Assessment at Christopher Hatton
There are three main forms of assessment:
In-school formative assessment: this is used by teachers to evaluate pupils’ knowledge and understanding on a day-to-day basis and to tailor teaching accordingly.
In-school summative assessment: this enables the school to evaluate how much a pupil has learned at the end of a unit or teaching period; it informs teaching and wider school support.
Nationally Standardised Assessments: used by governors, parents and the government to hold schools to account.
The learning objectives in the curriculum for each year group form the basis of our in-school tracking system; teachers continually assess children against these expectations, using their findings to plan for progression. Termly progress meetings are used to moderate teacher judgements, to check children are making good progress and to inform the support we give. Within school, we centrally track of the progress each child makes. This is updated at least termly and is based on progress towards end of year expectations. We analyse the data each term to ensure children are being supported to reach high standards.
Ongoing teacher led assessments are central to our practice. Assessment takes many forms: marking, questioning, work scrutiny, observations and short tests. This kind of ongoing assessment is vital at school, as it helps the teacher plan what each child needs to learn next.
Attainment of the national curriculum standards and the level of progress made is reported to parents in termly meetings and in the end of year written report. In addition to commenting on progress and attitudes, reports indicate attainment against expected standards using the following categories:
Working Below – working significantly below the end of year expectation (working within a lower key stage)
Working Towards – not yet meeting the end of year expectation
Meeting Expectations – working at the expected end of year expectation
Working at greater depth – Demonstrating deeper understanding (mastery) of the learning objectives. This is unlike old levels in that, children do not move onto new content, rather they achieve a deeper understanding through problem solving and applying their knowledge in a wider range of contexts.
National Assessments
Baseline
Children are given a short baseline assessment within the first few weeks of starting Reception class, completed by the teacher, to find the individual child's starting point.
End of year 1
Children take an externally set Phonics Screening Test in June: you will be informed whether your child has met the required standard in phonics. If they have not met the expected level, they will be retested in Y2. Children will also be assessed in reading, writing, mathematics and other subjects on a regular basis using teacher assessment. End of year reports will indicate children’s attainment against national standards. A comment will also be made regarding progress and attitudes.
End of Key Stage 1
From 2024 end of KS1 tests are no longer a statutory requirement. The government will not collect and publish this assessment data any longer. However we will continue to assess Year 2 as we do every other year group as this is essential for us to evaluate the impact of our teaching and to set priorities for planning.
End of Year 4
From the 2019/20 academic year onwards, all state-funded maintained schools in England will be required to administer an online multiplication tables check (MTC) to year 4 pupils.
The national curriculum specifies that pupils should be taught to recall the multiplication tables up to and including 12 × 12 by the end of year 4.
The purpose of the MTC is to determine whether pupils can recall their times tables fluently, which is essential for future success in mathematics. It will help schools to identify pupils who have not yet mastered their times tables, so that additional support can be provided.
End of Key Stage 2
Children will sit National Tests in May; these cover mathematics, reading and grammar, spelling and punctuation. Writing assessments continue to be based on ongoing teacher assessment; moderated locally. The tests will be externally set and externally marked. The format and level of challenge has changed. There will no longer be a separate Level 6 paper. Children will no longer be given a level instead their raw scores in the tests are converted to a scaled score. The scaled score will be out of 100, where 100 is the standard for that stage. A report giving raw, standardised scores and attainment descriptor will be given alongside a more detailed end of year report.
Want to know more?
- Talk to your child’s teacher
- Look at your child’s books
- Look at our assessment policy
- Attend parent meetings
Parents of children taking external tests will be invited to a meeting in which we can show example papers, give advice on how to support your child and explain how the exam period works.
Our Assessemt and Teaching and Learning Policies can be found on our policies page by clicking here.
