Addison Assessment Principles

At our school, assessments means continually evaluating children’s knowledge, skills and understanding. It also entails establishing what children can do and what their next learning steps ought to be. Assessment is at the very heart of the learning process; it provides valuable evidence to guide and improve the teaching and learning. Furthermore, it also offers an opportunity for children to demonstrate and review their progress over the course of a period of time. All in all, it is an integral part of our relentlessly ambitious, high expectations culture.

We are committed to:

• Seeking and interpreting evidence to aid children and teachers in their quest to discern where learners are in the learning journey, what they need to specifically improve upon, and how best to get there.
• Using formative assessments on a day-to-day in the classroom so as to raise children’s achievements and their aspirations. We believe that pupils will improve most if they understand the aim of their learning, where they are in relation to this aim, and how they can achieve the aim (or close the gap in their knowledge).
• Providing children with clear, precise and easily comprehensible feedback in oral and written forms that will support their learning. We will always expect children to engage with this feedback and we will frequently ask them to respond to it. The quality and value of a teacher’s feedback will be evaluated by how great an impact it has on a pupil’s future progress.
• Involving children at all times in an ongoing self-improvement process, and assisting them to recognise that the continual quest to improve oneself is a crucial life skill. Assessment feedback should inspire ever-greater effort and a belief that, through commitment, hard work and practise more can be achieved.
• The regular review of what has been learnt by children being built into our lesson structure and our programmes of study.
• Assessment drawing upon a wide range of evidence that establishes a full picture of what a child can do.
• Continually tracking the performance of children and using this information in four ways:
  1. ensuring that all children are suitably challenged
  2. providing additional challenge for those who are equipped to do so
  3. providing additional learning support for those who are currently finding learning more difficult
  4. ensuring that every child really does matter and nobody is ever overlooked.

• Giving reliable, meaningful, and regular information to parents about how their child is performing and how our school is performing. At all times, this information will be clear, transparent and easily understood. It will be communicated in a format that parents can understand and it should assist them in supporting their child’s future learning.
• Avoiding any tendency to judge or label children, and showing a never ending commitment to the notion that all children can and will succeed. In all we do and say, we will communicate the message to children that they can and will succeed.
• The regular moderation of summative assessment judgements by professionals working within and beyond our school, being used as a mechanism for refining the accuracy of those judgements.

• Making sure the school is keeping up with external best practice and innovation:
  1. So that our processes are created in consultation with those delivering best practice locally.
• Avoiding the tendency to continually test children, as we know that testing itself does not improve children’s performance.
• Assessment providing information that is of value and justifies the time teachers spend on it.

How do we assess?

Formative Assessment

Formative assessments take place on a day-to-day basis during teaching and learning, allowing teachers and pupils to assess attainment and progress more frequently. It begins with diagnostic assessments: indicating what is already known and what gaps may exist in skills or knowledge. If a teacher and pupil understand what has been achieved to date, it is easier to plan the next steps. As the learning continues, further formative assessments indicate whether teaching plans need to be amended to reinforce or extend learning.

Formative assessments may be questions, tasks, quizzes or more formal assessments. Often, formative assessments may not be recorded at all, except perhaps in the lesson plans drawn up to address the next steps indicated. When assessing children formatively, a teacher (and teaching) needs to consider:

Summative assessment

Summative assessments sum up what a pupil has achieved at the end of a period of time, relative to the learning aims and the relevant national standards. The period of time may vary depending on what the teacher wants to find out. There may be an assessment at the end of a topic, half-term, year or key stage.

A summative assessment may be a written test, an observation, a conversation or a task. It may be recorded through writing, through photographs or other visual media, or through an audio recording. Whichever medium is used, the assessment will show what has been achieved. It will summarise attainment at a particular point in time and may provide individual and cohort data that will be useful for tracking progress and for informing stakeholders (e.g. parents, governors, etc.).