QI 2.3 p29 Features of highly effective practice
Assessment is an integral part of the learning and teaching and is used effectively to plan high quality learning experiences for all children.
High quality observations take place naturally during everyday activities and interactions.
Tracking and monitoring of children’s progress is well-understood and used effectively to secure improved outcomes for all children.
Practitioners make sound judgements about children’s progress and respond quickly to ensure learning opportunities meet the needs of individuals
Challenge questions
How do we ensure that processes for planning, assessment and reporting are manageable and effective in improving learning and teaching?
How do we ensure that processes for tracking and monitoring are manageable and effective in improving learning and teaching?
How well does the information we gather about children’s progress inform our planning and improvement?
How do we know that all children are making very good progress in their learning? What information do we already have and what do we still need to find out?
How well are we enabling children to become independent learners and develop the four capacities?
To what extent do our learning environments support different types of play?
How well does the information we gather about children’s progress inform our planning and improvement?
QI 3.2 p42 Securing Children’s Progress
Features of highly effective practice
Almost all children make very good progress through experiences that promote holistic learning. They are developing their social, emotional, physical and cognitive skills very well.
Information on every child is showing almost all children are making very good progress in literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing as appropriate to their developmental stage
High quality appropriate early language, mathematics and health and wellbeing experiences are used well to promote and enhance learning.
Challenge questions
In what ways do we ensure children are making progress across all aspects of their learning and development?
Reflect on the current balance of adult and child initiated learning experiences. Are both leading to progress? What could be improved?
How effective are our approaches to tracking progress and achievement? What needs to improve
QI 1.3 p21
Children have fun as they experience high quality play, learning and development opportunities.
Children are meaningfully and actively involved in leading their play and learning through a balance of spontaneous and planned high quality experiences that promote children’s choice and independence.
Well considered innovations and creative approaches successfully engage children’s imagination and enrich their play and learning.
Play experiences develop skills in language, literacy and numeracy
QI 1.3 p24
What approaches are we using to promote children’s developing language, numeracy and literacy skills?
How effective are our processes to track children’s development, progress and achievements? How well are we involving children in identifying and assessing their learning and progress?
QI 2.1 p37
Children benefit from high quality play and learning settings.
The setting has been designed to empower children to actively experience play and learning challenges centred on their needs and interests.
Opportunities are well matched to the stages of development of children and promote fun, learning and independence.
Links to the Health and Social Care Standards
2.27 As a child, I can direct my own play and activities in the way that I choose, and freely access a wide range of experiences and resources suitable for my age and stage, which stimulate my natural curiosity, learning and creativity.
QI 2.3 p36-37 Learning, Teaching and Assessment
Features of highly effective practice
Learners receive high-quality feedback and have an accurate understanding of their progress in learning and what they need to do to improve.
Planning is proportionate and manageable and clearly identifies what is to be learned and assessed.
Assessment approaches are matched to the learning needs of learners and are used to support them to demonstrate where they are in their learning.
A quality body of evidence is used to support assessment judgements and decisions about next steps.
Processes for assessment and reporting are manageable and very effective in informing improvements in learning and teaching.
Tracking and monitoring are well-understood and used effectively to secure improved outcomes for all learners, including the most deprived children and young people and those who are looked after
Challenge questions
How confident are we that all learners experience activities which are varied, differentiated, active, and provide effective support and challenge?
How well do we communicate the purpose of learning and give effective explanations for all learners?
How well do we apply the principles of planning, observation, assessment, recording and reporting as an integral feature of learning and teaching?
How well do we make use of a range of valid, reliable and relevant assessment tools and approaches to support the improvement of children and young people’s learning?
How well do we record, analyse and use assessment information to identify development needs for individual learners and specific groups?
QI 3.2 p50-51 Raising attainment and achievement
Features of highly effective practice
Attainment levels in literacy and numeracy are a central feature of the school’s priorities for improvement and are raising attainment.
Very good progress is demonstrated through robust tracking of attainment over time in all curriculum areas and at all stages.
The school’s data demonstrates our current learners are making very good progress.
Confident teacher judgements together with benchmarking and an appropriate range of assessments are leading to improvements in attainment
Challenge questions
How well is our focus on literacy and numeracy leading to raising attainment across the curriculum?
How well do we use evidence from tracking meetings, professional dialogue and assessments to measure progress over time and in particular at points of transition?
How well is assessment evidence used to inform teacher judgements?
Slide 7
What is the balance of child initiated, adult initiated and adult directed play in your setting?
How can this be adapted to ensure better experiences for children.?
……describes ‘Intentional promotion’ as a model of supporting the learning needs of each child. This is intrinsically linked with Responsive Planning, which uses each child’s interests and ‘agency’….Section 6
Section 6 – Putting Pedagogy into Practice
Section 7 – Ensuring quality through critically reflective practice p 80-87
- Practitioners who recognise that young children learn through play with responsive adults who plan experiences which extend learning and understanding,
- Practitioners who extend learning based on an understanding of developmental stage and interests, rather than providing adult directed activities that have little meaning for children,
- Quality settings which understand the learning possibilities afforded by the interactions, experiences and spaces we facilitate for the children so that their learning can be both responsively and intentionally planned for, supported and extended,
- Quality settings which have a good knowledge of what the Early Level of Curriculum for Excellence provides, and facilitate developmentally appropriate experiences that build on what children already know and can do,
- Quality settings which plan experiences that engage children in challenging, risk appropriate play,
