Assessment within Our Lady’s
At Our Lady Star of the Sea we recognise that assessment is a powerful tool, which helps to ensure that learning fits individual needs. Therefore we actively involve children in the whole process to encourage them to take responsibility for their own learning and help them to begin to make decisions about the next steps to take.
Informal Assessment (Formative)
Throughout the year class teachers use a variety of strategies to informally assess the children in their class. This enables them to:
Know at which Stage each individual child is working at.
Provide effective feedback to each individual, giving them advice and strategies to use to move on to the next learning step.
Actively involve the children in their own learning.
Adjust future teaching based on teacher assessment and observation.
Formal Assessment (Summative)
To support teacher assessment, the children will experience a variety of formal testing throughout the year depending upon their age and working level. Such tests include:
Star reading tests (Year 1-6).
Half Termly reading assessments.
Baseline Assessment at the beginning and end of Reception.
Formal assessments when appropriate to back up teacher assessment.
“If we think of our children as plants… summative assessment of the plants is the process of simply measuring them. The measurements might be interesting to compare and analyse, but, in themselves, they do not affect the growth of the plants. Formative assessment, on the other hand, is the garden equivalent of feeding and watering the plants – directly affecting their growth.”