Assessment Data

Assessment at Cranmer

Assessment Data at Cranmer

Cranmer Primary School Assessment Data can be viewed here.

Assessment in the Early Years

How and When We Assess

Pupils are settled into the EYFS (Nursery or Reception) and after around 6 weeks teachers conduct a baseline assessment to gain an understanding of the child’s starting points. In Nursery this is done through observations of the child in their play, during group times, when working alongside adults and through contributions from parents. In Reception, they are assessed through the NFER National Reception Baseline Assessment through which children participate in a series of short tasks and activities 1:1 with a familiar adult from their class. These are in Maths, Communication and Language and Literacy. Teachers in Reception also observe children in play and during other times to feed into their own school-based assessments of a child’s baseline across a wider range of areas of learning.

Pupils also are assessed mid-way through the year to help identify any children who may not be making as much progress to plan in support for them. At the end of Reception they are assessed against the 17 Early Learning Goals, this is shared with parents and their Year One teachers to ensure they know the children’s abilities.

Throughout their time in EYFS children are observed and supported in their own choices of activities as well as in adult directed tasks to plan for the next steps in their learning. Only significant pieces of work or observations of learning are recorded and some examples of these are shared with parents through our 'Seesaw' platform . Contributions from parents at home are also welcomed which can be shared with us in class or through 'Seesaw' in the form of photographs & videos. These build up a picture of the child’s abilities in their learning and support teachers in planning what they need to do next.

KS1

Reading

In Year 1 and Year 2, in line with our phonics scheme Little Wandle Letters and Sounds revised, children participate in 3 group Reading sessions per week to support their learning of phonics. Daily sessions highlight any gaps and children will then attend keep-up sessions.

Little Wandle assessments are designed to be used every six weeks of the teaching cycle to help you keep track of pupils’ progress, to inform next steps for teaching and to identify pupils for Keep-up. These assessments should be carried out by the Reading Leader or class teacher. These are one-to-one assessments that give you a clear indication of the progress of each child.

Little Wandle placement assessment - These one-to-one assessments should be used for:

whole cohorts/classes if you are starting the programme after Reception Autumn 1 and need to assess where to start teaching and to indicate gaps in learning that need revision
individual children who are new to your school.

Children are assessed every 6 weeks according to the Little Wandle programme. Separate SEN proformas are available for the children accessing the LW SEN programme.

NTS assessments are carried out at the end of each term for Years 1 & 2 to measure termly performance.

In Year 2, children participate in Guided Reading sessions where they follow the whole class VIPERS approach to Reading. VIPERS is an acronym to aid the recall of the 6 reading domains as part of the UK's reading curriculum. The 6 domains focus on the comprehension aspect of reading and not the mechanics: decoding, fluency, prosody etc.

Children complete one formal, written reading comprehension paper during their KS1 Tests in May. A scaled score is published which is used to inform teacher judgement along with the statements listed in the ‘Interim Teacher Assessment Framework’.

Writing

There are 3 main forms of assessment used at Cranmer. These are:

day-to-day formative assessment – to inform teaching on an on-going basis

in-school summative assessment – to understand pupil performance at the end of a period of teaching

statutory summative assessment (Year 2 and Year 6) – to understand pupil performance in relation to national expectations and comparisons

In KS1, writing is assessed through evidence in children’s books. Teachers make their judgements based on writing across the curriculum. For each child, a range of samples will be used to provide evidence of writing for a variety of purposes.

Teachers use Sonar to record writing performance, assessing children against writing statements linked to the national curriculum using: working towards age related expectations; working at age related expectations; or working at greater depth. These assessments are recorded termly and progress is monitored over time, monitoring progress children have made in all their years at Cranmer.

At the end of KS1, teachers make statutory teacher assessment judgements for pupils. Judgements are based on the Teacher Assessment Framework produced by the Standards & Testing Agency.

Writing RAFT sessions – (Reflection And Feedback Time)
Reflections and feedback from day-to-day observations are covered in dedicated RAFT sessions. These take place at the beginning of every day. This may be achieved through discussion as a class, within a small group or as independent tasks. Children begin RAFT sessions in Year 1, becoming more advanced and reflective as they progress through the age phases.

