Assessment at Petersgate

Assessment at Petersgate Infant School takes two forms:

1.  Formative Assessment
2. Summative Assessment

 Formative Assessment:

Formative assessment takes place every day and in every learning opportunity. Teachers and Learning Support Assistants check on a child’s understanding of a skill and/or knowledge and adapt the learning and teaching accordingly.  Further intervention, support and/or challenge will be planned in light of this assessment.  Learning within a lesson may also be adapted or redirected to support the learning needs.

Summative Assessment:

Summative assessment is used to evaluate how much a child has learned at the end of a teaching period. As an infant school we have children in two different key stages, the Foundation Stage (year R) and Key Stage 1 (years 1 and 2), with each of these key stages following a different curriculum. These are the Early Years Statutory Framework and the National Curriculum.

Our summative assessment procedures are matched to the demands of these two curricula, which means that the systems in year R are different to those in years 1 and 2, although the principles remain the same.

Year R – Foundation Stage:

On entry to school, the children will take part in a Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA).  The RBA is an age-appropriate assessment of early mathematics and early literacy, communication and language. It is delivered in English and is administered within the first six weeks of a pupil starting reception. The assessment has two components, each consisting of practical tasks using physical resources. There is an online scoring system for the practitioner to use as the pupil engages with the tasks. Department of Education will use the data from the RBA to create school-level progress measures for primary schools, which will show the progress of pupils from reception until the end of key stage 2.  The data gathered in school, from these assessments, will inform the interventions, learning and support the children will need. 

The EYFS profile is a statutory assessment of children’s development at the end of the early years foundation stage (known as a summative assessment) and is made up of an assessment of the child’s outcomes in relation to the 17 early learning goals (ELGs). It is intended to provide a reliable, valid, and accurate assessment of each child’s development at the end of the EYFS.

Practitioners are expected to use their professional judgement to make these assessments, based on their knowledge and understanding of what the child knows, understands, and can do.

Day-to-day informal checking of what children have learnt will inform teaching and learning on an ongoing basis throughout the final year of the EYFS. This will include identifying areas where children may be at risk of falling behind, so that practitioners can provide rapid, effective support.

Judgements are made at the end of each milestone (Nov, Feb, April) and at the end of the year to measure progress and identify next steps in learning.  At these times, parents/carers are invited into school during parent evenings to discuss their child’s progress and ways in which they support the learning at home.  Staff will also share the learning on a day-to-day basis through the use of the Seesaw.

In the second half of the summer term children are assessed against each of the 17 early learning goals (ELG). This information is reported to parents at the end of the summer term and the information is used to plan provision for children as they enter year 1.

Years 1 and 2- Key Stage 1

In Key Stage 1 the school has chosen to use the Hampshire Assessment Model (HAM).

Each curriculum area of reading, writing and maths is divided into domains (areas of learning), and the school year is split into four phases of about 10 weeks. The end of each phase being known as a ‘milestone’.

Phases

The judgments made for each domain at each milestone are:

EXS – Securely on track to meet the end of year age related expectations

WTS – Working below the level needed to be on track to meet the end of year age related expectations

GDS - Working beyond the level needed to be on track to meet the end of year age related expectations

Domains/areas of learning:

Children who are working below the level needed to be on track and who have a cognitive special educational need (SEN) will be on the school SEN register. These children will have a SEN profile plan, which will indicate achievable targets and interventions to support these targets.  We recognise that a child with SEN, may make smaller incremental steps of progress and these will be shared and celebrated as part of their plan during parents/carers evenings.  A child with SEN will have the learning adapted and varied to meet their needs.

There are parents/carers evenings at the end of each phase in order for teachers to share the assessment information with parents/carers and discuss the next steps in learning.  A short phase report, printed from Arbor, will outline where your child is working within the different subjects.  At the end of the year parents receive a written report detailing their child’s achievements.

Statutory assessments:

At the end of each year there are government statutory assessments, the outcomes of which will be shared with parents.

In year R – this is the Foundation Stage Profile, which details which of the early learning goals a child has achieved.

Children are assessed as emerging within the ELG- which is below the expected age related standard met the ELG – working at the age related standard exceeding the ELG – working above the age related standard

In year 1– children undertake the Phonics screening which checks their ability to blend together the sounds which they have learnt.  Outcomes from the screening are shared with parents/carers at the end of the year.

In year 2– the Statutory Assessment Tasks or SATs in reading and maths are now optional and the school are in the process in deciding if these tests will still be undertaken.  Throuhgout the year, teachers making on-going assessments on your child’s learning as part of the phase assessments at each milestone.  An end of year outcome for reading, writing and maths will also be made.  Outcomes at the end of year 2 will be shared with parents/carers as part of the end of year report, with outcomes also being shared with their feeder junior school. Children who did not reach the required standard in the phonics screening in year 1 will be screened again at the end of year 2.

Please click here to view our results page.