Assessment informs judgements and decisions teachers have to make on a daily basis and is used to summarise children’s learning at the end of a period of time (e.g. end of unit, term or year). Teachers assess children using a wide range of strategies and use the information gained from this to ensure that all children’s learning needs are catered for.  

Assessment allows the school to situate learners on a national benchmark, offer accurate feedback to parents and keep them informed about their children’s progress. 

Assessment is used to understand children’s attainment against others in the same year at our school and nationally, this information is also used to analyse the gaps in children’s learning or understanding and thus informs next steps when teachers are planning.  

Formative Assessment is an integral part of everyday ongoing classroom practice. Through a wide variety of strategies, adults in the class find out how children are responding to their teaching and understand the next stages of the child’s educational journey.  

There are many ways in which formative assessment takes place (many are closely linked to feedback): 

• Verbal or written dialogue between adult and child  
• Peer-assessment 
• Marking alongside the child in a lesson or after a lesson Questioning 
• Self-assessment 
• Conferencing 
• Observations (including photos and videos – these can be annotated and included in children’s books and learning journals) 
• Supported reflection 
• Whiteboards ‘show me’ 
• Feedback from parents (e.g. WOW cards in EYFS) 
• Evaluation of planning (sometimes annotations) 
• Review of ‘Special Books’ (EYFS) 

Formative assessment informs teachers’ planning, questioning, resources, gaps, misconceptions, feedback, challenge and targets. 

In Nursery and Reception, staff use formative assessment alongside a specific programme, which breaks down the Early Years curriculum into age-appropriate developmental milestones. Observations, photos and video clips are stored here and online learning journals are shared with parents/carers.  

Parents and carers are encouraged to regularly contribute to the children’s journals and special books. Dialogue between home and school in the reading journals in Reception and Year 1, is vital when assessing pupil progress and attainment. ‘Wow’ cards sent between home and school, highlight achievements that are shared with the whole class.  

Summative assessment gives pupils, parents and teachers valuable information about a pupil’s overall performance at a specific point in their learning.  

Summative assessment in a classroom can occur at different intervals including weekly, on completion of a topic of work, at the end of a term, or at the end of the year. The information it gives indicates pupil progress and achievement in the knowledge and skills in a particular area of learning.  

Summative assessment at Kilmorie takes a number of forms including: 

• A challenge question, requiring children to apply something they were taught during the week, month, year in order to demonstrate learning 
• Short tests or quizzes at the ends of units 
• Self-assessment at the end of a unit/piece of work 
• Statutory DfE tested assessment at the end of the following years: 
  • Reception (Reception Baseline Assessment) 
  • Year 1 (Phonics Screening) 
  • Year 2 (reading, arithmetic and mathematical reasoning) 
  • Year 4 (multiplication tests) 
  • Year 6 (grammar, punctuation and spelling, reading, arithmetic and mathematical reasoning) 
  • In Year 2 and 6 writing is also reportable to the DfE, this is not tested but teacher assessed  
  • At the end of Reception, children are assessed against 17 Early Learning Goals and results are submitted to the LA.  

Our approach to statutory assessments is to keep the children’s wellbeing in mind. It is widely understood that positive health and wellbeing (including mental health) contribute to a child’s ability to flourish, thrive and achieve (Public Health England 2014).  

For the assessments in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2, the children are often unaware of the fact that they are even being tested. There is no emphasis shown to the children about the tests and they are administered as part of ‘normal classroom practise.  

For the Multiplication Tables Check and Year 6 SATs, children are aware that they are carrying out the tests and they will practise and revise for them in class. We stress that children can only do their best and nothing more, we also ensure that we will be proud of them no matter the results. 

Follow this link to view school and college performance measures.