Assessment 

In 2016 the Government made a huge change to the way that children in schools were  to be assessed. The Department of Education (DfE) wanted to ensure that children have a breadth and depth of knowledge at each national curriculum stage. They therefore removed all levels from the statutory assessment and instructed schools to develop their own system in line with ‘age related’ expectations.

At Littleborough, in consultation with other bodies and schools within the Local Authority, we have developed a system that will enable us to track children’s progress and report clearly your child’s attainment and progress without the use of levels. Therefore, we will no longer describe your child’s progress or attainment under a ‘level’ but against an assessment descriptor. This shows what each child should be able to do at their age, by the end of the year.

Please Note: This year, Reception assessments will be trialling the new Baseline Assessment for Early Years.

New Assessment Descriptors

SAT’s in Year 2 and Year 6 will still take place.  In Year 6 your child will be given a ‘scaled score’. Alongside, your child’s scaled score you will also be given a child’s raw score (the actual number of marks they achieved on their end of year SAT’s) and whether they have reached the National Average. The scaled score needed to reach the National Average is 100.

Although the SAT’s test are only for Year 2 and 6, all children from Year 1-6 will be assessed against  descriptors in line with what is expected at ’age expectation’. The school will use a system similar to that used by Reception.

In Year 2, the result from your child’s SAT’s, combined with teacher assessment throughout the year, will be used to determine your child’s end of year level.

New Level Descriptors for all Children

The National expectation is that by the end of the academic year, the majority of the children, should be assessed as being  Secure or Secure + within their year group.

Under the previous levels system  children who were Secure + might have moved into the next  level. The DfE now want children who are in the Secure + bracket to add more depth and breadth to their knowledge, and have more opportunities to develop their using and applying skills. Therefore, the expectation from the DfE is that children who are Secure + will not move into the next year group expectations.

During the year, we will have conversations with you about your child’s progress and you will be given targets along with information about whether your child is on track to meet end of year expectations. Please note: as each year group will work towards the end of year expectations, it is expected that most children will begin the new academic year ‘Below’ or ‘within’.

Schools are allowed to design their own system you so will find that all schools are assessing children slightly differently. As this is a new system, we are required by the DfE to continue to refine our systems throughout this transition period. If there are any significant alterations, we will keep you fully updated.

Assessment for Learning (AfL)

We continue to use Assessment for Learning (AfL) strategies in the classroom . AfL is the process of seeking and interpreting evidence used by learners and their teachers to decide where the learners are in their learning,  where they need to go next and how best to get there.  It involves using a range of strategies to build a picture of your child’s attainment and involves children in the assessment process, recognising and acknowledging their achievements and planning the next steps in their learning.

What does it look like?

The pupil will be given opportunities to assess their own work against a set of agreed success criteria.  This is called self assessment. They will recognise and note their achievements and will have the opportunity to see where they need to focus next in order to move on in their learning.

Sometimes pupils will have the opportunity to work with a partner to assess each others work and to identify the next learning steps to be made.  This involves comparing work against agreed success criteria, holding positive and constructive conversations about strong aspects of the work and identifying one area that could be the focus for further improvement. This is called peer assessment.

At the start of each lesson there is a feedback session reviewing the previous lesson. This feedback session looks at good work, picking out the key features which makes that particular piece of work good. Common basic errors and any misconceptions are shared and re-taught. The children are also provided with the opportunity to respond to the feedback given by making improvements to their work and correcting mistakes using purple pen.   

AfL strategies are designed to build up a complete picture of where pupil’s are in their learning on a day-to-day basis. They build a very personal picture of an individual child’s attainment.