Lawhead Primary School

Sandness Primary School Assessment Policy

Rationale

Assessment is the means of obtaining information, which allows teachers, pupils and parents to make judgements about and targets to develop pupil progress.

Assessment must measure the success of learning, teaching and achievement as well as guide the next steps to be achieved.

“It is children’s learning that must be the subject of teachers’ most energetic care and attention – not their lesson plans or schemes of work, or their rich and stimulating provision – but the learning that results from everything they do (and do not do) in schools and classrooms. The process of assessing children’s learning – by looking closely at it and striving to understand it – is the only certain safeguard against children’s failure, the only certain guarantee of children’s progress and development”

Taken from Shirley Clarke’s book “Targeting Assessment in the Primary Classroom” (1998)

Aims

At Sandness Primary School our aim is to meet the individual needs of our pupils.

Assessment is an integral part of the learning and teaching process and will:

For Pupils:

Motivate them through success
Inform them about their achievements and progress to date
Identify areas of strength and development needs
Inform them of areas they can improve on by encouraging them to consider their own work
Inform them of ways in which to improve
Actively involve them in the feedback process
Actively involve them in setting targets for improvement and development
Improve self esteem

For teachers:

Inform their evaluations of specific areas taught
Enable them to evaluate their own practice
Indicate next steps in the learning and teaching programme
Identify areas in which the learning and teaching could be enhanced through a variety of approaches
Identify pupils requiring further support or extension
Identify a more appropriate pace of learning
Help to monitor the appropriate use of resources
Provide information on class/group organisation
Actively involve them in the feedback process

For parents:

Inform them of their child’s progress and achievements on a regular basis
Inform them of areas of strength and development needs
Provide evidence of achievements and attainment
Actively involve them in the feedback process
Encourage them to be actively involved in setting the next steps in learning and targets.

Principles

Teachers make on-going and informal assessments about their pupils everyday and notes may be made on daily or weekly plans.

It is essential, however, that assessment is not merely carried out on an “ad hoc” basis.

To ensure its effectiveness assessment should be:

Planned
Manageable
Systematic
Valid
Sufficient and
Coherent

Assessment information may be gained through:

Formative strategies to indicate the effectiveness of teaching and learning
Summative “tests” for recording and reporting processes
Diagnostic means to indicate strengths and specific difficulties

Formative Strategies

At Sandness Primary School we actively support the Assessment is for Learning policy promoted by the Scottish Executive and Shetland Schools Service.

Staff have, and will continue to develop, knowledge of a wide range of strategies to promote and implement formative assessment into the learning and teaching process.

These strategies include:

Planning – in planning children’s learning it is important to start from an understanding of what the children know already and what the children then need to know.
Sharing learning intentions and success criteria Sharing what we want children to learn and how they will know that they have succeeded.
Skilful questioning – through questioning teachers can clarify what learning has taken place and establish what difficulties are being experienced. Teachers are encouraged to use open questions that promote higher order thinking skills wherever possible.
We are aware that traditionally teachers have not always given sufficient time to allow some learners to formulate an answer. We advocate giving a wait time of at least 5 seconds before inviting a response. We recognise the value in giving learners the opportunity to discuss a question before giving a shared answer. This leads to more productive thinking.
In this school all staff are working towards fostering a classroom climate whereby to make a mistake is acceptable. We believe that if a learner makes a mistake, this can provide the basis for finding the best solution. Formative assessment and problem solving strategies are very much interrelated. In providing an environment where learners feel comfortable about making mistakes we also encourage learners to ask questions in order to clarify and extend their learning.
Feedback – feedback is a vital process. It lets the children know what they are doing well in and should provide them with strategies to know how to improve.
Marking – marking less frequently, but in more detail gives the children most useful feedback and is an effective way of improving performance. Time to follow up on the comments made is essential.
Self and Peer Assessment – if children are allowed to monitor their own progress against goals set they become more aware of how they learn and so become better learners. To be effective children need to be taught the skills and techniques to gain most from this.
Self-esteem – self-esteem is the most significant factor in being a successful learner. Involving children in the learning and teaching process raises self-esteem.

Summative Assessment

We acknowledge that there is still place for the end of unit assessment or topic test.

These provide valuable information to teachers, pupils and parents on what knowledge and skills have been attained.

The strategies adopted may include:

End of unit assessment – this will provide an indication of what knowledge has been retained from the teaching block just completed.
Weekly test – this might be used in areas such as spelling where teachers want to check if patterns have been understood.
Pre and Post tests – these tend to be used in areas such as environmental studies where teachers use them to establish what additional knowledge has been gained from the work covered.
National Tests – teachers should use the wide variety of evidence gathered to decide when a pupil is ready to complete a national test.

