Assessment involves gathering, reflecting on and evaluating evidence of children’s learning to enable staff to check on learners' progress and support further learning. Assessment is an integral part of learning and teaching. It helps to provide a picture of a child's or young person's progress and achievements and to identify next steps in learning.
Assessment in EYFS
Assessment in our Early Years classes is mainly based on practitioner observations and their professional judgements of children’s achievements. Observations will be conducted throughout the year by all members of our EYFS team and these observations will be collated on Really School, your child’s online Learning Journal.
Following a child’s first six weeks at school, our teachers will use their observations to make a formal assessment against our Baseline Assessment, which is provided by Early Excellence. This Baseline Assessment will enable our teaching team to evaluate our children’s achievements as they start school. We then tailor our provision to enable children to develop their learning, knowledge, skills and understanding as appropriate.
At the end of the year, our teachers will again use their observations to make judgements in each of the 17 Early Learning Goals. For each ELG, teachers must judge whether a child is:
• meeting the level of development expected at the end of the EYFS (expected); or
• not yet reaching this level (emerging)
The ELGs are based on typical child development at the age of 5, so most children are likely to meet the ‘expected’ level of development.
End of Key Stage Assessments – Year 2
Children are formally assessed at the end of year 2 using a combination of tests (SATs), tasks and teachers’ professional judgements. These are used to measure children's attainment against learning outcomes in reading, writing, mathematics and science.
At the end of year 2 some children may be working towards the expected level, indicating that they are not quite working at the age-expected requirement. Some children may be working at the expected level, indicating that they are achieving at the expected level for a typical year 2 child. Some children may be working at greater depth, indicating that they have achieved the age-expected level and are working beyond their age-related expectations.
Further information regarding year 2 assessments is shared with our parents during year 2. If you have any questions, please speak to your child’s class teacher. Please click here to view the KS1 Sats Meeting 2023 for parents and carers.
How do we assess children in school
At Hampton Lakes we use a range of strategies to make assessments of children in school, including observation, questioning and marking, in addition to class based and national tests. To support our judgment further, we use PiXL to assess children in reading, writing, SPAG (spelling, punctuation and grammar) and mathematics from Year 3. This involves the teachers using set criteria for each of the four areas of learning to assess what children can do. It also enables our teachers to identify next steps for each child and also explore next steps for groups of children or the whole class too. This means that the assessment directly feeds into teachers’ planning and teaching.
We hold annual information events for parents and for further information about your child’s attainment and progress, we welcome you to come along to parents’ consultation evenings in November and March and discuss your child’s end of year report with them when this is sent home towards the end of the year.
Please don’t hesitate to speak to your child’s class teacher if you have any questions or concerns about their achievements in school.
If you would like further information regarding the national curriculum tests at the end of key stages 1 and 2 please click here.