Assessment And Reporting
The Purpose of Assessment
We believe that assessment should identify individual needs and achievements and inform the learning process.
It should be an integral part of planning and involve all stakeholders within the learning process. It carries responsibilities such as ensuring that all children have the opportunity to demonstrate their achievements and that decisions made about children’s performance are accurate, fair and consistent.
It should:
- Promote a common interpretation of the standards of attainment.
- Ensure that teachers’ judgements of the standards of children’s work are consistent, both with one another and with national standards.
- Ensure that teacher assessment judgements are underpinned by a sufficient body of evidence and records.
- Promote children’s level of motivation and engagement with their learning through developing their self-assessment skills.
- Identify individual need and support intervention provision planning.
- Ensure assessment is integrated into lessons and informs planning.
- Ensure the smooth administration of Standard Tasks considered appropriate for each individual at the end of each Key Stage.
- Provide evidence for monitoring arrangements in order to identify areas for continuing school improvement.
School Assessment and Reporting Process
- Annual Process: Pupil attainment and progress is recorded on a termly basis and aligned to parent consultations. Progress is measured from the start of the academic year (baseline) to the end of year. Attainment is measured and reported against national standards - Expected Standard (EXS) or Age-Related Expectations (ARE).
- System: We monitor progress and attainment online using OTrack. This tool enables us to assess and report progress and attainment in real time.
- Parent consultations: Parents and carers are invited into school termly to discuss their child's learning and behaviour. We encourage all parents to view their child’s online report prior to the consultation where the teachers will use it as a basis for discussion.
Reception baseline assessment
The Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) is a statutory assessment from September 2021 onwards. It provides a snapshot of where pupils are when they arrive at school. It will provide a starting point to measure the progress schools make with their pupils between reception and the end of primary school. It is a short (approximately 20 minutes), practical assessment focusing on their early literacy, communication, language and mathematics skills. It is similar to everyday activities carried out within a Reception classroom. The class teacher or teaching assistant will carry out the assessment one-to-one with each pupil, during the first 3 weeks of reception. It does not require any preparation at home or at school, and will help teachers to understand what children can do at the beginning of their time in reception.
STA contracted the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) to develop the assessment and carry out trials in several pilots throughout the last year. This school signed up to participate in the pilot for children currently in Reception. Findings from the pilot have informed the final version of the assessment for its statutory rollout this year, in autumn 2021. They will not be used to measure the school or any children who have taken part. Each pupil’s personal information is stored safely and securely, in line with data protection regulations. You can access further information on the NFER website, https://www.nfer.ac.uk/for-schools/participate-in-research/information-about-the-reception-baseline-assessment which details the type of data collected, who can access it and how long it will be stored.
If you have any further questions about it, or wish to discuss their child’s participation further, it is important that you speak to the class teacher.