Assessment Methodology

At Peterhouse, we believe that assessment should form an integral part of the learning process and should be carried out for one purpose only – to aid children’s learning.

Teachers use both formative and summative assessments to inform future planning and to move children on in their learning. The assessment methods used will differ from subject to subject.

All of the assessment techniques used at Peterhouse are built upon a well planned, sequential curriculum that sets out exactly what a child needs to learn in order to be successful - details of this can be found in the curriculum pages.

Formative Assessment

The most important assessments happen in the moment, during lessons. This happens through interactions with the teacher and other adults in the room. The majority of these interactions are verbal and help children to move on ion their thinking, or correct misconceptions as they are spotted. Teachers will also mark children's work in order to give formative feedback. However, at Peterhouse they will not generally write in the child's book - we feel that this is often demoralising and has little impact. Instead, the teachers will complete whole class marking sheets for a particular lesson. This information will directly inform the planning of the next lesson.

More information can be found in our marking and feedback policy.

Summative Assessment in Core Subjects

The main strand of assessment in the core subjects is delivered through the effective use of PiXL. Teachers are required to follow the PiXL assessment calendar for English and Maths, using the resulting data to drive the interventions within their class. Teachers will also use a range of formative assessment techniques to inform their daily planning.

What is PiXL?

'The PiXL (Partners in Excellence) Club are a collaboration of over 1300 schools across the UK and abroad, who share a common goal to raise standards and inspire students, through purposeful and vibrant conferences, networks, training opportunities and sharing online resources.'

Statutory Assessments

There are times when the government requires us to perform statutory assessments. There are several statutory assessments for your child throughout their primary school years. These are:

Reception - Baseline Assessment

Year 1 - Phonics Screening Check

Year 2 - End of KS1 SATs

Year 4 - Multiplication Check

Year 6 - End of KS2 SATs

Click on the links above to find out more about statutory assessments.

Assessment in Foundation Subjects

It is important to ensure that assessment in the foundation subjects does not just become a data filling exercise to indicate which objectives were understood at the point of delivery. This has little impact is not an efficient use of time. Instead, assessment in the foundation subjects should inform planning so that children remember more over time and are able to apply their knowledge in a number of ways.

The following four-step model of assessment is used at Peterhouse across the foundation subjects:

Step 1

Teachers firstly gauge the current level of understanding in their class for each unit of work. This could be through cold tasks, quizzes, surveys or simply through effective questioning. The results of this baseline should feed into any future planning.

Step 2

A knowledge quadrant will be used at the start of the majority of lessons. These are recorded in the books where possible (in some subjects this may be completed verbally) and teachers can look over them to get a running record of knowledge over time, looking out for trends etc. These can aid planning for future lessons and units.

Step 3

Ongoing formative assessment techniques throughout lessons, focussing on questioning, peer and self-assessment. This ongoing assessment picture should allow the teacher to adapt planning throughout the unit to meet the needs of all learners.

Step 4

A mini quiz or POP (proof of progress) task is completed at the end of each unit of work. The teacher then uses these to complete a Progress Summary Form. From this, planning for future units can be adapted and it will give information that can be used in future quadrants.

In certain subject areas (art, music etc.) care needs to be taken so that assessment practices do not stifle creativity and narrow outcomes. In these subjects, assessment should focus around the development of skills and the building of knowledge, rather than uniformity, or whether a piece is considered ‘good’.

Assessment over Time

It is important that leaders at all levels have a clear understanding of the impact that each subject is having over time, and how the knowledge taught in one subject helps children to build their schema across a number of disciplines.

Therefore, there will be a system in place that allows leaders to see an overview of the taught curriculum across year groups and terms:

Curriculum Walks

At the end of each term, every class will set out samples of work from across all subjects in their classroom. This could include

• Children’s books
• Artwork
• Final pieces of writing
• Models
• Videos
• Photographs

Followed by:

• Classes viewing the work of another class with their teacher
• Parents coming in briefly after school to look at the work in their class(es)
• Subjects leads visiting every class to monitor the ‘taught’ coverage across year groups. This will generate questions for further monitoring.