St. Mary’s Community
Primary School
Assessment
Policy
Policy No.
Author:
Tanya Treavett
Based on the policy published by
Stalham Academy June 2015
Responsibility
Staff/ Curriculum Committee
Date approved by Governors:
June 2016
Date due for next review:
June 2019
Assessment Policy
Rationale
Assessment should make children successful learners by identifying their stage of development and
achievement and developing their skills in order for them to achieve their maximum potential.
Assessment identifies children’s knowledge and abilities, resulting in gaps being able to be identified.
This results in targeted future teaching being able to be planned.
Moderation
Standardisation of judgements will arise through informal discussion, planned moderating of work at
staff meetings, communication with subject coordinators, work with external auditors and attendance
of moderation groups / working with other schools in the cluster on a regular basis.
Our approach to assessment
We believe assessment is integral to high quality teaching and learning. It helps us to ensure that our
teaching is appropriate and that learners are making expected progress. All staff are regularly trained
in our approach to assessment and there is a senior leader who is responsible for assessment.
Our use of assessment
•
Teachers use the outcomes of assessments to summarise and analyse attainment and
progress for their children and classes.
•
Teachers use this data to plan the learning for every child to ensure they meet or exceed
expectations.
•
Teachers and leaders analyse the data across the school to ensure that children identified
as vulnerable or at particular risk in this school are making appropriate progress and that all
children are suitably stretched.
•
The information from assessment is communicated to parents on a regular basis through
parent consultations.
Our Method of Assessment
We use the online tracking programme provided by Pupil Asset. Teachers use the 2014 NC objectives
for all year groups in reading, writing (including VGPS) and maths. From these, they formatively
assess the extent to which a child has achieved each specific objective of the curriculum. It would be
assessed as Beginning, Developing, Embedded or Mastered in line with the Pupil Asset tracking
vocabulary.
For a more detailed breakdown of our assessment process, using Pupil Asset, see Appendix 1.
Summative judgements of the children’s attainment are inputted half-termly into Pupil Asset and are
supported by on-going formative assessment and triannual formal assessments. These happen at the
following times:
 Midway through the Autumn Term
 Midway through the Spring Term
 At the end of the academic year (Years 2 and 6 will be assessed using the Statutory
Assessments)
Formal assessments are used to inform teacher’s own assessments of the children and in all cases
the teacher’s professional judgement on the attainment and progress of children will of paramount
importance.
Expected Attainment
The tables below clarify how a child at Age Related Expectations (ARE) would look at the end of an
academic year and also an example of how they would attain at different points in the year.
End of year Attainment in relation to ARE
Significantly below
expected
Below expected
At expected
Above expected
Significantly
above expected
Previous years
age band
Beginning /
beginning+
Developing
Developing+ /
Embedded
Mastered (within
the current age
band)
Example of how an ‘average’ child (ARE) would attain at different points in the year.
Year 3
Child
Start of
year
2 Dev
Autumn ½
term
2 Dev+
Christmas
2 Emb
Spring ½
term
2 Mast
Easter
3 Beg
Summer
½ term
3 Beg+
End of
year
3 Dev
This allows teachers and leaders to analyse and monitor progress of children and consequently
identify any areas of concern.
Children are expected to make 6 points of progress per year (2 points per term).
Key Stage expected progress is therefore as follows:
•
•
KS1 – (not including EYFS) children should make 12 points from the start of Year 1 to the
end of Year 2.
KS2 – Children should make 24 points from the start of Year 3 to the end of Year 6.
Higher achieving pupils (previously G&T)
The 2014 National Curriculum states that it is aimed at developing and embedding a mastery of
learning. This indicates that the notion is not to accelerate children through the age bands but to keep
them in their ARE band and deepen their understanding to ensure a mastery of that stage.
Evidencing Judgements
To ensure accurate judgements and consistency, each class will evidence their judgements using
Pupil Asset. Evidencing our assessments will be done by peer moderation regularly undertaken
through staff meetings, book scrutinies and monitoring and retention of books for one of each of the
following pupils in maths, reading and writing:
•
a lower attaining pupil.
•
an average attaining child in the class.
•
a high attaining child.
•
a child with special educational needs.
•
a child entitled to the Pupil Premium
Date of Governing Body approval: March 2016
Signed _________________________
Chair of Curriculum
_______________________________
Head Teacher
Appendix 1: The detailed use of Pupil Asset input assessment measures.
Teachers will regularly update Pupil Asset to show the overall Age Related band they are
achieving. This will be done before each ½ term and before the end of each term. In order to
support this judgement, teachers will identify where individual pupils have achieved each of
the individual objectives within the 2014 NC. These can be input into Pupil Asset to indicate
pupil attainment in each of the core subjects.
Using Pupil asset to track each individual objective will produces a DNA strip for each child
identifying the number objectives taught and how many have been assessed as Beginning
(orange), Developing (Yellow) or Embedded (Green). Teachers may find this helpful. We do
not expect this to be completed online but could be done on a paper tracking system.
From the formative assessment of staff, either as a paper tracking exercise or in the form of
the DNA ticks producing a collated DNA strip, staff will make their Summative judgements.
These summative judgements are calculated in a manner that if over 50% of ticked DNA
strips were in a column (beginning/developing/embedded) then that would be the judgement.
 E.g. if over 50% of strips ticked were in the Beginning column then a Year specific
Beginning would be given.
If no row was 50% then neighbouring columns are added e.g. beginning and developing &
developing and embedded. The highest score is taken with the lowest row of the pairing the
final judgement.
 E.g. if Beg =4, Dev = 3, Emb = 3, the overall judgement would be Beginning because
Beg+Dev is 4+3 = 7 & Dev+Emb is 3+3=6.
 Beg+Dev generates the highest total so this pair is taken. Beginning is the lowest of
the pairing therefore Beginning is the selected judgement.
For a child to be awarded a Mastery judgement we feel that a child has to be in a position of
strength across the specific curriculum that they are being judged on. As a result, we have set
high expectations of what this looks like.

A child can be classed as Mastered if:
o 75% or more of their DNA entries are embedded
And
o All of the KPI’s are embedded
We feel this is essential as it ensures children are secure in their learning before moving on to
harder, more challenging areas of their learning and the curriculum. No child will be
assessed above their year group i.e. a Yr. 2 cannot be assessed as a 3 beginning.
Once summative judgements have been identified these are entered in the results section to
produce half termly judgements that indicate a child’s attainment in relation to National
Expectation and the progress from children’s individual starting points.