Assessment

Assessment in Years 9 - 11

Assessment timetable

Feedback and Evaluation of Learning and Assessment

• Feedback on students’ work is a necessary and integral part of teaching and learning.
• It helps the teacher to understand what the student has learned and what they need to improve.
• It enables lessons to be planned that are based on what students know and what they need to learn.
• It helps the students know whether they have mastered a concept, remembered information correctly or gained competence in a skill.
• It helps the family engage with their child’s learning and provide them with appropriate support.

Guidance regarding Formative Assessment and Feedback

• Formative Assessment is an integral part of teaching and learning and occurs regularly throughout every lesson. It allows teachers to check student progress towards the learning objectives. It also allows teachers to adapt to accommodate different rates of learning and understanding.
• Students should be actively involved in formative assessment through self, peer, or whole class assessment.
• Examples of formative assessment could include using mini-white boards, using traffic lights, questioning or competitive games.

Guidance regarding Summative (Exam and Interim) Assessments and Feedback

• All years have twice yearly formal exams that are summative and sat in examination conditions.
• Each formal assessment is followed by a results report being sent to parents and then a parents evening to discuss progress with teachers from each subject.
• In subjects where marking is carried out by more than one teacher, it is expected that internal moderation takes place. This will usually be carried out in Departmental meeting time. Moderation of Controlled Assessments will be formally recorded as evidence for exam boards.
• Following each exam assessment, the data is collected for each subject in Arbor. This is added to the Outcomes, Tracking and Interventions (OTI) spreadsheet for each year group and analysed using 4Matrix.
• Staff regularly meet in groups (subject / SLT / pastoral / OTI) to discuss the results for individuals and identify students that are failing to meet their minimum expected grade (or likely to fail to meet it by the end of the course) and at KS4 those unlikely to reach a grade 4. Once students have been identified interventions are planned and recorded on the OTI spreadsheet. The success of the intervention is reviewed with the results of the following exam
• Specific focus is paid to the progress of Pupil Premium (PP) and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) students.
• Exam questions are marked by the teacher following a clear and concise mark scheme and students are given an opportunity to review their examination in line with the mark scheme where they correct wrong answers and add further details to incomplete answers.
• Assessment and Feedback Folders are kept for each student for each subject. They will contain all the summative exam and interim assessments and feedback.
• Exam and interim assessments will be marked by the class teacher.
• Subject teachers are expected to mark and feedback on at least one exam or interim assessment per half term.
• The pieces of work are carefully ordered and clearly dated to track assessment progress over time.
• Feedback from the teacher will consist of annotation on exams and tests and written comments on an orange CAST Feedback Form for the exam and interim assessments. This feedback will be specific to the individual student.
• These sheets will provide written feedback on:
  • What Went Well (WWW)
  • Even Better If (EBI) (maximum of 2 areas to improve using Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-based targets (SMART))
  • Literacy guidance or area to improve
  • Numeracy guidance or area to improve
• The students’ actions to this feedback to improve and correct misunderstanding could include:
  • Responding to the SMART feedback on the orange CAST Feedback.
  • Annotation / corrections to handwritten work (annotations should be in a different colour.
  • Reworking a task digitally (save old and new drafts to see improvement).
  • Annotations / corrections to digital work (annotations should be able to be tracked).
  • A further question.
• The students’ actions to the feedback then need to be checked by the teacher to ensure the improvements and misunderstandings have been addressed.
• Progress summary sheets will be completed by each student for each subject following their feedback from their exams. These trackers will be kept in the front of the student’s assessment and feedback files.