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:
Assessment Code Year 1 codes have been used as an example. The number in the code will change to indicate which year group expectations the child is working within. | Definition | Requirements |
Y1S (Year 1: Secure)
| Meeting the expectations for the year group.
| The child will be consistently meeting at least 80% of the learning objectives set out as statutory requirements for the year group. The expectation is that the majority of children will achieve this by the end of any given school year. |
Y1D (Year 1: Developing) | Achieving a good number of the expectations for the year group. | For the child’s learning to be judged to be developing towards meeting the year group expectations a child will have met 50 – 79% of the objectives for the year group. |
Y1E (Year 1: Emerging) | Beginning to achieve some of the expectations for the year group. | For a child’s learning to be judged to be emerging within year group expectations he or she will be meeting 25-49% of the learning objectives set out as statutory requirements for his or her year group. |
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| If a child is achieving less than 25% of statutory requirements for the year group, a judgement will be made against the requirements set out for the previous year group. |
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.