Assessment

Why Do We Assess at Howley Grange Primary School?

At Howley Grange, assessment provides the basis of informed teaching and learning.  By using day to day formative assessment, summative assessment and statutory assessments, pupils receive an education that accurately meets their personalised needs.

Assessments are used to:

  • Identify and maintain the progress and achievement levels of all children
  • Inform planning to ensure challenge/support levels are appropriately given
  • Identify strengths and areas for development of individual pupils and organise intervention groups accordingly
  • Celebrate pupil achievements
  • Raise standards of achievement and progress throughout the school
  • Allow pupils to be actively involved in their learning
  • Provide regular information for parents to enable them to support their child’s learning
  • Evaluate the school’s performance against its own previous attainment over time and against National Standards.
    • How Do We Assess at Howley Grange?

      At Howley Grange we use a combination of day to day formative assessment and summative assessment.

      Foundation Stage Assessment

      Within the first 6 weeks that a child starts Reception, staff will administer the Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA), statutory in schools in England as of September 2021. It is a short, practical assessment focusing on their early literacy, communication, language and mathematics skills.

      At the end of the EYFS (during the summer term in which a child turns 5), staff complete the EYFS Profile (EYFSP) for each child. Children are assessed against the 17 Early Learning Goals, indicating whether they are:

      • Meeting expected levels of development
      • Not yet reaching expected levels (‘emerging’)

      The profile reflects ongoing observations, a teacher’s professional judgement of children’s attainment based on their quality interactions with them throughout the year and discussions with parents and/or carers. The results of the profile are shared with parents and/or carers.

       

      Assessment in KS1 and KS2

      Throughout both key stages, teachers use a variety of assessments to ensure pupil progress and attainment is tracked accurately and to ensure planning reflects the challenge and support required for each year group.

      Day to Day Assessment (Formative Assessment)

      • Teachers implement the use of CEEPAR (Connect, Explain, Examples, Practice, Apply, Remember) across lessons. The ‘Apply and Remember’ allows pupils to share their learning and understanding from the lesson.
      • Observation and effective questioning of pupils within the classroom.
      • Self-assessment – pupils highlight the WALT at the end of the lesson with a traffic light system that indicates to the teacher whether the child feels that they have fully understand the learning objective or require additional support on it.
      • Whole class feedback identifies successes and misconceptions of the lesson to then be reflected and addressed in future lessons.

       

      Summative Assessments

      • Termly ‘Stars’ assessments in both reading and maths – computer adaptive tests
      • White Rose Maths end of unit assessments
      • Independent writing task at the end of each writing cycle
      • Cracking comprehension independent tasks throughout each term

      These assessments are used alongside our formative teacher assessments to form secure and accurate judgements of pupil progress and attainment.

       

      Statutory Assessments

      Throughout Primary Education, children are required to be formally assessed under Government direction. These assessments are statutory and are completed in the following year groups:

      • Early Years Foundation Stage Profile
      • Year 1 phonics assessment
      • Year 2 SATS - Reading, SPaG, Maths
      • Year 4 Multiplication assessment
      • Year 6 SATs – Reading, SPaG, Maths
      • SEN – external agency support and assessments where required.

      How Do We Know Our Assessment is Successful?

      At Howley Grange our assessment is rigorous and we are able to acknowledge this through celebrating the attainment and progress of our children.

      Staff participate in ‘Pupil Progress Meetings’ where individual children’s progress is discussed and interventions are organised accordingly.

      Pupil Voice – our children are fully aware of their successes and are enthusiastic to develop their next steps in their learning.

      Parents are fully informed of their child’s progress through termly reports and parents meetings and are able to support them accordingly.

      Staff participate in internal moderation and external moderation with other schools to further secure judgements on pupil levels.

      The school compares consistently well against National Attainment.

       

       

         

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