Assessment and the National Curriculum

How do we assess your child?

At Ropley Primary School we assess children’s work through teacher assessment. Teachers assess how well a child is doing primarily through questions and discussions to ascertain knowledge and understanding during lessons, through marking children’s work and observing children learning. Learning support assistants support teachers with finding out information about children. 

Children are included in the assessment process through self and peer assessment (children work with their peers or by themselves to check and improve their work).

Children are also expected to describe, explain and reason about their learning, responding to questions such as ‘why?’ ‘What happens if...?’ Information collected about children’s strengths and areas for development is used to target questions, support or deepen children’s understanding, plan lessons, group work and set targets for learning. We call this ‘assessment for learning’ – the daily assessment which happens in the classroom and is central to our assessment processes.

Teachers may also use short written assessments throughout the year to support their teacher assessment, to check children’s understanding and monitor the progress children are making.

National Tests

At certain stages of schooling there are also national tests which must be taken by all children in state schools. Children continue to have a phonics screening check at the end of year 1. Often informally known as ‘SATs’, the National Curriculum Tests are compulsory for children at the end of Year 2 and Year 6. Children in these year groups will undertake tests in Reading, Mathematics, and Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling. The Year 6 tests will be sent away for marking, and results will be reported to schools and parents at the end of the school year.

From 2016, the tests have been reported as a scaled score, with a score of 100 representing the expected level in each age group. Please see the attachment below for the 2018 KS2 SATS results. For more detailed information please click here.

High Achievers

If your child is achieving well, rather than moving on to the following year group’s work, teachers will encourage more in-depth, rich and investigative work to allow a greater mastery and understanding of concepts and ideas.

Progress

If a child achieves age related expectations at the end of each year, he/she is making good progress. Similarly, a child who is working below age related expectations but continues to reach the same standard each year is still making good progress, despite not achieving national age related expectations.

What are children expected to achieve?

At the end of each academic year, the Government expects that the majority of children achieve age related expectations (ARE) in the core subjects of English and Maths. To achieve this, children must have a secure and deep understanding of the vast majority of the curriculum areas covered in their year group. To support children in achieving ARE, teachers at Ropley assess regularly against all national curriculum areas and input the children’s data onto an internal tracking document.

Mid Year reports will contain information about your child’s progress and whether or not they are on track to achieve end of year expectations as well as targets to support their next steps in learning. End of year reports will confirm whether your child has achieved end of year ARE across the different areas of the curriculum as well as providing an 'effort' grade.

If you would like to know any more about the Assessment processes in school, please contact your child's teacher and they will be able to show you how it works in their class.