Diagnostic Assessment

This type of assessment is used to gain evidence of specific strengths or specific needs of pupils.

In Shetland we use PIPS assessments to gain baseline information as pupils enter primary one and then monitor their value added progress every other year.

A pupil may also undergo an assessment because the teacher or parent has a concern about a particular area not progressing as expected. In such cases the Support for Learning teacher will observe the pupil and administer any necessary assessments.

The results of any such intervention will be used to devise a specific learning plan for that child where necessary.

Policy into Practice

Assessment is not a separate activity. It is an integral part of learning and teaching.

Planning

Assessment should be planned alongside each block of teaching.

Plans should:

Take account of the evaluations just completed
Have a clear statement of learning intentions
Have a clear success criteria
Take into account a range of teaching approaches
Take into account learning styles of pupils
Show appropriate pace of learning and how pupils are going to be supported.

Teaching

Effective learning and teaching provides the evidence to enable evaluating reporting and recording to be completed appropriately.

During lessons and tasks teachers should ensure:

Tasks are stimulating, varied and challenging
A problem solving approach is adopted where pupils are encouraged to explore new ideas and activities
The appropriate teaching approach has been chosen for the specific task
Appropriate resources have been provided to enable the task to be carried out
Individual needs have been catered for.

Reporting

Reporting has several functions.

The most immediate and effective is that feedback given to individual pupils.

Feedback should:

Be informative
Be positive (e.g. two starts and a wish)
Enable the pupil to improve

Teachers will also report to the headteacher on a termly basis through a consultation meeting on progress made by groups and individuals within the class. At the initial meeting in September of each session attainment targets will be set for groups and individuals using the transfer of information given at the end of the previous session. Further meetings will review progress made to date.

Parents receive information in a variety of ways and on a regular basis. From December 2005 we will be using Personal Learning Plans in school, which will provide regular information on progress towards achieving targets. We will continue to issue an end of session report.

Parents are offered two meetings with the class teacher each session to discuss their child’s progress and agree next steps for learning.

Parents are, of course, encouraged to contact the class teacher or head teacher if they have any concerns or questions regarding their child’s learning.

Recording

Recording provides the platform from which teachers can base their reporting to others and is a mechanism for evaluating learning and teaching.

Recording should be selective and should focus on key learning aims. It should be carefully managed and appropriate to the activity.

Recording strategies may include:

Collecting evidence of work for folios (e.g. examples of work, photographs, mind maps etc)
Notes in daily or weekly plans
Checklists
Records of summative assessments
Recording of national test results
Pupil comment sheets
Evaluation sheets at the end of teaching blocks
Referral sheets
Comments on children’s written work

Evaluation

Teachers evaluate themselves and their pupils on an on-going basis.

For evaluation to be effective it must:

Enable teachers to be reflective practioners
Encourage continual self-evaluation of the professional
Review learning and teaching approaches
Focus on the learning intentions and stated success criteria
Provide useful feedback on next steps
Consider the appropriateness of the resources used
Progress made to date of class, groups and individuals
Inform future learning and teaching

Monitoring

All teaching staff have a responsibility to ensure that this policy is implemented in full and that practice reflects the rationale and aims.

Teaching staff should ensure that assessment is an integral part of the learning and teaching and that they regularly review themselves and their approaches with their pupils.

The headteacher has the overall responsibility of monitoring the effectiveness of the policy throughout the school.

This will be done through:

Classroom visits, both formal and informal
Discussing with pupils what they are doing and why they are doing it.
Reviewing specific learning and teaching approaches
Monitoring and commenting on plans submitted on a termly basis
Consultation meetings with individual teachers
Pupil tracking of achievement and attainment

Some of the questions, which may be asked/considered, are:

To what extent are our methods of assessment matched to identified purposes?
To what extent are we employing an appropriate range of resources to assessment?
To what extend are we effectively recording assessment information?
To what extent are tests being used?
To what extent are teachers knowledgeable about their pupils’ successes and needs?
What provision for moderation of judgments and marking are in place?
To what extent are pupils involved in dialogue about their own progress?
To what extent do we value individual achievement?
To what extent do we identify next steps in learning?
How valuable is the transfer of information being passed on at the end of each session?

Current Resources Available for CPD

Shirley Clarke material on formative assessment
Inside the Black Box and Working Inside the Black Box by Dylan Williams
Learning Unlimited materials on formative assessment
Newsletter on Assessment is for Learning published by LTS
Closing the Gap and Strategies for Closing the Learning Gap by Mike Hughes

The teacher’s library service based at ASDARC also provide reading material for CPD purposes.

As further material becomes available this resources list will be up-dated.