Assessment

At Dallow Primary we use a variety of assessments techniques to help ascertain a pupil’s current attainment and progress in a curriculum area.

At Dallow Primary, assessments of pupils’ learning are made using both teacher’s judgements and graded assessments. 

In all lessons, across all units of work, in all subjects, teachers continually informally assess pupils’ knowledge, understanding and skill. To support their judgements, a mix of short term weekly assessments, such as spelling tests and arithmetic tests, are used to allow teachers to track pupils’ short term progress. Half termly assessments, such as Read Write Inc. assessments, star reader and focused writing, are used to gain a longer term understanding of a pupil’s progress against set objectives, and ensure teachers can identify gaps in learning and plan to meet these in lessons.

At the end of term (December, March and July), more formal assessments are used to test children’s knowledge. These results are combined with the teacher’s knowledge to reach an overall teacher judgement based on how each child is performing for that point in the year. These are recorded as the year group curriculum the pupil is working on (e.g.4) and then working towards (WTS), expected (EXS) or greater depth (GDS) For example, an on track pupil in Year 4 should receive the judgement ‘4EXS’ in autumn, spring and summer.  These judgements are reported to parents. 

National Assessments

In Year 1, children sit the phonics screening check. This is a set of 40 words, real and made up, which children must decode successfully. If children do not pass, they will resit the check in Year 2. 

In Year 4, children sit the multiplication times tables check. This is an online assessment where children must answer 25 multiplication tables questions (up to 12 X12) in a given amount of time. There is no pass mark for this check, however schools are rated based on the percentage of pupils who achieve 25 / 25. 

In Year 6, children sit the statutory assessment tests (SATs) in reading, maths and grammar, punctuation and spelling. Teachers’ judgments are given for writing and science.

To ensure pupils are ready for their SATs, children sit mocks at the end of Year 5 and then in October, January and March of Year 6. 

All results are reported to parents. 

Please see below our ‘assessment on a page’ to see the range of assessments used.