At St Richard’s CE Primary School, assessment means continually evaluating our children’s knowledge, skills and understanding, establishing what they can do and what their next steps in learning should be. Assessment is at the heart of our learning process. It provides us with valuable evidence to guide and improve teaching and learning. Alongside this it offers an opportunity for our children to demonstrate and review their own progress. It is an integral part of our Christian ethos of belief.
We are committed to:
Early Years Foundation Stage
In Nursery and Reception, children are continually assessed through their play and activities by the Early Years team using the criteria from the Development Matters document based around seven areas:
At the end of the Early Years, children are deemed to have achieved a Good Level of Development (GLD) if they have reached the ‘Expected ‘level in the areas of Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Physical Development, Communication and Language, Literacy and Mathematics. Children who have not achieved the expected level in these areas will be described as ‘Emerging’ and children who achieve above will be described as ‘Exceeding’.
Key Stage 1
Children in Key Stage 1 are required to participate in two national assessments:
Children will have their level of phonetic understanding checked by staff within the school by completing a short exercise of reading 40 words. This happens in June of Year 1. If a child does not pass the screening, they will take it again in the June of Year 2.
Children will take tests in Mathematics, Reading and Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling at the end of Year 2, throughout May. The results of these tests are used alongside the class teacher’s assessment to judge whether a child has met the ‘expected standard or is ‘working towards’ it. Some children who exceed the expected standard will be described as working at the ‘greater depth’ standard. These teacher assessments are reported to the Department for Education and published nationally.
Key Stage 2
Children in Year 6 are required to take national assessments to assess their readiness for secondary education. These formal SATs tests take place in June in Mathematics, Reading and Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling. The raw score of each test is converted to a scaled score. If a child’s scaled score is above 100 then ‘national standard’ has been achieved. A score of over 110 is deemed to be high. These results are available for the school to view online in early July and published nationally by the Department for Education.
All outcomes of key assessments are shared with parents through the end of year report card. They are also published on the school’s website.