Assessment

Assessment at Bridgetown Primary School

This information relates to the assessment of children in Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2) and Key Stage 2 (3, 4, 5 and 6)

In September 2014 the current National Curriculum was introduced and the system of using levels (which related to the old National Curriculum) to assess children’s achievements was removed.

There is no longer a national system for assessing children’s attainment and progress throughout Key Stages 1 and 2; schools are required to devise their own system for making regular assessments of children’s achievements against the objectives in the 2014 National Curriculum.

Statutory national assessments will still be made at the end of each key stage; these will no longer test children beyond the Year 2 (KS1) or Y6 (KS2) objectives.

Age related expectations are set out in the national curriculum programmes of study. See our website for further details: https://www.bridgetown.warwickshire.sch.uk/curriculum/

At Bridgetown we will assess children’s learning against these expectations using ‘Assessment Codes’ as follows:

In addition to the achieving the statutory require set out in the national curriculum programmes of study, the DfE has added weight and focus to a child’s ability to apply their learning - this is called Mastery.

• Mastery is how skilfully a child can apply his or her learning.

• Greater mastery is not just knowing a fact, but using and applying that fact in a wide range of increasingly more challenging situations.

• A child with a better mastery will score higher in a test than a child with lower Mastery, even if they know the same content.

A child’s overall mastery is a long term judgement made at the end of each school year to indicate how well the child has mastered the  relevant, age-related learning objectives.  

In summary, children will be assessed on their ability to meet the expectations set out in the national curriculum, and on their ability to apply their learning to different contexts.

So, a child with an assessment code of Y4Secure will be meeting the expectations for year 4 as set out in the national curriculum programme of study and will be able to apply this knowledge in a range of alternative contexts; a child with an assessment code of Y1Developing will be achieving between 50 and 79% of the expectations for Year 1 and will be able to apply that knowledge to solve simple problems.

Measuring Progress

A child who achieves Y2S (secure) at the end of Year 2 would be expected to achieved Y3S at the end of Year 3.

A child who achieves Y3E (emerging) at the end of year 3 and goes on to achieve Y4D (developing) at the end of Year 4 will have made better than expected progress.

Meeting the Needs of all Children

At Bridgetown we are committed to meeting the needs of all children by providing sufficient support and challenge based on accurate, day to day assessment of their abilities. The 2014 National Curriculum guidance supports us in this by stating that:

• Objectives can be taught in any order

• Schools have the flexibility to introduce content earlier or later than set out in the programme of study

• Schools can introduce key stage content at an earlier key stage if appropriate.

• Teachers should set high expectations for every pupil. They should plan stretching work for pupils whose attainment is significantly above the expected standard; they have an even greater obligation to plan lessons for pupils who have low levels of prior attainment or come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

• Before moving on, children should be able to apply their learning in new and exciting contexts – deepening their learning.

For further information, click on the link below to read our Assessment and Reporting Policy.