Assessment

How do we assess pupils' learning?

Knowing where children are at, where they need to go and how they will get there.

Teachers at Belmont assess children's learning and how they progress through a clearly planned sequence of learning to acquire skills and the knowledge needed to apply them in a variety of ways.

The principles that underpin our assessment system are:

Every child can achieve: teachers at Belmont have the mindset, ‘What do I need to do next to enable a child in my class to achieve?’
Objectives from the National Curriculum and Early Years Foundation Stage Profile are being used as expectations for all children.
Pupils will make age-appropriate progress from their different starting points – 12 months in 12 months, more for those who need to 'close the gap' to reach age-related expectations.
Teachers are experts at assessment - assessment is effectively used to ensure the correct scaffolding is built into lessons to ensure all children achieve.

Our assessment and reporting system includes:

Ongoing assessment by the class teacher throughout each lesson, through questioning, observation, and dialogue to inform them about next steps in teaching.
Children know what they are being asked to learn and, more importantly, why.
Children are partners in the learning process, using a framework of cold/hot assessment tasks to know where they are at on the learning journey, where they need to go next and what they need to do to get there.
Success Criteria are discussed and agreed with or formulated by the children for each learning session, work is then assessed against the success criteria.
Three-way feedback; pupil, peer, teacher with clearly identified next steps – this can be written or verbal feedback.
Regular pupils’ work scrutiny.

In addition to the above, there will be three 'formal' assessment points or 'data checkpoints' in the year. These will take place at the end of each term. We will use DFE tests for reading and mathematics in years 2 & 6 as well as Learn by Questions tests for Year 2, 3, 4 and 5, as these will provide us with a standardised score and detailed gap analysis to tell us how much progress your child is making and if they are on track to meet National Curriculum expectations for their age range. The tests will also inform us about our next steps in teaching. We will use teacher assessment for writing and in Early Years. Children's reading ability will be 'benchmarked' every half-term to ensure a good match of reading books and individuals' ability to master fluency.

Children in Years 1 and 6 will continue to sit the statutory assessments in the summer term and Year 4 pupils will sit the national multiplication table check in the summer term.

How we share this information with parents:

Online learning review, at least once each term, a child will share online learning from their English and mathematics books, ready to share their progress with parents. Parents have an opportunity to make comments on this to share with their child and the class teacher.
Following each 'Data-Snapshot', we will report to parents via an online system (Arbor). Pupils will be assessed as working 'below', 'at', or 'above' expectations for their age. These descriptors will also be used for assessing progress from starting points (end of reception or Year 2).
Discussions at parent, teacher, consultation meetings in the Autumn and Spring terms are based on the assessment system in place for each age group.
Parents also receive a termly report and outcomes of statutory assessments at the end of the Summer Term.

This will look like:

Autumn 1 - Meet the teacher parent meetings.
Autumn 2 – LBQ/DFE tests in maths and reading, writing moderation.
Autumn 2 – Autumn Interim Term Report.
Spring 1 - Parent consultation meetings
Spring 2 – LBQ/DFE tests in maths and reading, writing moderation.
Spring 2 – Spring Interim Term Report.
Summer 1 - Statutory assessments for Year 6, Non statutory assessments for Year 2.
Summer 2 – Statutory Phonics Check for Year 1 and retest for Year 2, Multiplication Check for Year 4.
Summer 2 - LBQ tests (Y1,3,4,5).
Summer 2 – End of Year Report.

Statutory Assessments (End of Key Stage)

In addition to the above assessments, pupils also complete the following statutory assessments:

Reception – Baseline, EYFS profile
Year 1 (and 2) - Phonics Check
Year 4 - Multiplication tables check
Year 6 - end of Key Stage assessments

Early Years - Nursery & Reception

Class teachers will use a combination of the EYFS profile and a baseline assessment to measure children's progress.

Foundation Baseline Assessment

What is the reception baseline assessment?

The reception baseline assessment is a national assessment that is administered in reception classes in all primary, infant and first schools in England. This forms the baseline for primary progress measures, allowing schools to receive credit for the progress their pupils make throughout their time in primary school.

Why has it been introduced?

Historically, a key measure of how well a primary school is serving its pupils is the progress that they make between the end of key stage 1 (year 2) and the end of key stage 2 (year 6). This allows the government to take account of the fact that schools face different challenges given their pupils’ starting points. The reception baseline assessment provides a snapshot of where pupils are when they arrive at school, enabling a new starting point to measure the progress that they make by the end of year 6. It also enables the Department for Education (DfE) to remove the statutory end of key stage 1 assessments, as they are no longer the starting point for progress measures.

An information video for parents about the reception baseline assessment (RBA) can be found here. This will provide information to help you, as parents, to understand a little more about what the assessment is, how it is carried out and why it was introduced

EYFS Profile:

The EYFS profile assessment is carried out in the final term of Reception
The main purpose of the EYFS profile is to provide a reliable, valid and accurate assessment of individual children at the end of the EYFS.

EYFS profile data is used to:

Inform parents about their child’s development through early learning goals (ELGs) and the characteristics of their learning.
Help year 1 teachers plan an effective, responsive and appropriate curriculum that will meet the needs of each child.

Children in Nursery and Reception are assessed by the Prime and Specific areas of Learning in the EYFS profile, these are recorded on our online system, Evidence for Learning. Assessments are based on observation of daily activities and events. At the end of Reception for each Early Learning Goal, teachers will judge whether a child is meeting the level of development expected at the end of the Reception year:

Emerging, not yet reached the expected level of development
Expected

Phonics Screening Check Year 1

The Phonics Screening Check demonstrates how well pupils can use the phonics skills they have learnt up to the end of Year 1, and to identify those who need extra phonics help.
The checks consist of 40 words and non-words that your child will be asked to read one-on-one with a teacher. Non-words (or nonsense words, or pseudo words) are a collection of letters that will follow phonetic rules your child has been taught, but don’t mean anything.
The 40 words and non-words are divided into two sections – one with simple word structures of three or four letters, and one with more complex word structures of five or six letters.
Pupils will be scored against a national standard, and the main result will be whether they fall below, within or above this standard.
Pupils who do not meet the required standard in Year 1 will be re-checked in Year 2.