Assessment

In an academic year, each Year Group will take part in three official ‘data drops’ where teachers assess where their children are in terms of attainment (standards) and achievements (progress). This is done in Term 2, Term 4 and Term 6. Teachers prepare this data as part of their preparation for Pupil Progress Meetings which are held with Assessment Leads across our Federation.

Assessment Leads are:

EYFS: Karen Higgins
KS1: Kelly Grove

In Pupil Progress Meetings (PPMs) teachers take part in a professional dialogue about the children in their class and discuss:

  • Children’s attainment/achievement, highlighting any ‘gaps’ in children’s learning and how they will move forward to include coverage of these gaps in their future planning
  • Identify children who are making good progress
  • Identify children who are not making good progress
  • Discuss any children they have concerns about, in terms of their learning, and who possibly need a referral to a learning support service completed
  • Provide analysis of their class, e.g., groups of children who are making good steps of progress
  • Bring children’s workbooks to provide evidence of progress or concerns
  • Set an action plan for the following 2 terms which will identify individual/groups of children who need extra/further intervention to support their progress

EYFS and KS1

In EYFS and KS1 as part of a teacher’s preparation for PPMs, teachers are expected to use Target Tracker to prepare their data. Target Tracker is a complete school assessment system which we use across the Federation from EYFS through to KS2. Target Tracker is the most widely used pupil progress tracking and assessment software, helping over 4,000 schools to improve school effectiveness. It is simple to use and includes an extensive selection of authoritative tools that enable schools to make sense of their data and identify gaps in children’s learning.

Target Tracker allows teachers to:

1.Track curriculum coverage and children’s achievements of the National Curriculum.
2. Enter children’s assessments/attainment.

 

When using Target Tracker and adding in children’s assessments, teachers use the following criteria from Year 1 – Year 6. At the beginning of each academic year, it would be desirable for children to start the academic year as B/B+ and to finish the academic year as an S. If children are assessed S+ they are considered to be GDS (Working at Greater Depth).

In KS1 Children are assessed against the following criteria:

B Beginning to work within the Year – curriculum with adult support.
B+ Beginning to work within the Year – curriculum with less adult support.
W Working within the Year – curriculum with adult support.
W+ Working within the Year – curriculum with no adult support.
S Working securely within the Year – curriculum with no adult support.
S+ Working at Greater Depth within the Year – curriculum.

 

In EYFS children are assessed against the Early Learning Goals:

Without conclusions, data is just data. Target Tracker has fantastic ‘Reports and Analysis Tools’ which allow Assessment Leads or any member of staff to make sense of our schools’ data by being able to filter data in a range of useful ways. This supports us in being able to deliver the best outcomes for our children.

Formative and Summative Assessments

Formative assessment and summative assessment are two overlapping, complementary ways of assessing pupil progress in school. While the common goal is to establish the strengths and weaknesses of each child, including misconceptions in children’s learning as well as gaps in their learning, each assessment type provides different insights and actions for our teachers.

Formative assessment takes place on a day-to-day basis during teaching and learning, allowing teachers and children to assess attainment and progress more frequently. It begins with diagnostic assessment, indicating what is already known and what gaps may exist in skills or knowledge. If a teacher and child understand what has been achieved to date, it is easier to plan the next steps. As the learning continues, further formative assessments indicate whether teaching plans need to be amended to reinforce or extend learning.

Formative Assessments may be questions, tasks, quizzes or more formal assessments. Often formative assessments may not be recorded at all, except perhaps in the lesson plans drawn up to address the next steps indicated.

Summative assessments sums up what a pupil has achieved at the end of a period of time, relative to the learning aims and the relevant national standards. The period of time may vary, depending on what the teacher wants to find out. There may be an assessment at the end of a topic, at the end of a term or half-term, at the end of a year or, as in the case of the national curriculum tests, at the end of a key stage.

A summative assessment may be a written test, an observation, a conversation or a task. It may be recorded through writing, through photographs or other visual media, or through an audio recording. Whichever medium is used, the assessment will show what has been achieved. It will summarise attainment at a particular point in time and may provide individual and cohort data that will be useful for tracking progress. This data can be used to inform stakeholders.

At Altmore and Lathom Schools Federation we use the following to support our teacher judgements and summative assessments:

  • Reception baseline (statutory as of September 2021)
  • EYFS profile data
  • KS1 SATs
  • Phonic Screening Check
  • Phonics assessments as per the RWI scheme
  • NFER Tests