Assessment

Assessment statement, Sept 2015

Overview

• The new National Curriculum for Key Stages 1-4, in maintained schools, came in to force in September 2014. It does not include any levels (for primary schools generally Level 1 to Level 5) instead it provides an outline of broad expectations indicating what pupils should be taught in different year groups or key stages.
• The new National Curriculum became statutory for all maintained schools in September 2014, except for the children in Years 2, 6 and 9 (who were taught the old National Curriculum and assessed using the National Curriculum levels in summer 2015). From September 2015 the new national curriculum is statutory for all.
• Summer 2016 will be the first year of statutory assessment not to use levels.
• Schools have been expected to develop their own system or adopt any system that they feel meets their needs as there will not be a national system.
• Ofsted will still expect good evidence of pupil progress, both from the tracking of progress over time and from qualitative evidence such as observations of teaching and in pupils’ written work to be available and used to assess pupils’ individually.

The DfE feels that the recently disbanded system was not always understood by parents and the ambiguity in some of the level descriptions meant that they were not always systematically used. It has also been encouraging schools to consider broader aspects of progress.

At Edward Worlledge Primary School, we have been developing our own system, this past year, to enable staff to assess progress of individual pupils, identified groups and year groups.

We believe that the processes for tracking pupil progress should enable our school to present data that supports evaluations made about the progress of pupils. We recognise the need to enhance teachers’ confidence in various aspects of assessment, so that they can clearly demonstrate the progress that pupils are making in their learning.

We will continue to use and develop the formative assessment processes that are already effectively supporting pupils ensuring that:

• We continue to use quality initial assessments indicating pupils current knowledge and understanding and areas for further development
• Differentiation ensures that tasks are matched to pupils’ abilities and provides high challenge for all
• The use of high quality assessment including written and oral feedback; self and peer assessment indicates how pupils progress against learning objectives and success criteria
• Continuous assessment is used by teachers to develop the next steps/ steps forward in pupils’ learning, in subsequent lessons