Assessment at Roundwood Primary School 
 
Knowing where children are, where they need to go and how they will get there are the underlying principles of our learning approach at Roundwood Primary School.  On a daily basis, Teacher's assess children's learning and how they progress through a clearly defined set of learning sequences to acquire the skills and knowledge required of them to be secondary ready. Continued monitoring of each child's progress gives us a clear picture of what each child is currently achieving and their next steps. 
 
 
The principles that underpin our assessment system are: 
 

• Every child can achieve: teachers at Roundwood have the mindset, ‘What do I need to do next to enable a child in my class to achieve?’
• Objectives from the Early Years Foundation Stage and National curriculum are used as the expectations for all children.
• Use of KS1 and KS2 Assessment frameworks are used to inform teacher moderation and accurate judgements
• Pupils will make age appropriate progress from their individual starting points
• Teachers are experts at Assessment For Learning - assessment is effectively used to ensure the correct scaffolding, support and challenge is built into lessons to ensure all children achieve. 

 
Our assessment and reporting system includes: 
 
Daily, teachers assess their class, group or the individual child so that they can plan the next stage in each child's learning. It helps teachers monitor progress, provide motivation for the children and helps inform planning. The following types of assessment take place on a regular basis.  
 

• Ongoing assessment by the class teacher throughout each lesson, through questioning, observation and dialogue to inform next steps in teaching
• Children knowing what they are being asked to learn and more importantly, why.
• Children are pivotal in the learning process, using pre/post assessment tasks to know where they are at in the learning journey, where they need to go next and what they need to do to get there.
• Success Criteria is built with the children during each lesson, work is then assessed against the success criteria.
• Three-way feedback by pupil, peer, and teacher gives clearly identified next steps – this can be written or verbal feedback.
• Regular pupil book looks.
• Rich, probing questions
• Next step marking

Formative and summative assessment 
 
In addition to the above, we have three 'formal' assessment points or 'data checkpoints' in the year. These will take place at the end of the autumn, spring and summer term. We use NFER tests for reading, spelling, punctuation and grammar and mathematics, as these provide us with a standardised score and detailed gap analysis 
to tell us how much progress your child is making and if they are on track to meet National Curriculum expectations for their age range.  The tests will also inform our next steps in teaching. We will use teacher assessment for writing, and in Early Years.  
 
Children's reading ability will be 'Benchmarked' termly, using Bug Club Reading to ensure a good match of reading book to ability.  
 
How we share this information with parents: 
 

• Following each formal assessment period we will report to parents via a report template. Pupils will be assessed as ‘on track or above’ or ‘not on track’ for age related expectations. These descriptors will also be used for assessing progress from individual starting points.
• Discussions at parent, teacher, consultation meetings in the Autumn and Spring terms.
• Parents also receive an annual report and outcomes of statutory assessments at the end of the Summer Term 

 
Statutory Assessments (End of Key Stage) 
 
In addition to the above assessments, pupils also complete the following statutory assessments:  

• Reception – Baseline, EYFS profile
• Year 1 (and 2) - Phonics Check
• Year 4 - Multiplication tables check
• Years 2 and 6 - End of Key Stage assessments 

 
Early Years - Nursery & Reception 
 
Class teacher's will use a combination of the EYFS profile and then a baseline assessment to measure children's progress.  
 
Baseline: The baseline assessment will result in a score that forms part of each child’s baseline profile. By having a good understanding of the child’s abilities when they start school, class teacher's are able to measure each child's progress and plan for next steps in learning. The baseline assessment is face-to-face with a mixture of tasks and observational checklists. 
 
EYFS Profile: The EYFS profile assessment is carried out in the final term of Reception. The main purpose of the EYFS profile is to provide a reliable, valid and accurate assessment of individual children at the end of the EYFS. 
 
EYFS profile data is used to: 
 

• Inform parents about their child’s development against the early learning goals (ELGs) and the characteristics of their learning.
• Help Year 1 teachers plan an effective, responsive and appropriate curriculum that will meet the needs of each child. 
• Children in Reception are assessed against the areas of Learning in the EYFS profile, these are recorded on our on-line system, Tapestry. Assessments are based on observation of daily activities and events. At the end of Reception for each Early Learning Goal, teachers will judge whether a child is meeting the level of development expected at the end of the Reception year: Emerging, not yet reached the expected level of development (Below) Expected (inline). 

 
 
Phonics Screening Check Year 1 
 

• The Phonics Screening Check demonstrates how well pupils can use the phonics skills they have learned up to the end of Year 1, and to identify those who need extra phonics help.
• The checks consist of 40 words and non-words that your child will be asked to read one-on-one with a teacher. Non-words (or nonsense words, or pseudo words) are a collection of letters that will follow phonics rules your child has been taught, but don’t mean anything.
• The 40 words and non-words are divided into two sections – one with simple word structures of three or four letters, and one with more complex word structures of five or six letters.
• Pupils will be scored against a national standard, and the main result will be whether or not they fall below, within or above this standard.
• Pupils who do not meet the required standard in Year 1 will be re-checked in Year 2. 

Please see examples of the statutory assessments below.