Assessment

The objectives of assessment in our school are:

– To enable our children to demonstrate what they know and can do in their work
– To help our children recognise the standards to aim for, and to understand what they need to do next to improve their work
– To make sure our children have solid foundations to their learning through rigorous attention to their basic skills.
– To celebrate with our children when they have made good progress with their learning
– To allow teachers to plan work that accurately reflects the needs of each child
– To provide regular information for parents which enables them to support their child’s learning
– To provide the head teacher and governors with information so that they can make sure our children are making as good progress as other children in the country.

EYFS

Every child’s progress is closely monitored at Westbourne in order that we can provide the best possible opportunities and highest levels of support. When your child starts nursery, staff will informally monitor his/her development and keep detailed records. This information is shared with families and either transferred to the reception class or to the child’s new school. Children continue to be assessed in the reception class where staff will add information to an assessment profile for each individual. Your child will have a profile book of photos and comments which will be available during the year for you to look at.

Marking and School Assessments

At Westbourne Primary school, we believe that effective assessment provides information to improve teaching and learning. To do this in our school, we use two different but complimentary types of assessment: Assessment for Learning and Assessment of Learning.

Assessment for learning involves the use of assessment in the classroom to raise pupil achievement. We believe that children will improve the most when they understand the aim of their learning and how to achieve this aim. At Westbourne Primary School, assessment for learning is based on the following principles:

– Effective questioning that probes children’s understanding
– Feedback, both verbal and written, that pushes learning forward
– Clear learning objectives and challenges that cater for all children’s stages of learning.
– Weekly use of basic skills checks, spellings, reading records and mental maths passports to give children opportunities to regularly practice their basic skills.

Assessment of Learning involves checking children’s performance against their previous performance and against what is expected nationally at their age. Teachers make these judgements at five assessment points during the year. Tests are used to inform these judgements but are always moderated with the Teacher’s knowledge of the child through their work in class. Assessments are reported on a 4-step scale for each year group (Emerging, developing, secure and mastered) depending on how well they know, understand and can apply the curriculum for their year group.

Involving pupils and parents: My Learning Journey

We believe that is very important to feedback to children on how well they have done and what they need to do next to keep making progress. We give children verbal feedback as they work in lessons whenever we can and written comments in books. We have a marking policy to enable children to understand the feedback in their books. Teachers ensure time is planned into the day for children to read and respond to their feedback. Teachers make a note of children who have not achieved the objectives and plan for additional support and practice for these children.

Each child has their own Learning Journey record kept in a class mentoring file. They set out prior achievements and targets for the year. Each term children’s progress in reading, writing and maths, along with their attitude, are highlighted.

– Green means a pupil is exceeding progress expectations
– Amber means the pupil is meeting progress expectations
– Red means their progress is below expectation.

Teachers hold mentoring meetings with each of their children individually to discuss their progress and set new targets. Attitude expectations are set out in the Attitude criteria. This covers expectations for behaviour, attendance, punctuality, home learning and uniform. Children win cubes for green and amber progress, which are then combined as a class to gain class rewards. The learning journey records, along with the children’s new targets, are then sent home to parents and form the basis for the teacher-parent consultations.

Year One phonic check

All children in Year 1 will participate in a phonics check. Any pupils who do not achieve the pass mark in Y1 will be screened again at the end of Y2. Results are included in the pupils’ end of year reports.

SATS

Children in Year 2 and Year 6 are assessed during May. The results of these assessments are reported annually to the parents.

See the Assessment Data Section for a detailed breakdown of how our pupils have performed on the Key Stage Statutory Assessments.

“You’re doing a really good thing here at this school.”

– Parent of Reception and Year 4 Children