ASSESSMENT is an integral and essential part of learning and teaching. St Augustine’s Primary School endeavours to ensure assessment always supports pupils’ learning by focusing not only on outcomes achieved, but on the process of each child moving from where they are in their learning towards new, more advanced goals. Through assessment, teachers gather a range of evidence to help identify and plan the teaching input each pupil requires to achieve their next steps in learning.
Staff plan assessment activities at the outset of medium-term planning and tasks are directly linked to the selected Experiences & Outcomes and intended learning.
High quality interactions between St Augustine’s pupils and staff lie at the heart of effective assessment. Teachers endeavour to interact with pupils in ways which encourage them to think and to talk about and demonstrate their learning. These interactions are based on thoughtful questions, careful listening, reflective responses and effective feedback strategies. Focused dialogue about learning takes place on a regular basis between teachers and pupils. The Head Teacher meets with class teachers on a termly basis to discuss the progress of pupils in order to identify the most effective ways of helping every child meet their full potential.
Across all stages of the school, teachers take the time to share and discuss with pupils what they are expected to learn. Learning intentions, along with their related success criteria, are shared with pupils at the outset of every lesson. Based on the initial learning intentions and success criteria, St Augustine’s pupils are given prompt, focused feedback about how well and how much they have learned. This helps them to move forward in their learning by identifying what they need to do next to improve and develop.
Pupils engage in self and peer assessment on a daily basis. Peer assessment provides the opportunity for the boys and girls to support and extend each other’s learning.
Teachers in St Augustine’s gather assessment evidence from a wide range of sources in order to gain an accurate picture of each child’s progress and staff regularly devise specific assessment tasks to check a pupil’s ability to apply particular knowledge and skills. Assessment tasks can take many different forms: what a child can MAKE, SAY, DO or WRITE
Occasionally, more formal assessments are used to help the school gain a fuller picture of a child’s ability in particular areas of the curriculum and to confirm teacher professional judgement. Primary 1 pupils are given a ‘baseline assessment’ in maths and language when they begin school in August. Pupils across the school are formally assessed in spelling, reading, writing and maths with a view to analysing data and planning for interventions to impact upon attainment and achievement.
St Augustine’s pupils are given regular opportunities to reflect on their learning. All pupils use a ‘Learning Log’ to think about and record what they have learned, including the things they found easy, the challenges they faced and what they need to do now to progress and improve. Through this sort of ongoing reflection and regular dialogue with their class teacher, St Augustine’s pupils are actively involved in the learning and teaching process and become increasingly more able to recognise and understand for themselves the progress they are making. Each class also uses the school blog to reflect on, evidence and share their learning.
Information on pupil progress is shared with parents on a regular basis:
· A written interim report is issued in October to update parents about pupil progress
· A detailed written report is sent to parents at the end of March providing information on progress across all areas of the curriculum as well as identifying next steps.
· Parent consultations take place twice each year, in November and May, providing parents with the opportunity to look at their child’s jotters and discuss their learning and progress with the class teacher.
· Each class features on the school blog and primarily on Twitter as a way of informing and evidencing the work of the pupils.
Parents are encouraged to contact the school at any point during the year should they have any concerns or questions about their child’s progress.
