Results
Assessment at Harefield Primary School
Rationale
Assessment is a continuous process of recognising achievement and development. It should inform both the learner and the teacher and provide each with a basis for further progression.
At Harefield, we recognise that Assessment for learning is key to our children’s success and should recognise achievements of all of our learners. It is central to classroom practice and forms an effective part of planning. Assessment for learning promotes commitment to learning goals and a shared understanding of the criteria by which they are assessed. This ensures that all of our children learn using our PRIDE values of being fully Prepared, Respectful, Involved, Determined, Every day.
Assessment at Harefield Primary School will:
- Be accurate, timely and purposeful
- Help to embed knowledge and support fluency
- Identify children’s next steps to enable them to achieve their potential
- Continuously determine what pupils know, understand and can do
- Assist teachers in evaluating teaching methods and informing future planning
- Use a variety of evidence and different contexts
- Provide key information to all stakeholders including parents, the Senior Leadership Team and Governing body.
Assessment at Harefield Primary School will not:
- tell us everything about the child
- put unnecessary demands on staff or pupils
We are committed to: -
- Developing the delivery of constructive guidance, identifying pupil’s achievements and giving advice and targets for how to improve.
- Developing self-assessment of pupils to identify the next steps in their own learning.
- Taking account of the importance of learning motivation and confidence.
- Being constructive with our assessment feedback.
- Continuous professional development of staff, promoting a greater understanding of how pupils learn.
Assessment and the our Curriculum
Assessment is built into all stages of planning, from the School Development Plan, whole school topics, topic planners and maps, weekly overviews and year group topics. Class teachers employ a range of formal and informal methods of assessment, including day to day assessment to inform their own class teaching.
The range of assessments
We use a variety of assessments, both formative and summative. Formative assessment includes target setting, intervention planning, class teacher analysis and subject leader analysis. Summative assessment includes tracking analysis with data drops 3 times a year, Senior Leadership Team analysis, SATs results and annual reports to parents. Assessment methods and evidence includes: -
- Work written, photographed and videoed across the curriculum
- Results from formal testing e.g. KS1 and 2 SATs, Phonics screening and Early Learning Goals.
- Formal and informal observations, note taking, questioning, listening and interacting with the children
- Observations through child initiated play, recorded on Tapestry, an app that parents can access
- Work sampling analysis and moderation of work, internally and externally
- Pupil interviews and conferences
- Short term planning is annotated and adjusted, taking account of prior skills, knowledge and understanding and day to day progress and needs
- Development of peer and self-assessment
Who is involved in assessment?
- Teachers using knowledge of their own pupils
- The Senior Leadership team, with an oversight of whole school, specific subject area, key stage expectations.
- Subject leaders using expertise in their specific area.
- Pupils about their own progress.
- Teaching Assistants under guidance and instruction from class teachers/ the Inclusion Lead.
- Parents, in consultation with teachers.
Termly assessment of core subjects
Three times per year, there are opportunities for focussed assessments in Reading, Writing and Maths. The work is assessed by class teachers, moderated in year groups and when possible, by all staff and the Senior Leadership Team in designated meeting time. We are also moderated by the HAMWIC Trust, annually and partake in external moderation. This ensures that our assessment is accurate and consistent. The class teachers use this evidence along with daily classroom analysis to formally track the children. This data is then analysed to inform future planning, support and interventions.
Pupil progress meetings follow on from this tracking data in order to report to the Headteacher on progress and attainment in each class. This enables teachers and the Senior Leadership Team to identify any pupils that are underachieving, the contextual reasons why and put appropriate support in place to narrow the gap.
End of year assessment
A child’s attainment is finally measured at the end of the academic year and we will report if the child has met the year group Age Related Expectations. Age Related Expectations (ARE) are based on the children “mastering” their year group curriculum by the end of the year and are able to independently apply what they have learnt, in a range of contexts, fluently and accurately.
Due to the pandemic there is no published data for the years 2019-2020, 2020-2021 or 2021 - 22.