Assessment Statement

Assessment at Oakley Vale includes on-going evaluation of learning by teachers on a day to day basis which allows them to tailor their teaching accordingly – commonly referred to as ‘Responsive Teaching’. 

The Language of Assessment used at Oakley Vale Primary

Early Years/Foundation Stage

Statutory assessment

In-school language of assessment derived from PiXL approach

The correlation of the different language terms are:

‘Development Matters in the EYFS’ is used to track and assess pupils across our Pre-school and Reception years.  The ‘EYFS profile’ is used to make accurate judgements about each pupil’s attainment at the end of EYFS.

In Y1-6 PiXL tests and past statutory tests in Reading, Maths and GaPS take place periodically and gives teachers indicators of how well specific knowledge and skills have been retained and informs teachers of patterns and trends to tailor future curriculum planning and provision.

The tracking of foundation subjects largely use the Symphony assessment materials, whilst other bespoke materials are used for Phonics.

Statutory assessments are completed at the end of EYFS, KS1 and KS2.  Phonics assessments are initially completed at the end of Year 1 and statutory times-tables tests are to be introduced in Year 4.

Attainment

Teacher ‘point in time’ judgements of a pupil’s attainment are made at each data point. 

The schedule of diagnostic tests in Reading, Maths and GaPS are used by teachers and leaders to identify pupils who may be at risk of falling behind and so may require more focused intervention.  The information from both tests and teacher assessment is used to inform pupil progress discussion and to quality assure accurate judgements are made.  Nationally comparable benchmarking including FFT and PiXL is used to check that individual pupils, cohorts and groups are on track to meet end of key stage predictions.

Teachers will refer to:

• Observations
• Discussions with the pupil
• Performance and engagement in lessons
• Pupil’s books
• Marking and feedback
• Curriculum coverage tracker
• Impact of targeted intervention
• Reading records
• Writing Indicators
• QLAs
• PiXL test outcomes and summary reports
• Pupil trackers e.g. phonics, spelling.

Progress

 At Oakley Vale the monitoring of progress is represented using progress matrices, plotting the pupil’s current attainment from a chosen starting point (e.g. EYFS or KS1 outcomes).  We do not attempt to measure or quantify individual pupil progress other than at the end of KS2 using national progress measures.

‘Sufficient progress’ follows a linear flightpath model.  This is where pupils at least maintain their flightpath, with targeted intervention for those working below to meet the standards of their peers.

The progress of pupils working significantly below the year group’s curriculum will be monitored and evidenced in Individual Learning plans.  Within whole school data, the national curriculum year that the pupil can access will be denoted by the preceding figure e.g. 3B2.

Reliability and Validity

The reliability of any assessment is a measure of consistency.  It is understood that test marks can fluctuate on any given day, this is why PiXL test outcomes are just one of the many tools which teachers use to formulate their judgements. 

PiXL outcomes are used primarily to assess the cohort’s attainment.  Making comparisons with the PiXL cohort (for example 22890 pupils nationally in the most recent Y6 assessments) makes the data more reliable.

Discussions are also important about the validity of any assessment.  Is it actually assessing the knowledge or skill it is intended to?

Reliability of predictions

WIG                       ‘Wildly Important Goal’

This figure is our reasonable ambitious goal.  It is set for each year group within the first term and represents the sum attainment of each pupil’s performance on their best day.    

Prediction           The predictions we make are our opinions of the cohort’s outcomes based upon evidence of assessment and a range of information gathering.

At each data point predictions are reviewed by classteachers about a pupil’s end of year outcome.

Senior leaders in consultation with teachers make predictions of cohort outcomes and end of keystage results.

Last year the end of keystage predictions were proved to be accurate and reliable.

We can ensure this reliability by:

• A shared language of assessment across the BWT
• Quality Assurance model including lesson observations, learning walks, drop-ins and book looks.
• Pupil Progress meetings
• Shared formatted data points across the Trust
• Internal moderation within and across year groups
• Moderation across the Trust (including a high attaining primary school and another making substantial progress)
• Moderation with local cluster schools in EYFS
• A trained county moderator and Marker within the Trust.
• An Executive Principal supporting and challenging the five primaries within BWT.
• Director of Subjects supporting and quality assuring English and Maths within the Trust
• Subject network meeting held termly (English, Maths, EYFS, PiXL, SEN  and Pupil premium)
• External visitors

NAHT Aspire

PiXL Associate

DfE Advisor and Education Standards committee member at BWT.

Weighting of evidence used to support PITA Attainment predictions in Reading, GaPS and Mathematics