Maths

In KS1, Maths is assessed through practical approaches to Maths in lessons, evidence in children’s books, children’s responses and through summative assessments such as half-termly National Test-style Standardised Assessments (NTS Assessments).

Each child is assessed against the Sonar Assessment criteria for Maths. These statements provide a guidance on the progression of skills in Maths, organised into these areas:

Working mathematically
Number
Measurement, geometry and statistics

‘Working mathematically’ refers to a child’s ability to:

Apply
Reason
Problem Solve

Judgements about where children are working at, need to take into account all these aspects of mathematics as well as the fluency focus for that year group. Fluency of numbers, which children are developing, is fluency in terms of their understanding of the number system. If children find it difficult to engage with the numbers stated in the fluency focus within lessons, they are working towards the age related expectation for the Year’s criteria. Judgements are made using the NTS assessments and on-going teacher assessments such as pre and post unit assessments.

At the end of Year 2, teachers also make a judgement on children’s Maths based on the statements listed in the ‘Interim Teacher Assessment Framework.’ In Year 2, children will complete two formal, Mathematics papers during their KS1 Tests in May. The first paper is an arithmetic paper. The second paper presents a range of mathematical reasoning and problem-solving questions. Each pupil will receive an overall result indicating whether or not a child has achieved the required standard on the test.

Science

Science is taught weekly in KS1. Lessons combine the teaching of substantive knowledge with disciplinary Working Scientifically skills. Children learn through a range of theory based and practical lessons. Teachers ensure children build on and apply their knowledge of Scientific concepts during practical work, as well as discreetly teaching both knowledge and skills.

Teachers use ongoing assessment during lessons, particularly by focusing on children’s talk and language in Science activities, and by checking understanding by revisiting learning in the following lessons. There is at least one practical science lesson during each topic that is dedicated to assessing children’s Working Scientifically skills. These methods, combined with assessing written work in science books, helps teachers make a judgment against the National Curriculum Science objectives. Sonar is used across the school to support teacher’s ongoing assessment of Science.

The Working Scientifically skills are taught and assessed across Years 1 and 2, Years 3 and 4, and Years 5 and 6. The Knowledge and Understanding aspect is taught and assessed at the end of each Year. A combined teacher assessment is submitted at the end of KS1 and KS2, as achieved standard, or not achieved standard.

Phonics

Phonics assessment is used to monitor progress and to identify any child needing additional support as soon as they need it

Assessment for learning is used:

daily within class to identify children needing Keep-up support
weekly in the Review lesson to assess gaps, address these immediately and secure fluency of GPCs, words and spellings

Summative assessment is used:

every six weeks to assess progress, to identify gaps in learning that need to be addressed, to identify any children needing additional support and to plan the Keep-up support that they need.
by the English Team and SLT and scrutinised through the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessment tracker, to narrow attainment gaps between different groups of children and so that any additional support for teachers can be put into place.

Statutory assessment

Children in Year 1 sit the Phonics Screening Check
Any child not passing the check re-sits it in Year 2

Ongoing assessment for catch-up

Children in Year 2 to 6 are assessed through their teacher’s ongoing formative assessment as well as through the half-termly Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised summative assessments

KS2

Reading

Teacher assessments are made weekly during Guided Reading sessions as a whole class approach. Teachers continuously assess children’s attainment and progress during their whole class reading sessions using the VIPERS approach to Reading, where the children are assessed against the Reading Domains identified in the National Curriculum.

NTS assessments are carried out at the end of each term for Years 3 - 6 to measure termly performance.

At the end of Year 6, children take part in the Key Stage 2 Tests. They are required to complete a reading comprehension paper which is externally marked and a scaled score is published which is used to determine the outcomes for reading at the end of Key Stage Two.

Writing

There are 3 main forms of assessment used at Cranmer. These are:

day-to-day formative assessment – to inform teaching on an on-going basis

in-school summative assessment – to understand pupil performance at the end of a period of teaching

statutory summative assessment (Year 2 and Year 6) – to understand pupil performance in relation to national expectations and comparisons

In KS2, as in KS1, Writing is assessed through a range of samples for a variety of purposes. This evidence comes from the children’s books.

