus and content).

Standardised Faculty Assessment (Deep Marking)

• Standardised faculty assessments assess students’ understanding of a unit of work but might progress throughout the year to test for recall of knowledge and skills across a series of units.
• Thought will be given to the range of approaches that we use as vehicles for students to demonstrate their learning.
• Assessments will provide evidence for the whole school monitoring of student attainment and progress and are linked to whole school assessment points.

Formal, summative assessment

• Formal, whole school summative assessments which are high stakes and infrequent. They test knowledge and skills across a wider domain
• The outcomes of these assessments influence our medium or long term curriculum plans. Their aim is to create a shared meaning of student progress by ranking students across a cohort.

Assessment at EYFS

Before your child joins Reception, the class teacher will visit them at their Early Years setting, or at home, and will talk to their key worker or parents to find out all about them, such as their likes and dislikes, their strengths and areas for support or development. They will also copy their current Development Matters information from their EYFS setting. 

Within the first half term in Reception, the class teacher will observe the pupils, including during play and in small individual and group games and activities to assess their starting point at school.  They conduct the Reception Baseline Assessment in the first 4 weeks of Reception. 

After that your child will be continually assessed through a series of observations which will be recorded and shared on our online learning journey platform 'Tapestry'.  At the end of the year they will be assessed against the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile which will show whether your child is emerging or expected in the key areas. This will feed into their transition into Year 1, for example if they need additional support in any emerging areas, or have particular areas of strength. 

You will receive updates to their learning journey on Tapestry - more information will be shared at Parents' Evenings in November and March and parents are encouraged to share learning from home as part of this too. 

Assessment at Key Stages 1 and 2

Pupils in Key Stages 1 and 2 are assessed through our assessment model above as part of their classroom learning. In addition, we conduct half termly Read Write inc Phonics Porgress Assessments in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 and termly summative assessments which are shared with parents in December, March and July. 

All our pupils are assessed at the end of each term by their teachers and their progress is carefully tracked.  Writing and GPS are assessed through ongoing work, as well as a half-termly piece of independent writing. Writing Framework objectives from the Calderdale Moderators Team support teacher judgements. Reading is assessed in Guided Reading sessions as well as through termly progress tests. Maths is assessed through ongoing class work as well as end of unit and termly progress tests. Science is assessed at the end of each unit of work. 

There are also government assessments which we conduct as follows:

Pupils in Year 1 undertake a phonics screening test, through work with their teacher, which indicates whether they have achieved a good level of phonics knowledge or if they are still working towards this. 

In Year 2, pupils are assessed at the end of Key Stage One. These assessments include evidence from lessons, assessment, teacher judgements and work in their books across the curriculum. 

Any child who did not reach a good level of phonics in Year 1 will also retake the phonics screening test at the end of Year 2. 

At the end of Key Stage 2, pupils take their SATs. These are tests in Reading, Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling (GPS), Writing and Maths. Writing and Science are assessed by their class teacher, but all other tests are taken under exam conditions and are externally marked. Pupils are marked against the expected levels for the end of KS2.

Baseline Assessments in Key Stage 3

Pupils’ current attainment in Year 7,8 and 9 will be continuously monitored by considering their progress from their SATS tests, and/or from a baseline assessment (CAT test) taken in the first half term each year. CAT tests provide a nationally comparable standard age score which can range from 70-130, with 100 being the national average. As students progress through the school their performance in class, tests and exams can then be assessed against their relative starting points.

Current Attainment

Each subject will have a current attainment indicator that will give an indication of how a student is achieving against national expectations. This measure is based on the work that has been produced, assessments in lessons and how the teacher feels the student is progressing; in other words, is the student likely to meet or exceed national expectations? And what potential GCSE grade might they expect to achieve if they continue on this trajectory to the end of Year 11. Further information is given in the table, which is also attached to the relevant reports

Assessment and Reporting at Key Stage 4

The reporting system at Key Stage 4 we will continue to report on current attainment in the form of a grade in the new 9-1 grade system. The progress grade will relate to how well students are working towards their current target grade or ‘route’.
Student targets for GCSE and vocational courses will be set according to a combination of baseline scores and their attainment and progress during Key stage 3. Teaching staff will be encouraged to amend a target if it is felt to be too low, to ensure they are aspirational. This may mean that your son/daughter’s has different targets for different subjects. Students will first receive their GCSE target grades in the Spring term of Year 9, so as to assist them make good choices in selecting their GCSE option subjects.

Progress

The progress column for students from Year 9 onwards will then indicate whether a student is likely to achieve their target. The progress levels are shown below:

Reporting to Parents: EYFS, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2

We have two Parental Consultation evenings in the school year - one after Autumn half term, and one in Spring term. These give you the opportunity to discuss your child's progress in more detail and look at their school work. Pupils in Key Stage 2 are also invited to attend and talk about their targets and achievements. 

We send home 'report cards' at the end of each term, which show you your child's individual progress in English and Maths as well as areas of strength and development. They also have an overall comment from Mrs Lambert including on attendance. 

If you have any questions, please do contact us to speak in more detail.

Reporting to Parents: Key Stages 3 and 4

We will report on both progress and effort on a termly basis. An example of the report for both Key Stage 3 and 4 is shown below: