At Glenmere we believe that effective assessment provides information to improve teaching and learning. We give learners regular feedback on their learning so that they understand what it is that they need to do better. This allows us to base our planning on a detailed knowledge of the pupils’ learning. We give parents regular written and verbal reports on their child’s progress so that teachers, children and parents are all working together to raise standards for all our children.

Aims and objectives

The aims and objectives of assessment in our school are:

• to enable our children to demonstrate what they know, understand and can do in their work;
• to help our children understand what they need to do next to improve their work;
• to allow teachers to plan work that accurately reflects the needs of the children;
• to provide regular information for parents that enables them to support their child’s learning;
• to provide school leaders and governors with information that allows them to make judgements about the effectiveness of the school.

Assessment is not a singular activity; it is about measurement of performance at a given point in time and a way of gaining information to promote future learning. Our first point of principle should be to hold on to aspects of assessment that aim to measure what we value rather than simply valuing what we are able to measure. Secondly, we acknowledge that there are two distinct types of assessment used by the school.

These include:

• Assessment for learning (Formative Assessment) helps to identify the next steps needed to make progress. It takes account of pupils’ strengths as well as weaknesses.
• Assessment of learning (Summative Assessment) is more associated with judgements based on grades and ranks and with public accountability.

Formal summative assessment, measuring outcomes against all schools nationally:

• End of EYFS: % of pupils achieving a “Good Level of Development”
• Phonics Screening Test at the end of Year 1 % of pupils achieving the required screening check
• End of KS1: % of pupils achieving Expected and above in reading, writing, maths ,speaking and listening and science.
• End of KS2: % of pupils achieving Expected and above in reading, writing, maths and science.

Good assessment practice will:

• raise standards of attainment and behaviour, and improve pupil attitudes and response
• enable the active involvement of pupils in their own learning by providing effective feedback which closes the gap between present performance and future standards required
• Enable continuous reflection on what pupils know and understand, and their next steps for improvement.
• promote pupil self-esteem through a shared understanding of the learning processes and the routes to improvement
• guide and support the teacher as planner, provider and evaluator
• enable the teacher to adjust teaching to take account of assessment information and to focus on how pupils learn and draw upon as wide a range of evidence as possible using a variety of assessment activities.
• enable us to discover whether we are providing appropriate learning opportunities and to find out if our teaching is effective.
• enable the staff to collate and analyse the assessment data using the school assessment tracking system for each cohort of pupils.
• track pupil performance and progress, and in particular identify those pupils and groups of pupils at risk of underachievement, diagnosing problems which need attention.
• provide information which can be used by teachers and managers as they plan for individual pupils and cohorts
• provide information which can be used by parents or carers to understand their pupils’ strengths, weaknesses and progress
• provide evidence for referrals to external agencies, relating to S.E.N.
• provide information which can be used to evaluate a school’s performance against its own previous attainment over time and against national standards.