The national curriculum (for Years 1 - 6) sets out what is to be taught in each year; it has Performance Descriptors for what should be known at the end of each Key Stage. Schools have the freedom to make their own professional judgements about how children are learning the knowledge, skills and concepts within the new National Curriculum and to decide how to monitor progress and how to report to parents and pupils about where the pupil is and what they need to do next to make progress.

Pupil progress is of paramount importance to us; we use ‘formative’ assessments as well as summative assessments and will seek to show continued pupil progress in a wide range of ways including evidence in pupils’ books.  Assessment is not simply used as a measure of  a child’s ability at school but as a tool to inform planning, to improve pupils’ ability to learn, and to develop their knowledge, understanding and skills.

Your child's progress will be continuously assessed on an informal basis in each lesson by the class teacher. Subsequent lessons will build on what has been achieved previously, reinforce learning and develop new skills at an appropriate pace. This assessment knowledge also contributes to the formal assessment in relation to national curriculum expectations.

The following list describes your child's journey through any National Assessments or Tests taken at our school.

(1) The Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) is a short, interactive and practical assessment of your children's early literacy,  communication, language and mathematics skills when they begin school,  using materials that most children of your child's age will be familiar with. It became statutory for all schools from September 2021.

The RBA will provide an opportunity for your child to have valuable one-to-one tome with their teacher at an early stage, so that the teacher can get to know your child better. It will provide a helpful snapshot of your child so that they can be supported in the most appropriate way.

You do not need to do anything to prepare your child for the assessment. Your child is unlikely to even know that they are doing an assessment when they are completing tasks and activities.

(2) Reading skills are fundamental to the development of other curriculum areas and we formally assess all our children. At the end of Year 1, all children will undertake the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check.

Any children who do not pass the check standard will be assessed again at the end of Year 2.

(3) For Year 2, there are SATS in Reading and Mathematics. However, from 2024 these are now optional for schools to use to support or inform teacher' judgments. All 3 areas of Reading, Writing and Mathematics are teacher assessed against National Standards. 

(4) In Year 4, children will take a National Multiplication Check. The aims of this:

• is to determine whether year 4 pupils can fluently recall their multiplication tables.
• is to help schools to identify pupils who require additional support.

There is no ‘pass’ rate or threshold.

The DfE will create a report on overall results across all schools in England to measure improvements.

(5) In Year 6, the National Curriculum Standardised Assessment Tests (SATs) remain in place and are designed to help us to assess children's ability in aspects of the core subjects of Reading, Grammar, Punctuation & Spelling and Maths. These tests are statutory and are taken at the end  of Key Stage 2 (Year 6).

All our internal assessment procedures are in place to ensure that your child is given an engaging curriculum, with appropriate challenge, to enable them to make the best possible progress. If you wish to know more about your child’s progress, please arrange to talk to the class teacher.