With the introduction of a new National Curriculum, assessment has been overhauled in the primary education system from September 2014. Levels, as teachers knew them, are now gone and have not been replaced with a national system. The Government has given each school the freedom to design their own assessment system.
However this does not apply to Year 2 and Year 6 children who sit the end of KS1 and KS2 SATs in the Summer term.
What assessments do we use?
The National Curriculum, brought in at the start of September 2014, was written so that children had to cover some objectives over the course of a two year period and some objectives over a single period.
The ethos of the curriculum is embedding a depth and mastery of the learning objectives. Therefore assessing children’s depth of knowledge and ability to apply this knowledge into other contexts is now every school’s priority. Assessment of these objectives is now no longer determined by a central system of levels determined by the Government.
We currently tracks children in 3 levels:
- Emerging (level of understanding)
- Developing (level of understanding)
- Secure (level of understanding)
Children are still legally required to be assessed formally at the end of Reception, at the end of Year 1 in the Phonics test, the end of KS1 SATs tests and the end of KS2 SATs tests.
A new times table check will be introduced for Year 4 from 2020, this year our Year 4 classes will be trialling the materials.
More information on how we assess children can be viewed here.
To view the school’s assessment policy, please click here.