Assessment at Telford Junior School

The school's assessment strategies are designed to support children, teaching staff, parents/carers, school leaders, governors and school accountability.

Assessment helps children to:

- Demonstrate what they know, understand and are able to do.

- Make progress with their learning.

- Recognise the 'next steps' in their learning and how to work towards achieving these.

Assessment helps teachers and teaching assistants to:

- Plan more effectively.

- Make reliable judgements about how children are progressing.

- Make reliable judgements about how children are performing, related to national standards.

- Contribute to the setting of appropriate targets at whole school, class and individual levels.

Assessment helps to inform parents/carers of their child's educational progress through:

- The conversations teachers have during parent/carer consultations.

- The written reports teachers produce for parents/carers at the end of the school year.

- Informal conversations or email communication during the school year, as a need arises (e.g. where a pupil is struggling with their learning or have a special educational needs review meeting).

Assessment helps school leaders to:

- Demonstrate and track the progress children are making in our school.

- Demonstrate and track attainment of the children in our school.

- Evaluate the quality of teaching and learning.

Assessment helps governors to:

- Ensure the quality and consistency of teaching and learning.

- Know about the attainment and progress of children in our school.

Assessment assists school accountablity:

- End of Key Stage 2 test and assessment results are published by the Department for Education.

- This data informs local authority school improvement plans and Ofsted inspection teams.

Communicating Information about Pupils' Educational Progress to Parents/Carers

Parent/carer consutation meetings in the Autumn and Spring Terms and the written report in the Summer Term are the formal structures by which the school ensures that parents/carers are kept informed about their child's educational progress.

These meetings and the school report provide information about children's attainment in relation to national expectations. Teachers will also talk about what a pupil knows, understands and is able to do. Teachers will explain what a pupil needs to do next and how families can help their child with their learning.  

If parents/carers have particular concerns during the course of the school year, teachers will offer them an appointment, to discuss these and to explore strategies that might help. Sometimes other members of the staff will be involved in these meetings, such as the SENCO, a member of the leadership team, the head teacher or an external professional. For some children on the SEN register there will be scheduled review meetings during the year with parents/carers. Scheduled consultations, informally arranged meetings, review meetings and the written reports will all be informed by the teacher's knowledge of the standard at which the pupil is working.

How We Assess

Following the removal of National Curriculum Levels in 2016, the school moved to using the attainment grade terminology used nationally for end of Key Stage 2 tests and assessments: 

GDS = Working at greater depth within the age-related expectations

EXS = Working at the age-related expected standard

WTS = Beginning to work within the age-related expectations

BLW = Working below the age-related expectations

The age-related expectation relates to Natinal Curriculum expectations for a child's year group. The National Curriculum sets out the statutory programmes of study and attainment targets for all subjects. For English, the programme of study is separated into one for Years 3 and 4 and one for Years 5 and 6. In Maths and Science, there are separate programmes of study for each year group. For the Foundation Subjects, the programmes of study are for Key Stage 2. As such, teachers have planned the school's curriculum to deliver agreed learning intentions in each year group, according to the National Curriculum knowledge, understanding and skills allocated to their year group. It is against these learning intentions, and whether they have been successfully met, that teachers assess whether children are working at the expected standard.