ASSESSING LEARNING AND PLANNING FOR PROGRESS

At Carreg Hirfaen, we are committed to formative (fine) assessment to inform the next steps for our learners. To enable consistency, the school uses Incerts Cymru for the purpose of tracking progress in this way.

When new knowledge, skills and experiences are planned (fine planning) and prepared for, learners will be at the early “emerged” stage of their journey.

As the children practise and refine these skills, they move along our assessment continuum of “developing, securing and mastering”.

Each child’s progress is monitored and recorded by the class teacher. School leaders routinely monitor progress and coverage of skills, knowledge and experience.. This process is carried out from the time a pupil starts at Carreg Hirfaen Primary School until they leave, whereby assessment information is passed onto the secondary school.

All assessment information is used to develop appropriate learning programmes to aid progress. The school has clear procedures for recording and reporting which are outlined in the schools Assessment Policy and the Assessment for Learning Continuum.

The aims and objectives of assessment in our school are:

• To enable our children to demonstrate what they know, understand and can do in their work;
• To help our children understand what they need to do next to improve their work;
• To allow teachers to plan work that accurately reflects the needs of each child;
• To provide regular information for parents that enable them to support their child’s learning;
• To provide the headteacher and governors with information that allows them to make judgements about the effectiveness of the school.
• To enable school leaders, including the governing body, to evaluate the effectiveness of learning for specific groups of learners to ensure an inclusive curriculum

It is a Welsh Government requirement that children are assessed in key developmental areas on entry to school. These assessments are carried out by the class teacher in order to provide a ‘baseline’ of where the child is when they start school and to identify the next steps in their development.

STATUTORY TEACHER ASSESSMENTS

The Welsh Assembly expects every school to report on children’s attainment (National Curriculum outcome or level) at the end of Year 2 and Year 6. These are reported to parents in the Summer term reports.

However, under the new curriculum, the central focus of assessment arrangements is to ensure learners understand how they are performing and what they need to do next in order to secure improvement. There will therefore be a renewed emphasis on formative assessment for learning as an essential and integral feature of learning and teaching.

THE IMPORTANCE OF QUALITY PUPIL FEEDBACK

At Carreg Hirfaen, we believe that all children should be challenged in order to reach their potential. Feedback to pupils is clear, and staff ensure that pupils understand the next steps in their learning, and/or what they need to do to improve their work.

The school has a robust Marking and Feedback Policy providing all staff with a consistent, yet progressive approach to providing feedback to pupils.

We mark children’s work and offer feedback in order to:

• show that we value their work, and encourage them to do the same;
• boost their self-esteem, through use of praise and encouragement;
• give them a clear general picture of how far they have come in their learning, and next steps
• offer them specific information on the extent to which they have met the lesson objective, and/or the individual targets set for them;
• promote self-assessment, whereby they recognise their difficulties and are encouraged to accept guidance from others;
• share expectations;
• gauge their understanding, and identify any misconceptions;
• provide a basis both for summative and for formative assessment;
• provide the ongoing assessment that should inform future lesson-planning.

HOW PARENTS ARE INFORMED OF PROGRESS

We are very committed to ensuring that parents are kept fully informed about their child’s progress. This takes place in the following ways:

• Termly open evenings and formal meetings with class teachers are arranged to discuss progress and set targets for future development. 
• A written Annual School Report which comments on the progress made in every area of learning and experience will be distributed to parents or issued digitally online
• Class teachers make themselves available to parents whenever possible at the beginning and the end of the school day.
• In addition to individual pupil meetings, school holds a number of events to keep parents up to date with school initiatives and plans. These include:-
• An annual school educational evening
• Various presentations throughout the year. Eg internet safety, curriculum reform, numeracy, literacy, digital competence etc
• Nursery open days