Assessment

Assessment at Westwood Farm

Assessment Lead: Mrs. Ross

Early Years Assessment

On entry to Foundation Stage 2 the children are observed and a baseline assessment is carried out, these activities will indicate what level the children are working at when they join us. From September 2019 Westwood Farm will take part in a pilot project run by the National Foundation for Educational Research. This is in preparation for the baseline becoming statutory in autumn 2020. 

Throughout the year, Foundation Stage 1 and 2 staff record children's progress using the Foundation Stage Profile. Teachers and Teaching Assistants observe and assess children whilst they are engaging in a variety of activities. The assessments cover all the areas taught in the Foundation Stage including the child’s emotional and social adjustment to school. We use a system to record these milestones called Tapestry. Teachers and parents can access this and can record the children’s achievements. By the end of Foundation Stage the teachers will report on the progress the children have made towards meeting GLD (Good Level of Development).

Year 1

As the children transition to Key Stage 1 from Foundation stage, teacher assessments are ongoing from the Autumn term until the Spring term. In the Spring term the children are introduced to summative assessments in reading, maths and SPAG (spelling, punctuation and grammar.)  The children undertake the phonics screening test in the summer term.

Years 2 and 6

Teacher assessments continue to be an important part of tracking the children’s progress in years 2 and 6. However, due to statutory tests at the end of the year we have a more regular summative assessment schedule for Year 2 and 6 pupils and use a variety of materials for this purpose, including previous SATs papers. 

Years 3, 4 and 5

In these year groups we continue to value the importance of teacher assessments to measure progress and we use a mixture of this and summative assessments, 3 times a year. These include assessments in reading, writing and SPAG (spelling, punctuation and grammar).

In addition to the above we monitor the children’s progress and achievement through Pupil Progress Meetings. These are held with the teachers and members of our Senior Leadership Team to ensure that the process is rigorous.