How is your child’s progress assessed?

All children are assessed against the objectives for their own year group (or age-related expectations). Children are regularly assessed in reading, writing, maths and in Years 3 to 6 English Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling (EGPS). Tests provide a scaled score between 70 and 130. These tests and evidence in children’s books are used to give children an assessment which describe their progress towards the end of year expectations.

*this is not the national average, but the national expectation for children at this age.
Children must now attain at least ‘Meeting’ age-related expectation’ before they are able to progress into the next year of objectives. Even then, sometime may be spent deepening and consolidating learning from the previous year.

How do teachers at Campsbourne make these judgements?

Throughout their time at school, your child is constantly being assessed by their teachers. These assessments are conducted through observations, conversations, marking work and tests. Though the majority of assessments take place in an informal and naturalised way, they are recorded in assessment documents that help to build a complete picture of your child’s development over time.

Writing

Children are constantly assessed based on the writing they produce both during English lessons and also in lessons in other curriculum areas. Children are regularly assessed against a set of ‘end of year objectives’. At the start of a unit in English children complete a ‘cold task’. This is a piece of writing which children write with minimal input form the teacher. This enables the teacher to clearly identify which ‘end of year objectives’ the child needs to work on to make further progress within that genre. At the end of the unit children do a ‘hot task’ which is similar to the cold task and shows the improvements made in their writing. Teachers regularly update an assessment spreadsheet which shows how well children are progressing towards meeting end of year objectives.

Reading

Children are assessed each week during reading lessons. Guided reading sessions in the Autumn term in Year 2,  involve a carousel of activities which involve children formulating in depth responses to questions over a number of lessons. Children in Years 3-6 also complete regular, written comprehension tasks. Written responses provide clear evidence to inform teachers’ judgements about your child’s progress towards end of year objectives. Children are also assessed regularly in Years 3-6 using Star Reading Tests which are administered on computers. The tests are adaptable depending on how the children answer questions. Questions get progressively harder until a question is answered incorrectly, when an easier question is provided. The test finishes when two questions in a row are answered incorrectly. These tests provide teachers with detailed analysis of how strong a child is with different aspects of the national curriculum for reading and enable teachers to tailor provision to meet the specific needs of the child.

Maths

Children are constantly assessed during maths lessons through conversations, observations and the work they produce in their books. At the end of each lesson children are assessed against the learning objective and those who are assessed as not achieving the learning objective receive additional input from the class teacher during assembly time before the next lesson. These additional sessions take place on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and ensure that gaps in learning are addressed without delay. At the end of each unit children teachers make judgements about children progress towards the objectives for that unit to identify which children need additional support. This information is used by us to provide targeted support. At the end of each term children in years 2 to 6 take written maths papers which are analysed to identify gaps in children knowledge and understanding. Teachers in year 1 make judgments about the children’s learning using evidence from lessons.

SATs Tests

Children in Year 6 are obliged to undertake National Curriculum Tests (also known as SATs) in the summer term.

In Year 6, SATs tests are administered in a formal manner in accordance with strict guidance from the DfE. Children in Year 6 undertake tests in maths, reading and grammar, punctuation and spelling. These tests are marked externally.

How will Year 6 SATs test results be reported to parents?

Children’s results are reported using a scaled score. A scaled score of 100 represents the expected standard for each test. If your child gets a scaled score of 100 or more it means they are working at or above the expected standard in the subject. If your child gets a scaled score of less than 100 it means that they may need more support to reach the expected standard. The highest scaled score possible is 120, and the lowest is 80. Below is a leaflet from the Department for Education which explains the new assessment system and how progress is measured.

Primary School Progress Measures Leaflet

Reporting to Parents

Parent Meetings
Children’s attainment and progress is discussed at Parent Meetings which take place each term. During these meetings parents are informed about how their child is progressing against end of year expectations and what their targets are both in school and for home.

Teachers are also available for informal consultation if parents wish to discuss their child’s learning at other points.

End of Year Reports
End of year reports clearly show how well children have done against the end of year expectations for reading, writing and maths. For foundation subjects parents are provided with an overview which shows how well children are working in a subject and their effort.