ASSESSMENT PRINCIPLES ASSESSMENT PRINCIPLES ASSESSMENT PRINCIPLES

Assessment is integral to high quality learning and teaching and empowers children to take action
towards improving their performance.
At Uplands Infant school we ensure that assessment is:
Fair, inclusive and free from bias
Open, honest and transparent
Ambitious - ensuring high expectations for all
Appropriate to age and task
Accurate and consistent
Comparable with other schools
Meaningful and understandable for children, parents, staff and governors
APPROACH
All staff are regularly trained in our approach to assessment and actively seek to further
develop our current practice.
The Head Teacher is responsible for assessment.
Assessment places achievement in context against nationally standardised criteria and
expected standards.
Our assessment processes support:
Children by enabling them to demonstrate what they know, understand and can do in
their work, recognise the standards to aim for and to understand what they need to do
next to improve their work.
Parents by providing regular information and workshops that enable them to support
their childs learning.
Teachers by enabling them to plan learning that accurately reflects the needs of each
and every child.
Judgements are formed according to common principles and processes to ensure
consistency and draw on a range of evidence.
Assessment judgements are moderated by experienced professionals both within Uplands
Infants and the local authority.
An ambitious pathway of progress and development is set for every child.
Our policies and procedures support our children to make a smooth transition between year
groups and phases.
METHOD
Assessment serves many purposes but the main purpose of assessment at Uplands Infants
is to enable teachers, children and parents to plan their next steps in learning.
We use the outcomes of assessment to check and support our teaching standards and to
help us develop further.
Through working with other schools and the use of external tests and assessments we are
able to compare our performance with other schools.
We assess children against agreed and concrete descriptions of what a child is expected to
know and be able to do. This assessment criterion is based on the National Curriculum.
Assessment criteria are arranged into a hierarchy, setting out what children are normally
expected to have achieved by the end of each year.
The achievement of each child is assessed against all the relevant criteria at appropriate
times of the school year.
Each child is assessed as either Emerging, Expected or Exceeding against each relevant
criterion contained in our expectations for that year.
Where a child is assessed as emerging or exceeding their needs will be met through
support or further challenge.
Assessment judgements are recorded and supported by a body of evidence; i.e.
observations, records of work, discussion etc.
Assessment judgements are moderated by colleagues in school and by colleagues in other
schools to make sure our assessments are fair, reliable and valid.
USE
Teachers use the outcomes of our assessments to summarise and analyse attainment and
progress for their children and to identify any gaps in learning.
Teachers use this data to plan the learning for every child to ensure they meet or exceed
expectations. Teachers and senior leaders analyse the data across school to ensure that
children identified as vulnerable or at particular risk in this school are making appropriate
progress and that all children are suitably stretched.
The information from assessment is regularly communicated to parents through structured
conversations and rich qualitative profiles of what has been achieved and indications of
what they need to do next.
We celebrate all achievements across our broad, balanced and enriched curriculum i.e.
sport, behaviour, art and performance, social and emotional development, and academic
achievement.

Assessment feedback should inspire great effort and a belief that
through hard work and practice more can be achieved.