Assessment
A PARENTS’ GUIDE TO HOW WE ASSESS AND REPORT ON PROGRESS AND ATTAINMENT
From September 2014 changes were made to how schools assess children’s progress and attainment. The National Curriculum requires that schools give Age Related Expectations (ARE) for each year group. Here are the bands which we will refer to when reporting your child’s attainment:
HNM - Has not met the expected standard. (This term is used when reporting Science attainment at the end of Key Stage 1 and 2)
WSB - Working Significantly Below the Standard. (This term is used when reporting attainment of all children who are working significantly below the age related expectations for their year group.)
WTS – Working Towards the Standard (This means that your child has not met all of the objectives within the Age Related Expectations for that year group and therefore cannot be awarded this standard.)
ARE – Age Related Expectations (This means your child is working within the standard for their year group)
GDS – Greater Depth Standard (This means that your child is working at greater depth of the age related expectations for that year group)
It is important to note that these bands are vast and there will be some children working at the lower end of each of the standards and some at the top end. For example two children may be awarded ARE, but one child may just have made it and be at the lower end, whereas another child may be working at a higher level of this standard.
We will report your child’s progress and attainment during parents’ evenings and on the end of year reports. When reporting attainment, we will refer to the standards above.
Further information on assessment and on end of key stage SATs can be found on the Powerpoint by clicking on the document below.
Assessment Schedule
Consideration has once more been given to the assessment and reporting schedule for the school this academic year and this can be found within the Assessment and Reporting Policy. Assessment is carried out formally in both the Autumn and Summer term for children in Years 1 - 5 and stautory testing for children in Year 6 (SATs) take place in the month of May in addition to any practice papers that the children may complete to help prepare them. Across the year, teachers will gain knowledge of the pupils' ability in maths and English using standardised tests and work within class. From these, end of year targets will be established, current attainment and progress reported on and and pupil catch up programmes put into place where necessary. Low stakes quizzes, effective questionning and classroom observations will continue daily to inform teachers of pupils' abiity to remember, use and apply key knowledge and skills across all curriculum subjects.
Pupils in Reception will be assessed using our baseline tool to establish their starting points early in September.