Assessment & Progression

Our Assessment is underpinned by children’s rights principles. It is in line with the principle of using a range of assessment effectively to plan next steps for learners. It is fully inclusive, and considers the progress of all learners in both a formative and summative assessment context. We believe that effective assessment provides information to improve teaching and learning. We give our children regular and consistent feedback on their learning so that they understand what it is that they need to do better. This allows us to base our planning on a detailed knowledge of each pupil.

The aims and objectives of assessment in our school are:

• To enable our learners to demonstrate what they know, understand and can do in their work;

• To help our learners understand what they need to do next and how they might go about achieving it;

• To allow teachers to plan work that accurately reflects the needs of each pupil;

• To provide the head teacher and governors with information that allows them to make judgements about the effectiveness of the school.

Assessment in an ongoing process which is indistinguishable from learning and teaching. Taking into account our pupils’ wellbeing and the necessity to involve children in their own assessment, children form a large part of our ongoing assessment procedures here at Abbey; helping them build a holistic picture of where they are in their learning and what comes next.

For further details, please refer to our assessment policy.

Developing a shared understanding of progression

As a school we will consider our purpose, the aspiration for every child and young person in our community. We will develop a shared understanding of progress, understanding what it looks like in respect of the learning. The five main areas we will focus on are:

Increasing effectiveness as a learner
Increasing breadth and depth of knowledge
Deepening understanding of the ideas and disciplines within Areas
Refinement and growing sophistication in the use and application of skills
Making connections and transferring learning into new contexts
These considerations will ensure that our curriculum design focuses on our purpose, the essence of learning and identifying what the learning intentions are. Our assessing and assessment processes will allow us to show progress with our learners and support the learners to understand their own progress.

The development of a shared understanding of progress will continually be a priority for our school and its community. We need to understand that:

“Attainment is a benchmark against data.”

“Progress is a benchmark against myself – a battle we can win.”