Assessment
How do we assess in school?
Teachers continually assess children throughout the year to help them in planning children’s ‘next steps’ in learning. This involves the teacher observing the child in a variety of situations, talking to them and questioning them to check understanding, as well as marking their work. This is sometimes called ‘assessment for learning’.
During the year, when we have conversations with you about your child’s progress, we will tell you where they are in relation to the content covered so far and describe what they need to know and understand to meet the expectations for the year group and further deepen their learning. We will report their attainment as either ‘Working towards the expected standard’, ‘Working at the expected standard’ or ‘Working above the expected standard/Greater Depth’.
We use Tracking statements to assess attainment in Reading, Writing and Maths. These are derived from the National Curriculum objectives and can be viewed by clicking on the links below:
The end of Curriculum Levels
The old attainment levels were not linked to a specific year group. This resulted in a race to learn new content and move through the levels quickly which often resulted in children lacking depth of understanding in key concepts.
Assessing without levels
From September 2014 there were no longer national curriculum levels. Assessment now follows the organisation of the content of the new curriculum, which is by year group. Teachers will be assessing whether a child achieves the ‘national standard expected for their year group.’
The difference between the old and new approach to assessment is that children who are ‘met or exceeding’ will not move on to the next year group’s content, but instead will be challenged to expand their depth of knowledge and understanding. Only children who show exceptional understanding and depth of knowledge will move onto working towards the expectations from the year above. Similarly, children who are unlikely to be able to access the curriculum for their year group may work towards the expectations of any of the years below. The video below talks further about the changes to assessment in the new curriculum.
