Assessment

Aims of the School

At Brownmead Primary Academy, we are driven through our values to provide, not only successful academic young people, but equip them with knowledge, resilience, independence and a strong sense of well-being to be able to be to achieve their ambitions in an ever-changing and diverse world.

Assessment

The main aim of assessment is to support children in their learning, ensuring they progress and realise their full potential. Therefore, assessment must reflect and support learning. This is done by recognising, valuing and recording achievement – diagnosing any weaknesses or strengths and identifying means of support.

Assessment is only one part of a process constantly moving children forward, informing future planning (through notation of planning and adaptations made accordingly) and enabling each child to progress at the pace appropriate to their ability.

Each child has a clear targets for each lesson through the use of Learning Intentions in KS2 and WALTs (We Are Learning To), in KS1. We reflect on the learning that will take place that session via the Brownmead Key 3 document.

Early Years

• Assessment in the Reception class takes various forms. Children are assessed through a variety of activities against the Developmental Bands and Early Learning Goals.
• A Baseline assessment is conducted very soon after the children start in the Reception class in order to establish a starting point against which to assess progress during the year.
• A Talk boost assessment is completed within the first few weeks –indicating those pupils that need additional support through our Speech and language support.
• Progress is shown in Classroom Monitor and the children’s’ Learning Journeys books, which use photographic evidence as well as observations and copies of written tasks.
• Children progress through a series of age related Development Bands throughout the year so that by the end they can be recorded as Emerging (below expected progress for their chronological age), Expected (at expected progress for their chronological age) or Exceeding (above expected progress for their chronological age). This is done in each of 17 areas. These are grouped into 7 elements of the curriculum, three of which are the Prime Learning Goals of Communication and Language, Physical Development and Personal, Social, and Emotional development, and four of which are the Specific Learning Goals of Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design.
• These all form part of the Early Years Foundation Profile which is submitted in June.

Assessment and Recording of English

Speaking and Listening

It is very difficult to set up formal teacher assessments in this area. However, informal assessment is possible through a range of tasks and activities. Examples of these are: pupil responses to questioning, discussions of opinions, individuals or groups that feed back to class, tasks that involve group work and Circle Time. Opportunities for children to speak during class assemblies or a group production will also provide evidence of a child’s speaking ability. If there are concerns about a child’s speaking and listening the SEN audit can be used as an assessment tool.

Reading

• Teachers assess reading during whole class reading sessions as well as responses in written comprehension tasks. This is then referenced to the National Curriculum objectives and recorded accordingly.
• Each child must have a home reading book, and a reading record to record, their reading.
• Three times each year, each child in Years 1-6, will sit a formal reading assessment.

Writing

• Assessment of writing takes place in line with the curriculum throughout the year, both in stand-alone English tasks and in cross-curricular writing tasks, such as newspapers in topic and investigations in science.
• Assessments are recorded on Mark  as a continual process. SEN children will also be supported by their ITP.
• As part of INSET activities staff regularly meet for moderation of assessment of writing to ensure confidence and consistency in their judgements.
• Moderation across groups of schools supports assessment judgements.
• Children are given achievable targets throughout each unit of work, when the target has been achieved they will be given another one.

Assessment and Recording of Mathematics

• In mathematics, continuous assessment takes place via marking, observation and pupil/teacher dialogue. Assessment should be purposeful in order to match the correct level of work to the needs of the pupil, thus benefiting the pupil and ensuring progress.
• Assessment should be part of the teaching and learning process and should be of use to the teacher – enabling action to take place to improve learning and to inform parents.
• Termly assessments are recorded on Classroom Monitor as a continual process and help to form a teacher assessment judgement. SEN children will also be supported by their ITP.

Summative Assessments for English and Maths

At the end of each term children will take a series of assessments in Reading, GPS and Maths using assessment tests from Rising Stars (Y1,3,4 and 5). Year 2 and Year 6 will use past SATs papers as their end of term assessment. Teachers will use this information to support their overall teacher assessment for that child. The assessment leaders can then use this information for a wider strategic overview of pupils and groups of pupils.

Assessment and Recording of Science

• Teachers will assess children’s work in science by making informal judgements during lessons. On completion of a piece of work, the teacher assesses it, and uses this assessment to plan for future learning. Written or verbal feedback is given to the child to help guide progress. Older children are encouraged to make judgements about how they can improve their own work.
• At the end of a unit of work, the teacher makes a summary judgement about the work and progress of each pupil based on an end of topic test and performance during lessons. On-going assessment of working scientifically takes place throughout the year. We use this information as the basis for assessing the progress of each child over the academic year and we pass this information on to the next teacher at the end of the year.
• Formal recording is ongoing and is made using the national curriculum objectives.

Assessment and Recording of Foundation Subjects

• Assessment in the foundation subjects takes a more informal approach with regard to the setting of assessment tasks. Assessment is achieved through observation, questioning, display work, group/individual tasks and some recording. It is regarded as an integral part of the teaching and learning within the foundation subjects. Attainment is recorded against national curriculum objectives for year group.
• At the end of each half-term parents will be sent a topic overview summary for their child and this will give information about the levels that their child is working at within foundation subjects.
• Knowledge organisers are used to evidence objectives achieved in History, Geography, Art, DT and Science.

Progression

At Brownmead Academy, we use a progression document – based on the national curriculum – for all subject areas which allows staff to ensure that pupils achievements are in line with year group expectations,, whilst helping to identify gaps in knowledge.

Use of Data

• Assessments recorded on Classroom Monitor (GDPR compliant) for reading, writing and mathematics are used to track progress year on year. It is also used by the assessment leader to produce further data sheets showing achievement against expected norms for the year group according to national figures.
• This data is used to help decide on targets for both individual children and year groups.
• In addition, it is used to decide on intervention groups, ability groupings for Quality First teaching and Special Needs support.
• Analysis of whole class data is then filtered against various set criteria such as FSM, gender, EAL, SEND, etc so that progress of groups within classes can be monitored. This forms part of decisions about the allocation of pupil premium.
• A sample of Curriculum books are kept for one year.