Assessment and Reporting

Children’s work is regularly assessed in school though marking, verbal feedback, assessment three times a year against Age Related Expectations (AREs) and national assessment tests at the end of specific year groups. As a school, we believe this is important to track progress, to help us recognise and celebrate your child’s achievements, to set individual progress targets and to enable early identification of any particular areas where more focus, practice and support may be required. The outcomes of these assessments and individual targets are shared with families at Parents’ Evenings and in children’s end of year school reports.

Further information can be found in our Assessment Policy.

Assessment of Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) children.

Reception year children are assessed against the Foundation Stage Profile and the 17 Early Learning Goals (ELG). Children are reported as ‘emerging’, ‘expected’ or ‘exceeding’ for each ELG and whether they have achieved a ‘good’ level of development by the end of the year.

In September 2015, the government introduced a baseline assessment of all children entering the Reception year in order for them to improve how they measure the progress of children across their primary education. The baseline assessment scores each pupil against the knowledge and understanding typical for children at the start of reception year and is linked to the learning and development requirements of the early years foundation stage (EYFS) and to the key stage 1 national curriculum in English and mathematics. As a result of the introduce of the baseline assessment, end of key stage one SATs tests became optional and Marshfield has chosen not to participate in these.

Year 1 Phonics Screening

In June, all pupils in Year 1 participate in a phonics screening check. This is a national, statutory requirement and gives an indication of children’s phonetic decoding skills. Pupils who do not achieve the required threshold at the end of year 1 repeat the check at the end of year 2, following further phonics input.

Year 6 end of key stage 2 Standardised Assessment Tests (SATS)

In May, all pupils in year 6 sit SATs examinations in English reading, English spelling, English grammar and punctuation, maths arithmetic and maths reasoning (two papers). These tests are externally marked. Writing for year 6 is teacher assessed, and teacher assessments are moderated by a team of English experts from the local authority every three years to ensure accuracy against national benchmarked criteria.

These assessments are national requirements and while giving very useful information about progress and achievement we recognise they offer a ‘snapshot’ of attainment and reflect only one aspect of a child’s education and learning.

Ongoing teacher assessment in Years 1-6

Children in years 1-6 are assessed against the 2014 National Curriculum for reading, writing and mathematics. For each year group, a set of Age Related Expectations (AREs) exist for each child to meet. As a school, we assess children three times a year against the AREs for reading, writing and mathematics. In order to make a judgment on which AREs a child has met each term, we use a range of evidence – work in books, tests, mini assessments, observations and annotated planning. Over the year, the percentage of AREs a pupil has met is tracked on the School’s Information Management System (Arbor). Similar assessments exist for the foundation subjects and are also tracked on Arbor.

Progress is then used to inform teachers’ future lesson planning and any specific learning interventions required for certain individual children.

Annual Reports

All families receive an Annual Report in the summer term informing them of their child’s progress over the year. Reported levels follow an assessment model that was developed by a South Gloucestershire Assessment Group consisting of Headteachers and Local Authority advisors:

In English reading, English writing and mathematics, children will be given a level comprising of a number and a letter – E, D or S.

The number corresponds to the year group standard at which they are working.

The letters represent the language of emerging (E), developing (D) or secure (S) within the descriptors for the particular year group.

A child is emerging (E) in their understanding of a programme of study if they have a good understanding of 16% to 49% of the descriptors in the programme of study for a particular year.

A child is developing (D) their understanding of a programme of study if they have a good understanding and knowledge of 50%-84% of the descriptors in the programme of study for a particular year.

A child is secure (S) in their understanding of a programme of study if they have a good understanding and knowledge of 85% of the descriptors in the programme of study for a particular year and up to 15% of the following year’s descriptors.

For example, a year 6 learner who has met over 85% of the year six AREs would be awarded the level descriptor 6S.

A child is expected to make 3 progress steps per year, e.g a child who achieved 5S at the end of year 5 would expect to move through 6E and 6D to finish on 6S at the end of year 6 (3 progress steps). This is good. 

A child is expected to secure the descriptors for their year group; however, some children may be working on the programme of study of a different year group as we must be sure that a child has all the knowledge and skills of a year group before moving onto those of the next year.