Harmans Water Primary School

At Harmans Water Primary School, assessment is an integral part of the teaching and learning process. Teachers use formal (summative) and informal (formative) assessments to assess children’s learning and acquisition of skills. Continued assessment gives a clear picture of each child’s progress and ensures teachers planning and provision is shaped to individual learning needs. Pupil self-assessment is also embedded into practise to enable children to reflect on, celebrate their own learning and identify ways to improve their work further.

Aims and objectives;

• Enable teachers and other professionals to use assessment judgements to plan work that accurately reflects the needs of individual pupils
• Maintain accurate records of the progress and attainment of individual children and cohorts
• Ensure consistency in assessing achievement and identifying achievable and challenging targets for each child
• Provide regular information for parents that enables them to support their child’s learning
• Provide the information that allows school leaders and governors to make judgements about the effectiveness of the school and to evaluate the school’s performance against its own previous attainment over time and against national standard

These often take the form of tests and help to assess children’s understanding over a longer period of time. At HWPS teachers make a Teacher Assessment, once a term, in Reading, Writing and Maths of where the children are working at that point in the year. Teachers make a judgement using the language below -  

Teachers make these judgements with the help of information from NFER assessments or SATS in Year 2 and 6. From these assessments, teachers use question level analysis to then identify the gaps in knowledge of children in their class and plan future work to support the children with closing these gaps. We record these assessments on Insight. We also run Phonics assessments each half term and these are in line with the Read Write Inc scheme and support with ensuing children are working in the correct phonics group. In Nursery and Reception assessments are made through observations of the children. In Nursery children are assessed against the Specific and Prime areas.

Children at HWPS, as in all state funded primary schools, complete all statutory national assessments. These include the Reception Baseline Assessment and assessment against Early Learning Goals, Year 1 Phonics Screening check and Year 6 SATs. Year 2 SATS are no longer statutory, but we have decided to continue using them to back up our Teacher Assessments. In Year 4, children take the Multiplication times table check.

This type of assessment happens throughout lessons and helps teachers adapt lessons and know what level of challenge to set individuals in their class. This can take a variety of forms, from questions in class, whiteboard work, mind maps or exit slips.

Children are given feedback on their learning. Much of this feedback is verbal and is 'in the moment' within a lesson. Teachers will also use highlighting to indicate what a child has done well and if there is anything they need to look at to make improvements with.

Teachers assess foundation subjects once a term using the criteria listed above. Teachers use formative assessment to help them with their judgements. Subject Leaders use pupil voice to find out about their subjects and how it is being taught across the school.

After teachers have made their Teacher Assessment for the term, we hold Pupil progress meetings, with our Maths and English Leads and SENDCO to look at any children who are not making the progress they should and strategies that could be tried to support them.

At HWPS, our approach to assessment is focused on providing useful information to teachers enabling them to fully support children to make progress in their learning. Assessment also helps children to understand their own abilities and take ownership of how they can improve. The purpose of completing assessments is to inform future teaching and learning and to enable gaps in learning or misconceptions to be addressed. 

It is the role of the Assessment Lead and Senior Leadership Team to ensure that assessment information is recorded accurately and used effectively so that actions identified are followed through to benefit children's learning. The Governing Body is also responsible for holding the school to account regarding assessment data, to challenge trends and analyses and to ensure the school is addressing any areas of weakness.  

Our full Assessment and Marking/ Feedback Policy can be found here: