Assessment
Supporting Learner Progression
Progression in learning is how a learner develops and improves their skills and knowledge over time. This means increasing their breadth and depth of knowledge, deepening their understanding, and refining their skills, all while becoming more independent and applying their learning to new situations.
At St Teilo's, we use assessment to:
- Support individual learners on an ongoing, day-to-day basis;
- Identify, capture and reflect on individual learner progress over time;
- Understand group progress in order to reflect on practice;
- Develop teachers’ and leaders’ understanding of effective classroom formative assessment practice; and
- Ensure that teachers use assessment information to adjust their teaching to support and challenge all pupils appropriately.
What do we mean by 'assessment'?
Assessment can mean so many different things in education. Often, when we think of assessment, we think of high stakes testing, monitoring and tracking – assessment of learning. Our mission requires us to take a more complete view of assessment in terms of how individuals make progress, improving their learning over time.
Learning and performance are different. Performance uses detailed knowledge – rich mental models – that are stored in the long-term memory. Learning creates these models. At St Teilo's, we do not rely on assessment practices that simply prove learning. Instead, assessment practices must be designed to improve learning. Therefore, our focus is to hold summative assessment (assessment of learning) in balance with diagnostic assessment (assessment for learning) and formative assessment (assessment as learning).
Assessment is an ongoing process indistinguishable from teaching and learning. Assessment is not something that we do separately or in addition to teaching and learning. By including learners as participants in the learning process – and engaging them in assessment in such a way that their confidence grows – we can ensure that improvement is happening whilst the learning is taking place (not just at the end of a topic or a unit of study).
What do we mean by 'progression'?
Progress is like training for a marathon. Marathon runners measure their overall time in hours and minutes. In order to get better at running marathons, coaches and marathon runners have models of progression consisting of activities that help them run faster. Some of the activities will be quite similar to the marathon itself – or just shorter versions of the marathon. However, the running coach will also recommend other activities which do not involve running long distances, as well as some that do not involve running at all, such as strength and conditioning exercises. It would obviously not make sense to measure these activities in the same way as the marathon. Instead, the coach might record the amount of weight the runner is able to lift, the number of repetitions of the exercise they are able to complete, or even whether they are – or are not – able to complete certain exercises at all.
At St Teilo's, teachers design classroom activities in the same way as the running coach. These practices do not only allow you to measure progress, they actually support learners to make progress.
Supporting learning progression in practice
At St Teilo's, we gather the information we need to support learner progression by using a 'multi-modal' approach.
Formative assessment occurs day in, day out, in every lesson and at all times. Formative assessment addresses misconceptions, challenges ideas and encourages connection-building. Formative assessment enables teacher to foresee difficulties in learning and tackle them as they arise. We call this ‘responsive teaching’.
There are five key formative assessment strategies:
- Clarifying, understanding and sharing learning intentions;
- Engineering effective classroom discussions and tasks that elicit evidence of learning;
- Providing feedback that moves learners forward;
- Activating pupils as learning resources for each other; and
- Activating pupils as owners of their learning.
Diagnostic assessment occurs periodically, at sensible points in programmes of learning. Diagnostic assessment consists of a blend of low and high tariff questions, determined by the assessment focus. It may draw on carefully crafted multiple choice questions or short-answer questions that highlight misconceptions. It may elicit information about understanding from a carefully scaffolded extended task. Whatever the method or mixture of methods, diagnostic assessment has explicit criteria that can be marked discretely.
A diagnostic assessment is a mastery assessment. It is not just testing for the sake of testing. Done well, it provides our teachers with clear evidence of strengths and areas for development which can inform planning and next steps.
Diagnostic assessment is always followed by a ‘whole class feedback’ activity (often called ‘Directed Improvement and Reflection Time’). This is because assessment is intrinsically linked to curriculum and pedagogy – it is the start of a conversation, not the end.
Summative assessment occurs regularly yet infrequently, at specific points in the academic year. Summative assessment produces shared meaning, helping teams to understand group progress in order to reflect on practice.
These are school-driven strategies that enable comparisons against some standard or benchmark which can be communicated to a wider audience.
Summative assessments at St Teilo’s include:
- GL Assessments (to provide a baseline for intervention).
- Personalised Assessments (to provide standardised scores and individualised feedback).
- Mock Examinations (to provide attainment against a benchmark).
Each is planned to take place at specific times and for certain year groups.
The assessment journey
Methods for supporting learner progression vary over time, as levels of mastery deepen.
At all times
- The five key formative assessment strategies and diagnostic assessment.
Autumn Term
- A checkpoint to review a learner's behaviour, effort, agency, teamwork and progress.
- The GL assessment suite to produce baseline scores (and other information) in cognition, English, mathematics, science and attitudes to learning.
Spring Term
- A checkpoint to review a learner's behaviour, effort, agency, teamwork and progress.
- A written report outlining subject-specific strengths, areas for development and practical suggestions for improvement.
Summer Term
- A checkpoint to review a learner's behaviour, effort, agency, teamwork and progress.
- A progress evening to facilitate conversations between teachers and families.
- Personalised assessments in reading, procedural mathematics and reasoning to produce standardised scores and personalised feedback.
At all times
- The five key formative assessment strategies and diagnostic assessment.
Autumn Term
- A checkpoint to review a learner's behaviour, effort, agency, teamwork and progress.
- The GL assessment suite to produce baseline scores (and other information) in cognition, English, mathematics, science and attitudes to learning.
Spring Term
- A checkpoint to review a learner's behaviour, effort, agency, teamwork and progress.
- A written report outlining subject-specific strengths, areas for development and practical suggestions for improvement.
Summer Term
- A checkpoint to review a learner's behaviour, effort, agency, teamwork and progress.
- A progress evening to facilitate conversations between teachers and families.
- Personalised assessments in reading, procedural mathematics and reasoning to produce standardised scores and personalised feedback.
At all times
- The five key formative assessment strategies and diagnostic assessment.
Autumn Term
- A checkpoint to review a learner's behaviour, effort, agency, teamwork and progress.
- The GL assessment suite to produce baseline scores (and other information) in cognition, English, mathematics, science and attitudes to learning.
Spring Term
- A checkpoint to review a learner's behaviour, effort, agency, teamwork and progress.
- A written report outlining subject-specific strengths, areas for development and practical suggestions for improvement.
- An end of Key Stage 3 examination to inform the learning pathways progress.
Summer Term
- A checkpoint to review a learner's behaviour, effort, agency, teamwork and progress.
- A progress evening to facilitate conversations between teachers and families.
- Personalised assessments in reading, procedural mathematics and reasoning to produce standardised scores and personalised feedback.
At all times
- The five key formative assessment strategies and diagnostic assessment.
Autumn Term
- A checkpoint to review a learner's behaviour, effort, agency, teamwork and progress.
Spring Term
- A checkpoint to review a learner's behaviour, effort, agency, teamwork and progress.
- A written report outlining subject-specific strengths, areas for development and practical suggestions for improvement.
- A progress evening to facilitate conversations between teachers and families.
- A mock examination to produce an attainment band projection.
Summer Term
- A checkpoint to review a learner's behaviour, effort, agency, teamwork and progress.
- Outcomes of external examinations.
At all times
- The five key formative assessment strategies and diagnostic assessment.
Autumn Term
- A checkpoint to review a learner's behaviour, effort, agency, teamwork and progress.
- A mock examination to produce an attainment band projection.
Spring Term
- A checkpoint to review a learner's behaviour, effort, agency, teamwork and progress.
- A written report outlining subject-specific strengths, areas for development and practical suggestions for improvement.
- A progress evening to facilitate conversations between teachers and families.
Summer Term
- Outcomes of external examinations.
At all times
- The five key formative assessment strategies and diagnostic assessment.
Autumn Term
- A checkpoint to review a learner's behaviour, effort, agency, teamwork and progress.
- A mock examination to produce an attainment band projection.
Spring Term
- A checkpoint to review a learner's behaviour, effort, agency, teamwork and progress.
- A written report outlining subject-specific strengths, areas for development and practical suggestions for improvement.
- A progress evening to facilitate conversations between teachers and families.
Summer Term
- Outcomes of external examinations.
At all times
- The five key formative assessment strategies and diagnostic assessment.
Autumn Term
- A checkpoint to review a learner's behaviour, effort, agency, teamwork and progress.
- A mock examination to produce an attainment band projection.
Spring Term
- A checkpoint to review a learner's behaviour, effort, agency, teamwork and progress.
- A written report outlining subject-specific strengths, areas for development and practical suggestions for improvement.
- A progress evening to facilitate conversations between teachers and families.
Summer Term
- Outcomes of external examinations.
Questions?
If you'd like to know more about assessment, please contact us.