Assessment
Assessment in Our Curriculum:
At North Thoresby Primary Academy, we operate a comprehensive approach to assessing pupil learning. We use a variety of methods to ensure a deep understanding of each student's strengths, challenges and progress.
Types of assessments:
All pupils in all subject areas are assessed termly by teacher judgement using our Assessment Tracking Grids and through Pupil Progress Meetings, which place pupils against benchmarks linked to the National Curriculum.
Writing, Reading and Maths are also assessed through trust-wide standardised tests and moderations at set points throughout the academic year. These include online NGRT tests for reading, online Progress Tests for English and Maths (GL Assessments) for pupils in Year 2 to Year 6, standardised mock tests for key year groups and regional writing assessments for Early Years, Year 2, Year 4 and Year 6 pupils.
Key skills such as phonological knowledge and times tables recall are regularly assessed to ensure progress is happening at the expected rate and to tailor future interventions.
Wider curriculum subjects are also assessed by medium term macro assessment captures, which assess whether pupils are excelling, secure, developing or requiring support against the key substantive and disciplinary knowledge, as well as key vocabulary, for each unit of learning.
Daily formative assessment (through "Do Now" tasks, cold calling, low stakes quizzes, observations, exit tickets, etc) is used to support teacher judgements and inform the next steps for planning.
Benefits of assessment:
Assessment helps identify areas for improvement, personalise learning plans and celebrate pupil achievements. It helps teachers and leaders identify gaps in learning and provision to inform the next stages of teaching.
Role of feedback:
The importance of feedback in the assessment process in paramount to ensure children are remembering key content and not developing misconceptions. Most feedback given directly to pupils will be at the point of learning through verbal feedback or summative quizzes.
Examples of our assessment format can be found below -
Year group subject level trackers to give teachers and leaders an overview of both individual pupil and whole group progress.
Example- Writing Assessment GridsExample Wider Curriculum Assessment GridsSimple View of Reading Grid used to track pupil progress in reading.
Example Simple View of Reading & Bottom 20% TrackerSubject level macro assessments used to assess pupil progress in individual subject areas at a unit by unit level.
Example Science Assessment CaptureVenn diagrams are used in Pupil Progress meetings show which pupils need any additional intervention in terms of both support and challenge in reading, writing and maths.
Example PPM Venn Diagrams.pdfRegular standardised tests in reading, writing and maths (2 - 3 times per year) provide teachers and leaders with details analytics at both individual pupil and group level.
Example GL Assessment.pdf