Assessment
All schools are continually assessing their pupils. By doing this, they have an overview of the standards of work achieved in the Core and Foundation subjects of the National Curriculum. Level 4 is the national level for pupils leaving Year 6.
There are two processes in the assessment of children. Continuous assessment made by the teachers is called Teacher Assessment. However, there is also an end of Key Stage 2 Assessment made when the child reaches Year 6. These are known as SATs and are written tests in English, Mathematics and Science. The results will be reported to parents in a form that makes it understandable and comparable with other pupils of the same age nationally.
Three times each year teachers formally assess a child’s progress against the levels of the National Curriculum in the core subjects. Moderation of standards achieved by children is programmed into the teachers’ schedules to assure a whole-school approach to Teacher Assessment and to raise standards.
Further information on assessment may be obtained by talking to the teaching staff.
The following table shows a summary of the National Curriculum results of pupils in the school for tests taken in May. 90 pupils were eligible for Key Stage 2 Assesment in 2008.
| Percentage of pupils attaining Level 4 or above in: | School Results 2008 | Percentage of pupils attaining Level 5 or above in: | School Results 2008 |
|---|
| Reading | 90% | Reading | 47% |
| Writing | 58% | Writing | 11% |
| English overall | 80% | English overall | 22% |
| Mathematics | 74% | Mathematics | 22% |
| Science | 92% | Science | 40% |
Level 4 is the threshold level by which children of Year 6 are judged to be in line with national expectations of achievement. This is a good set of results for a weaker group of children overall which we consider celebrates very well the progress of children in these important subjects of the curriculum. All of the children who did not reach Level 4 have been receiving additional literacy teaching or special needs support. All of these children excelled in their results also even though they did not reach the Level 4.
Level 5 represents pupils achieving well above the expectation for children in Year 6 (in fact two years above). Our able children achieved well in the three Core Subjects.
National assessment and testing are only a very small part of children’s curriculum experience at Guillemont and all children continue to be taught through cross-curricular work especially in topic and this ensures our curriculum has breadth, balance and a wealth of first hand experience, excellence and enjoyment!