Assessment
...the school has provided my daughter with a solid building block academically and socially... (Parent Comment)
At Blackwell First school we use assessment as a means of working out what the children know and what skills they have, in order to help them along their learning journey by planning the right next steps for them. The children are assessed in an informal way (formative) throughout the school day and are also assessed more formally (summative) at various times during their time at Blackwell, in line with national assessments. We assess the children on entry to and exit from Nursery and then from entry to Reception as below.
- Entry to Reception – baseline assessment, this involves assessing the children’s personal and social skills as well as their knowledge of Language and Number
- Exit from Reception – end of Foundation Stage assessment using the national criteria for Early Years which assesses all areas of learning including personal and social development.
- End of Year 1 – national phonic check to assess children’s ability to read phonetically.
- End of Year 4 - Times Tables test
In Years 2 and 3, the children do not undertake national tests and the school uses internal systems to assess children’s progress.
From the end of Nursery to the end of Year 4 the school has devised its own assessment systems in line with collaborative First Schools. The children are assessed informally through their everyday performance in school and then judged to be at one of the following stages:
- Emerging – this means they are working below national age expectations
- Developing – this means that they are working well towards national age expectations
- Secure- this means that they are comfortably working at national age expectations
- Mastered/ Greater Depth- this means that they are working significantly above national expectations (this is exceptional)
These assessments are in place to ensure that children are making good progress in school. It is the progress that is rigorously monitored by teachers in school. The children’s school reports inform you about both the standards that they are working at and the progress that they are making. This will help you monitor the progress that they make across the school.