Unit 4
Additional Resources 

Unit 4 encourages you to reflect on the 3 main roles of assessment as outlined in Unit 3, before exploring further information on the assessment arrangements as found in the Curriculum for Wales Framework. 

Ongoing professional dialogue within and between schools/ settings is central to building and maintaining a shared understanding of progression in order to ensure coherence, smooth transition and the pace and challenge of expectations. This professional dialogue is important to: 

• provide ongoing opportunities for practitioners to reflect on their understanding of progression and how it is articulated in their curriculum, thus feeding into their curriculum and assessment design, planning and self-evaluation and improvement processes 

• provide ongoing opportunities for practitioners to compare their thinking to other similar schools and settings, providing a level of consistency of expectation while retaining local flexibility 

• strengthen understanding of approaches and practice between schools and settings, including, where relevant, funded non-maintained settings, PRUs and other EOTAS providers. 

Leaders should ensure that the outcomes of the professional dialogue with other schools and settings are shared and fed into discussions within their school or setting, and vice versa, to positively impact planning, learning and teaching.

The insight and understanding gained as a result of this professional dialogue should inform each school and setting's self-evaluation process, helping define future priorities for leadership, curriculum design, planning,  learning and teaching. This professional dialogue will not be linked to external accountability measures. 

To support the implementation of on-entry assessments, schools and settings must:

• make and implement assessment arrangements which help build a picture of the learner's abilities and aptitudes in respect of the school's or setting's curriculum

• implement the assessments for newly-registered learners at a school or setting (except for Year 6 learners transitioning to Year 7), recognising that children and learners enter schools and settings at different points across the 3 to 16 continuum, 

• undertake the assessments within 6 weeks of a learner entering a school or setting to support understanding from the very beginning of a learner's journey 

• use the outcomes of the assessments to plan next steps and tailor learning and teaching to enable progress. 

To ensure schools and settings have the flexibility to align their on-entry assessment arrangements with their curriculum, it will be for schools and settings to determine the detail of these assessment arrangements. However, the assessment must:

• be suitable for learners of differing ages, abilities and aptitudes 

• support numeracy skills

• support literacy skills

• support the physical, social and emotional development of children and learners 

Communicating effectively with parents and carers on an ongoing basis is an important way to foster positive relationships in order to engage them in purposeful and meaningful dialogue. When undertaken well, this can aid learner progression by helping parents and carers to understand how they can support learning within and outside the school environment.

Schools and settings should develop and implement processes to support effective two-way communication and engagement with parents and carers. When developing these processes, consideration should be given to using a wide variety of different communication means. 

In terms of individual learner information, schools and settings should share information with parents and carers about:

• the progress their child is making

• their future progression needs

• how future progression needs can be supported at home

• their general well-being in school

Sharing individual learner information with parents and carers should be done at least termly and should not to be contained in large written reports but fed back in an accessible manner which maximises engagement from and understanding of parents and carers.

A summary of individual learner information should be provided annually, the timing and format of which will be determined by the head teacher but which best supports the learner’s progress. The information provided should not contain descriptions of the topics and learning activities the learner has undertaken, unless this is to provide context, but should focus on the progression itself and the individual needs and support of the learner.

It is important that information and feedback can be easily understood by its intended audience – it should be concise and jargon-free. The principles of progression can offer schools an organising framework and shared narrative for their communications with parents and carer.

Further information can be found here: Summary of legislation - Hwb (gov.wales)

Transition plans aim to support and improve links between secondary schools and feeder primary schools with a specific focus on working together to support coherent learner progression, support the overall needs and well-being of the learner and ensure appropriate pace and challenge in a school’s approach to progression when developing their curriculum and assessment arrangements.

Under the 2022 Transition Regulations governing bodies of maintained secondary schools and feeder primary schools must jointly draw up a single transition plan to support transition of learners from Year 6 to Year 7. Provision for individual feeder primary schools within the plan can be different, but there must only be a single plan held by the secondary school.

Transition plans must be published on or before the beginning of the school year they are intended to apply to.

Further information can be found here.