Assessment for Learning

Rationale

At Llangyfelach Primary School we believe effective assessment is at the heart of improving learning and teaching. It provides the basis of informed teaching, helping pupils to overcome difficulties and ensuring that teaching builds upon what has been learned. It is also the means by which pupils understand what they have achieved and what they need to work on.

Aims and Objectives

To improve the quality of learning and teaching
To raise the standards of achievement throughout the school
To enable the active involvement of pupils in their learning and self- assessment in order to improve their work
To enable our pupils to demonstrate what they know, understand and can do in their work
To involve pupils in their learning by sharing Learning Objectives and setting Success Criteria
To ensure teachers and pupils model the learning strategies, attributes, skills and standards so that collaboratively pupils learn to evaluate and improve
To build in Reflection Time in order to encourage pupils to develop self and peer evaluative skills
To enable our pupils to become independent learners who are excited by challenge
To allow teachers to plan work that accurately reflects the needs of each pupil
To provide regular information for parents that enables them to support their children’s learning

AfL at LPS

Teachers will ensure clear learning objectives for every learning activity and success Criteria where appropriate
Activities will be matched to the learning objective and success criteria.
Short term plans will include differentiation and assessment that affects next steps to inform future planning

Success Criteria

Purpose of success criteria:

To state what teachers and pupils are looking for
To model successful outcomes
To devise questions
To use to give feedback
To train children to evaluate, improve and advise
To celebrate success and raise self-esteem

Effective Strategies

Discussions between teachers, learners and peers
Discussion prompts in FP (Mr Men strategy) and discussion/writing prompts KS2
Teacher verbal and written feedback
Talk partners
Identifying successful outcomes
Evaluating self and peer work
Feedback to improve self and peer work
Working / Learning walls

Feedback

Feedback is given by teachers, teaching assistants, peers and through self-evaluation activities (see Marking Policy, Assessment Policy).

Purpose of feedback:

To identify children’s conceptions or misconceptions
To provide children with verbal or written dialogue to celebrate success and inform next steps (2 stars and a wish strategy)
- This has to be acted upon within a plan-teach-assess cycle
- It is advised that this strategy is used in the drafting and editing process to allow for actionable impact on learning.
To provide immediate dialogue that is used to inform the children’s learning and the teachers’ planning
It is understood by the children and supports their learning

Effective Strategies

Verbal feedback (see Marking Policy)
Written feedback using codes (see Marking Policy)
Pupil use of marking codes symbols (age appropriate)
Modelling the process of peer feedback
Talk partners
Provide children with Reflection Time to make improvements
Further strategies and details can be found in the AfL Booklet (LPS Tools).

Reporting

Strengths and areas for improvement which are identified through the AfL processes inform feedback given by staff at parents’ evenings (Autumn and Spring term). They inform parents of: -