Assessment

Assessment for Learning

Assessment is a crucial part of our work at Oaklands school. Staff use day to day assessments of the children in planning their next step.  Our assessments are based on three simple questions:

1. What have the children been taught?  Coverage

2. What have the children understood?  

3. What can the children apply?

Staff use this assessment to plan their next steps.  They plan the lessons carefully to ensure coverage of the Year Group Curriculum.  As the children spend their day ‘Being a…’ the teachers are able to adapt their plans to what the children have understood to ensure that the children’s learning is effective. 

Feedback to the children is very important and so the children use the feedback for the adults daily. They use ‘Purple Polishing Pens’ to improve their work and make progress in their learning.  Developing the children as learners, they will develop their own skills in assessing their own and others work.  

Assessment of Learning

We take regular opportunities to ensure that the children are able to apply what they have been taught and to see the progress they are making towards the expected standards for their year group. 

Throughout their work, they regularly take part in ‘Cold’ and ‘Hot’ tasks so that the children are regularly recognising the progress they make in their learning and demonstrating what they can apply. 

At the end of every term, the teacher uses the evidence from the children’s learning to decide if the child is on track or not to met their year group expectations for the Six Areas of Learning.  These are shared with leaders and parents.  

As well as this, the children will complete a series of short tests which assess them against their year group expectations in Reading, Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling (GPS), and Mathematics. These tests will give a percentage which will indicate what standard they are working at which we compare to the ongoing assessments.

At the end of the year, the teachers assess to see the standard they have meet against the Year Group Curriculum using the Oaklands Standards.  

What else will the assessments tell us?

As well as letting us know that your child is making progress, we also use assessments to find gaps in the children’s learning. These gaps are where it is clear the children do not understand this area of the curriculum. There are three levels for this:

1. Whole class gaps.
There may be gaps in the whole class’ knowledge and so the teacher will adapt the curriculum accordingly to teach these areas.

2. Groups gaps.
There may be a group of children with a gap and so the teacher or Learning Support Assistant may work with that specific group a bit more.

3. Individual gaps.
As well as this, your child will be given specific next steps to overcome a personal gap in their understanding. The staff working with your child will support them in this as well as you at home.

Reporting to Parents

You knowing how well your children are doing is important as well as knowing the next steps. We let you know how well your child is doing by:

Face to Face

We hold three Parent & Pupil Review meetings a year: September, January & April. 

At these you will be able to meet the class teacher.  The children lead these meetings to share the progress they’ve made.

Written Reports

At the end of the year, you will receive a written report and data explaining the progress and the achievements your child has made.

As the need arises

Our staff will meet with you on the Meet & Greet playground after school everyday if you need to have a chat.

As well as this, you can access your children’s data on the Arbor app.  

Find a copy of our Assessment policies here