Teachers continue to use Sonar to record writing performance, recording termly and monitoring progress over time.

The Key Stage 2 SATs tests will be administered during May 2023. Children are assessed in Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling as part of the end of Key Stage 2 SATs.

In May, Year 6 teachers will also make statutory teacher assessment judgements for pupils. Judgements are based on the Teacher Assessment Framework produced by the Standards & Testing Agency.

Maths

In KS2, Maths is assessed through practical approaches to Maths in lessons, evidence in children’s books, children’s responses and through summative assessments such as half-termly National Test-style Standardised Assessments (NTS Assessments).

Each child is assessed against Otrack Statements for Maths (these are based on the National Curriculum objectives). This document provides a guidance on the progression of skills in writing, organised into these areas:

Working mathematically
Number
Measurement, geometry and statistics

‘Working mathematically’ refers to the skills required in Years 3 to 6 with regards to the child’s ability to:

Apply
Reason
Problem Solve

Judgements about where children are working need to take into account all these aspects of mathematics as well as the fluency focus for that year group. The fluency focus states the complexity of numbers which children should be developing their fluency in terms of their understanding of the number system. If children find it difficult to engage with the numbers stated in the fluency focus, they are working below age related expectations. Judgements are made using Sonar statements every term.

At the end of Year 6, teachers also make a judgement on children’s Maths based on the statements listed in teacher assessment framework in Year 6at the end of key stage 2 , children will complete three formal, Mathematics papers during their KS2 Tests in May. The first paper is an arithmetic paper. The second and third papers present a range of mathematical reasoning and problem-solving questions. Each pupil will receive an overall result indicating whether or not he or she has achieved the required standard on the test.

Science

Science is taught weekly in KS2. Lessons combine the teaching of substantive knowledge with disciplinary Working Scientifically skills. Children learn through a range of theory based and practical lessons. Teachers ensure children build on and apply their knowledge of Scientific concepts during practical work, as well as discreetly teaching both knowledge and skills.

KS2 SATs taken by Year Six. (Summative Assessment- marked externally)

SATs (Statutory Assessment Tests) are undertaken by Year Six children at the beginning of the Summer term as a Summative assessment. Teachers can compare how well each child is doing with their peers, both in their school and across the country. SATs can also measure how much each child improves from one Key Stage to another and are used to predict the likelihood of children achieving specific results in their GCSEs.

In addition, headteachers, local authorities and the Department for Education use the results to help identify schools that need support and, if a school is doing really well, they can share good practice with other schools.

The Key Stage 2 tests are in Mathematics (Reasoning and Arithmetic), Reading and Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling. The tests assess children against a national standard. Each child’s results in each test will be reported using a scaled score. A scaled score of 100 represents the expected standard for each test. If your child gets a scaled score of 100 or more it means they are working at or above the expected standard in the subject. If your child gets a scaled score of less than 100 it means that they may need more support to reach the expected standard. The highest scaled score possible is 120, and the lowest is 80. You can find more information on scaled scores at www.gov.uk/guidance/scaled-scores-at-key-stage-2.

Teacher Assessment - end of Key Stage 2

In addition to taking the SATs tests, Year 6 teachers will assess the children in Reading, Writing, Maths and Science. Teachers will do this using a framework that describes what a child needs to do to be working at the expected standard in a subject. The teacher will base their assessment on the work that the child has done in class during Year Six. For Writing, the teacher assessment will say one of three things:

the child is working towards the expected standard and needs some support to meet national expectations
the child is working at the expected standard for their age
the child is working at greater depth within the expected standard

Teacher assessments from Years One to Five are conducted formatively and summatively where children will be judged as working either: -

Towards the expected standard
At the expected standard or
At greater depth

In addition to this, Formative Assessments through Sonar (online resource) for KS1 and KS2 for Core and Foundation Subjects are also conducted to support the assessment process.

Summative assessments are conducted through NTS assessment tests for English and Maths.