Oakington Manor Primary School

Intent: 

At Oakington Manor Primary school, our well-sequenced school curriculum is underpinned by vigorous and robust assessment systems. We understand that the timely and accurate use of a variety of assessment methods provides us with critical information about the effectiveness of the curriculum provision we have made for all groups of children.  

Our school undertakes 3 points of assessments, which in turn support teachers in identifying and closing children’s gaps in Knowledge, skills and Understanding resulting in accelerated progress for all.

Our summative assessments measure the attainment of pupils against their peers. Formative assessment methods provide us with information to enable appropriate support is provided through the provision of interventions or corrections. Through questioning, process marking, verbal and written feedback and pupils’ responding to the marking, teachers are able to assess the impact of their teaching and make amendments to their planning accordingly. At Oakington, teachers mark against the WALT (We Are Learning To) and the WILF (What I’m Looking For). Ipsative assessment methods enables pupils to analyse their own and peers work and respond to it, through the use of green pens. This evidences their own understanding of what they need to do to move themselves- and their peer’s learning forward.

Implementation:  We assess children’s core knowledge while developing subject specific skills and understanding.

• Assessment for learning underpins our teaching and learning, with a strong emphasis on closing the gaps and building knowledge blocks.
• There are 3 points of in-school data collection and one of agreeing baseline based on previous years’ outcomes– this data supports teacher judgements of pupil progress in Numeracy, Reading and Writing. All other subjects are assessed using end of year expectations or end of unit assessments. Periodical monitoring of lesson plans by subject leaders helps to identify key areas for development.
• Ongoing, formative assessment takes place during every lesson to ensure that students are learning effectively and making progress. This may be through questioning with verbal feedback or marking with written feedback. The emphasis is always on helping students to get better and improve their work. 
• We use this ongoing assessment of students, in conjunction with more formal summative assessments, to help inform our professional judgements of where we think students are now and what we think they will achieve at the end of the year.
• Lesson observations undertaken by peers, subject leaders, year group leaders and SLT, support teachers to ensure consistency across the school and that pupils are making progress within the lesson.
• Through Core tracking meetings with Year group leaders, SENCo and Head of School, we identify children who may need additional support and determine if there is a need for intervention or support services.

• We also ask all students to reflect on their own commitment to learning prior to teachers completing their reports, through pupil interviews.

• Book Monitoring and moderation of books takes place half termly for English and Maths, as a whole school and within year groups for English, Maths and Creative Curriculum weekly/fortnightly.
• Assessments help teachers and other staff involved with the school, plan individualized instructions for a child or for a group of children that are at the same stage of development. It identifies the strengths and weaknesses and provides a common ground between teachers and parents to use in collaborating on a strategy to support their child.

Impact:

• Rigorous monitoring helps us gauge the impact of the curriculum design on the success of our children’s learning. There is strong emphasis on pupils achieving their age appropriate knowledge and skills base, especially in reading.

• Our whole school team of staff, with strong subject knowledge, secures the realisation of our ethos and vision.

• Our continued success with value added pupil outcomes, from a low baseline, are a testament to the success of our children.

The monitoring of the impact of interventions that pupils attend is undertaken on a regular basis to ensure that progress over time and transference to class is evident.