Swaffield School

Assessment

Assessment and Progress Tracking

In April 2014 the Department for Education (DfE) released 'Assessment Principles', a document outlining the core values all effective assessment systems should implement as part of the changes introduced with the 2014 National Curriculum.

As the ‘Government will not impose a single system for ongoing assessment’, it is up to schools to implement a system that can: ‘Give reliable information to parents about how their child, and their child’s school, is performing, help drive improvement for pupils and teachers and make sure the school is keeping up with external best practice and innovation.’

Over the last 1.5 years we have been implementing a system called Target Tracker as our main pupil tracking system. This has allowed senior leaders and teachers to keep track of how well our children are progressing in reading, writing and mathematics from Early Years up to Year 6.

The Target Tracker Assessment System

Target Tracker have developed an effective assessment system that meets the needs of all school stakeholders and supports our school in embedding the DfE ‘Assessment Principles’ referenced above.

Target Tracker has been developed carefully to meet DfE guidance working with what we believe assessment should look like.

Early Years

In Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) children are assessed against the EYFS profile and awarded either:

Emerging or ExpectedIf a child achieves ‘Expected’ in the following subject areas, it is called a ‘Good Level of Development’:

Personal Social and Emotional, Communication and Language, Physical Development, Literacy and Maths. For further information about your child’s progress, please speak to the class teacher.

Tracking Attainment and Progress with Steps

To track pupil attainment Target Tracker devised a system of steps.

This performs the function of communicating progression and attainment in a simple format.

To track and monitor pupil attainment and progress, teachers will now use Target Tracker to assess children using a system of ‘steps’ (rather than ‘levels’ or ‘stages’). The terminology has now changed where each year group is now referred to as a ‘Band’ (e.g.: Year 1 = Band 1; Year 2 = Band 2 etc...).

It is further broken down into six sections:

  • Beginning (b) - Children are starting to learn content in their year band. There may be minimal elements of the previous band still to gain complete confidence in.
  • Beginning plus (b+) – Up to around 40% of the content has been achieved
  • Working within (w) – Up to 55% of the year content has been achieved
  • Working within plus (w+) - Up to around 70% of the content has been achieved
  • Secure (s) - Children are competent in their year group band and up to approximately 90% coverage of the content has been achieved. Children may still need to build confidence in using and applying some elements.
  • Secure+ (s+) [Mastery/Greater Depth] - Children are 100% secure in all areas in their band and can show confidence and competence in repeatedly applying the skills they have learnt.

At half termly intervals, our teachers select a step to show where each pupil is working.

Children are assessed within their current year band. We only allow lower achieving pupils and children in receipt of an Educational Health Care Plane (EHCP) to be shown working at a band outside of their current year. In very extreme cases, highly gifted children, children working at least two years above their age related expectation in a subject, will be given a personal learning programme designed to deepen their knowledge, skills and understanding.

How Do We Show Progress?

  • We currently assess steps in reading, writing, mathematics and science.
  • To meet age related expectations, children should reach the secure (s) step by the end of the appropriate year.
  • To move from secure (s) in one year band to the next is 6 steps over 6 half terms. Therefore, this equates to 1 step of progress each half term.

 

Pupils working below Band 1 and pupils with SEN

Year 1 pupils who are working below the beginning of the Year 1 band could still be assessed in the EYFS 40-60 w, 40-60 w+, 40-60 s or 40-60 s+ month band steps.

If you would like to understand more about how we assess children at Swaffield, feel free to speak with your child’s class teacher or any member of the Senior Leadership Team.

This PowerPoint explains the bands and steps in further detail

Statutory National Assessments

End of Early Years:

The Foundation Stage Profile is a summative assessment of what children have achieved by the end of the Reception year.

End of Key Stage 1 and 2:

National tests and teacher assessments of Reading, Writing, Maths and Science take place at the end of Years 2 & 6. The results are reported to parents at the end of the school year.

Here are links to the Age Related Expectations in Maths and English for each year.

YEAR 1

YEAR 2

YEAR 3

YEAR 4

YEAR 5

YEAR 6

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