In St. Augustine’s Primary, we aim to provide every child with experiences and opportunities that enable them to achieve their full potential and prepare them for life beyond primary school.  One of the key drivers in the National Improvement Framework focuses on assessment of children’s progress.  Assessment and Moderation are integral parts of the teaching and learning process and informs our practice, enabling us to meet the needs of all children. 

What Is Assessment? 

Assessment is carried out to identify what children know, understand and are able to do.  Planning for assessment must be undertaken at the same time as planning the teaching and learning.   

• The principles that guide quality assessment practice include approaches that:  
• support teaching and learning 
• are valid, robust and reliable 
• support Teacher Professional Judgement 
• support accountability  
• actively involve children in their own learning, demonstrating their progress and achievements in a range of contexts 
• motivate children and have a positive impact on confidence and self-esteem 

Why Do We Assess? 

• To ensure children are aware of what they can do well, their working levels and what the next steps in their learning should be
• To enable children to become more responsible for their own learning, including setting appropriate targets 
• To promote and support children’s engagement, motivation and confidence 
• To provide parents/carers with accurate information about children’s progress and how they can support learning  
• To evaluate and inform curriculum development, planning, and teaching and learning opportunities to ensure that every child can make appropriate progress 
• To raise attainment and close the attainment gap 
• To identify which practices and interventions have an impact 
• To ensure consistency and continuity at times of transition 
• To provide reliable data that can be used to effectively track and measure attainment over time at school, local and national levels 
• To comply with statutory requirements
  
  What Will Be Assessed? 

 Progress within and across CfE levels with a focus on:  

• Knowledge and Understanding 
• What do the children know and understand about the intended learning? 
• Skills 
• Are the children able to apply their skills and knowledge in a range of contexts? 
• Attitudes and Capabilities 
• What are the children’s attitudes towards the opportunities they have in and out of school? 
• What are the children’s capabilities and are they reaching their full potential? 

How Will We Assess? 

Our approaches to assessment will take account of: 

• Experiences and Outcomes and Principles and Practice papers 
• Benchmarks
• 7 curriculum design principles 
• 4 contexts for learning 
• Local and national guidance
• Evidence of what children SAY, MAKE, WRITE and DO will be gathered. 

We will use a range of valid assessment types and strategies to ensure that we can effectively measure progress and meet the needs of every child:  

• SUMMATIVE 
• Periodic assessment to measure progress, achievement and mastery of learning against a standard or benchmark.  Summative assessment may be administered during or at the end of a block of learning. 

• FORMATIVE 
• Ongoing and integrated into daily teaching and learning, with a focus on a range of strategies, including high quality feedback/discussion and the use of appropriate Learning Intentions and Success Criteria.  Teachers and children use formative assessment to decide what actions to take to promote further learning and to set targets. 

• DIAGNOSTIC 
• Assessment that identifies strengths and needs in specific areas.  Diagnostic assessment is often carried out at the beginning of new learning to identify what children already know and to inform next steps.
• When assessing children’s progress, consideration also has to be given to other factors that may impact on progress, such as family circumstances, health concerns and attendance etc. 

 Use of Benchmarks in Assessment and Moderation 

Benchmarks have been designed to support professional dialogue as part of the moderation process to assess where children are in their learning. They will help to support periodic assessment approaches across learning. They should not be ticked off individually for assessment purposes.  It is not necessary for children to demonstrate mastery of every aspect within the Benchmarks at one level to move onto the next level.  However, it is important that there are no major gaps in their learning. 

 Practitioners must engage with the Benchmarks to: 

• support Teachers’ Professional Judgement of ACEL for literacy and numeracy. 
• understand standards and identify children’s next steps in learning in other curricular areas. 
• review the range of evidence gathered to determine if the expected standard has been achieved and children have: 
• achieved a breadth of learning across the knowledge, understanding and skills as defined in the Experiences and Outcomes  
• responded to the level of challenge and demonstrated application of what has been learned in new and unfamiliar situations 

 When Will We Assess? 

 

Routinely (Day to Day)	Formative Assessment strategies used
Periodic	Summative/Diagnostic Assessments used in class to measure progress, e.g. end of IDL topic, maths concept, benchmarking, YARC etc.  Termly meeting with stage partners to focus on ACEL   Meeting with cluster partners to focus on ACEL- September and November, February and May
Assessment Focus Weeks  (see calendar)	Specific assessments to be administered  Data to be collated and discussed with SMT
Transitional	Stage transitions in May/June  SNSAs in May  YARC- Primary 7 ASN in May/June

 Who Will Be Involved In Assessment? 

 Everyone involved with the children will be involved in the assessment process.  This may involve class teachers, SMT, teachers with specialist knowledge/training, children, parents, support staff and external agencies/specialists. Samples of children’s work will be submitted for moderation at cluster level and beyond, to ensure practitioners have a shared understanding of achievement of a level.  Samples submitted will be anonymised and practitioners will work with colleagues across the cluster, authority and West Partnership. 

 How Will Assessment Data Be Shared With Children And Parents/Carers? 

• Children will engage in dialogue with adults and peers on a daily basis about their learning.  They will have a shared understanding of what they are doing well, what they need to improve and what their next steps should be.
• During target setting and review discussions, children will share their focus in literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing with teachers. 
• When periodic assessments are administered children will receive feedback on the results and will know the levels they are working on within CfE (Early, First, Second and Third). 
• Parents/Carers will have opportunities throughout the session to be involved in supporting and improving their children’s learning as parental engagement has a significant impact on progress.

 What Is Moderation? 

A quality assurance process that ensures assessment is fair, reliable and valid 

• It ensures that assessment criteria and approaches are consistent 
• The development of a shared understanding of standards and expectations 

 Why Do We Engage In Moderation Activities? 

Collaborative planning and working collegiately enables us to share good practice and to develop a shared understanding of standards and expectations

• To review and reflect on the teaching and learning provision  
• To respond effectively to the needs of every child 
• To inform Teacher Professional Judgement in confidently assessing achievement of a level 

 How Will We Moderate? 

• Practitioners will work collegiately, sharing exemplars to further develop understanding of standards and expectations.   
• Evidence of SAY, MAKE, WRITE and DO activities/tasks will be collected from 1 or 2 children per group.  This evidence will be discussed at school and/or cluster level. 
• This approach should also inform practitioners of the progress other children of similar working levels have made. 
  
  The aim is to ensure that: 

• teaching, learning and assessment are effectively planned 
• children have fair and valid opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding, skills, attributes and capabilities 
• practitioners are able to identify strengths, next steps and appropriate working levels for all children 

 What Will We Moderate? 

Discussion and evaluation of the following will be included in moderation activities:

• the planning of teaching, learning and assessment 
• the learning opportunities and contexts 
• the validity and quality of assessment tasks in enabling children to meet the expected standards 
• strengths and next steps 
• quality of feedback 
• Teachers’ Professional Judgement and ACEL 
• Pupil Voice 

 Parents 

• Assessing Children’s Progress: A Guide for Parents and Carers 

Parentzone Scotland- https://education.gov.scot/parentzone