We have many processes in school to help us to understand children's progress and to best challenge and support them.

Summative vs Formative

What most of us think of when we think of assessment – tests at the end of a unit of study, or phase of school to measure achievement – is summative. In school, it’s really only our end of Key Stage 2 assessments (SATs and teacher assessments of writing and science) that are summative. The vast majority of our assessment is formative. This is lower stakes and is used to inform teachers’ feedback and planning. Formative assessments are generally used internally only to help the children make the best progress they can.

Day-to-day

Formative assessment is happening all the time, in every lesson. Classroom staff will be listening to children and looking at their work to establish the extent and depth of their understanding of concepts and grasp of skills. There might be verbal feedback to a child or a comment in a book, or it might just be that the next activity or lesson is planned as a result without the children even realising. It’s the teacher’s bread and butter.

Internal

In addition to the day-to-day formative assessment described above, we have various other internal assessment processes. Again, these are all formative so used to help staff support and challenge the children.

Phonics – 6 weekly assessments to assess progress and to identify gaps in learning that need to be reviewed or retaught. Also, to establish if learning is secure for more than 70% of children before new content is taught and to identify any children needing additional support and to plan regular keep-up support that they need. Every three weeks, we reassess every child who is not on track. See our phonics page and policy for more details.

Reading – Children who have completed our phonics programme engage with our Accelerated Reader programme for their independent reading. This helps guide children towards books of a suitable interest level and challenge, and encourages them to think about their reading through low-stakes online quizzes. The quizzing also gives teachers more information about pupils’ progress and areas for development. Successful quizzing of a variety of genres of books can lead to a book prize in weekly assemblies. For more information, see our reading page and the guidance note for parents attached below.

Times Tables – We use Tackling Tables to promote fluency of mental arithmetic in years 2-6. The programme not only focusses on times-table facts, it also covers the related division facts and how both can be used in other areas of the curriculum (e.g. in fractions or when using multiples) and also on adding and subtracting. Resources are available online and offline and children can earn certificates and star badges. See the maths page for more information and the attached note for parents.

PiXL – Once a term, children in years 2-6 undertake PiXL assessments in reading, maths (arithmetic and reasoning, which is problem-solving) and in GPS (grammar, punctuation and spelling). While these are written assessments, they are undertaken in an age-appropriate environment and adaptations are made to support children who need it. Teachers get detailed information from these assessments to help plan future lessons and support/challenge for individuals and groups of children.

Statutory

Assessments that we are required to carry out are summarised below. Also below are information leaflets from the DfE.

Reception – a baseline in the first six weeks of reception (RBA). Children work with their teacher to answer questions 1:1 but still informally. The school receives general statements after the baseline but not specific detail about any children.

Year 1 – phonics screening check in June (PSC). Children work with their teacher 1:1 to read 40 words (20 real and 20 pseudo/alien) using their phonics knowledge. Their mark is published with their annual report and any children not passing do another check at the end of year 2.

Year 4 – multiplication tables check in June (MTC). Children work on a laptop or iPad to answer 25 times table questions, having 5 or 6 seconds to answer each one. Similar to the work they do on Tackling Tables. There is no pass mark but scores are published with children’s annual reports.

Year 6 – key stage 2 SATs in May. Six tests taken across three subjects - GPS, reading and maths. All tests taken in a week at the same time as all year 6s nationwide. Writing and science are not tested but assessed by class teachers. Results are published with children's annual reports. 

If you have any questions about our assessment processes in school, your child(ren)’s class teacher is the first port of call.