Assessment

Assessment for Learning

The primary purpose of assessment at Sunnyhills School is to guide and improve both student learning and teaching effectiveness. Assessment is a powerful process that can either optimise or inhibit learning, depending on how it's applied. Assessment uses information to lead from what has been learned to what needs to be learned next.

A variety of assessment practices provide essential information for evaluating and guiding the learning process, gauging the effectiveness of teaching and learning and monitoring the suitability of the curriculum. Assessment, teaching, and learning are inextricably linked, as each informs the others.

For teachers quality assessment helps gather information to:

  • plan and modify teaching and learning programmes for individual students, groups of students, and the class learning as a whole
  • pinpoint student's strengths so that both the teachers and students can build on them and set goals
  • identify students' learning needs in a clear constructive way so they can be addressed
  • involve parents, families and whānau in their children's learning.

For students, assessment provides them with information and guidance so they can plan and set goals for the next steps in their learning journey. Central to the practice of assessment for learning (formative assessment) is the concept that students who truly understand and are involved in their learning will experience accelerated rates of achievement. Students who are involved in their learning can be thought of as assessment-capable or active learners. They know what they need to learn, where they are with that learning and what their next learning steps are. To enable students to take charge of their learning, they need to be deliberately and systematically taught how to be assessment capable and active in their learning.

Assessment will use a range of approaches in order to provide a clear picture of a child's achievement and progress at a given time. Summative, formative and diagnostic information needs to be considered. These may include:

  • Day-to-day activities, such as learning conversations
  • A simple mental note taken by the teacher during observations
  • Student self and peer assessments
  • A detailed analysis of a student's work
  • Assessment tools, which may be written items, structured interview questions, or items teachers make up themselves.
  • Teacher feedback and feed forward

What matters most is not so much the form of assessment, but how the information gathered is used to improve teaching and learning.

  • All assessment must be based on accurate evidence
  • Formative assessment processes are most useful in providing the necessary assessment information for moving a child forward. These will occur throughout the teaching and learning process and provide the basis for planning decisions (See Guidelines for Assessment for Learning).
  • Relevant summative assessments in literacy and numeracy will be administered according to the school assessment schedule.
  • information from summative assessments will assist with setting targets and tracking school-wide achievement
  • information from summative assessments will also be used formatively by teachers
  • Teachers will make evidenced based decisions in Reading, Writing and Mathematics at appropriate times of the year based on curriculum levels (Overall Teacher Judgements: OTJ).

Assessments for individuals will be recorded in relevant sections of the school's SMS package (eTAP), unless otherwise stated below:

  • Other assessments not collected as school wide data will be kept in teams
  • Informal assessments, such as information gained from learning conversations with students, will also be kept and will be recoded in a manner that suits the individual teacher (i.e. devices). Information recorded in this way will be used primarily to inform teaching decisions and assist with evidenced based decisions not as a permanent record of a child's achievement
  • Assessment will involve children as appropriate and where possible.
  • Student voice will be an integral part of the assessment process, including formative practices such as self and peer assessment, student reflection and discussions etc.