Our assessment principles
At Northbourne, we believe assessment needs to be at the heart of teaching and learning. Good assessment is not about ‘tests’ and is not used to label children—but, instead, is a means to help a child continue to improve their knowledge, skills and understanding and to attain highly.
- Assessment happens every day through questioning, observation and marking and analysis of work completed by pupils.
- Assessment is used by teachers to evaluate the progress made by pupils and identify further needs.
- Without assessment, meaningful teaching is not possible.
We aim to ensure assessment information is useful for…
- Pupils, to develop their learning and secure further progress
- Parents, to support pupils with their learning
- Teachers, to plan meaningful and accurate next steps in teaching and learning
More information can be found here.
Across our school, pupils are assessed using Target Tracker software linked to the National Curriculum or Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP). Within this, children start each year beginning to understand the objectives which form the curriculum for each subject. As they develop their knowledge, skills and understanding and achieve more learning objectives, they move to be judged as working within the expectations for the year group. By the end of the year, most pupils will have secured their understanding, and be ready to start the curriculum outlined for the next year group; some will be working beyond or below this point. Because assessment information is transitioned seamlessly from one year to the next, your child’s next class teacher is able to use this to plan appropriate work to support and challenge all pupils in their classes from the start of September.
| Beginning
(start of year) |
Working within
(middle of year) |
Secure
(end of year) |
|||
| b | b+ | w | w+ | s | s+ |