1

“The ultimate user of assessment that is elicited in order to improve learning is the student”

Dylan William

School aims

To strive for the highest standards in all that we do

To recognise and reward progress, commitment and success

To provide access for all to a broad, balanced and relevant curriculum

To value and respect each other as individuals

To encourage all to be responsible members of the community

Aims

The School aims to meet its statutory requirements and to assess students' attitudes to work and progress made in a manner which is consistent, fair and fully understood by staff, students and parents.

The School records and reports in line with DFE ‘Assessment and reporting procedures’

The School aims to measure and record progress, recognising and rewarding achievements and helping students achieve their full potential.

The School will collect data on student progress centrally up to four times (more for vulnerable groups) per year and will analyse this data to inform and develop student progress

The School aims to provide a system of reporting based on a number of points of contact throughout the year:

o Annual Reports for all students, that are summative and set targets for further progress

o Interim reports that are a summary of GCSE predicted grades, progress and CAB grades collected up to four points throughout the academic year and reported to parents.

o Examination reports that show the attainment of the students following a period of examinations.

o Annual parents' consultation and information evenings

Each Curriculum Learning Leader is responsible for monitoring and evaluating the quality of assessment, recording and reporting in their subjects and for consistent application of the School and departmental procedures.

Assessment Policy

Assessment is an integral part of learning and teaching in the classroom. The main purpose of assessment is to identify what a student knows, understands and can do, so that teaching and learning can be matched with each student’s needs and abilities.

Assessment is a statutory and contractual obligation upon teachers but it is essential that the process is manageable and effective and ultimately raises standards. The assessment process must involve the students.

Assessment, Recording and Reporting (ARR) Policy

Agreed: Rev &updated: April 2016

Review Date: April 2018

2

This policy requires a common and shared approach to assessment, thereby allowing all curriculum areas to develop a subject specific policy. At Brookfield we therefore expect assessment to incorporate an appropriate ratio formative and summative assessment.

All Curriculum areas should plan for a variety of assessments across all year groups including summative and formative assessments. The nature of the assessment set should reflect the end goal assessment (typically GCSE) wherever possible.

Marking and Feedback Teachers should mark students work in accordance to the Marking and Assessment Policy which is attached as an appendix. (Appendix 1)

Academic Targets

Targets for the forthcoming year will be set annually during the autumn term. These are based on KS2 data using transition matrices to set equally challenging targets for all the learners (typically in the top 20% for their starting points)

From September 2016 Years 7-10 will have targets to ensure the whole year group has a P8 of 0.4; all learner groups will have an equal level of challenge in their contribution to this overall P8 figure.

Teachers are set targets using the transition matrices with the expectation that they add at least 10% to national for both attainment and progress.

Curriculum areas are set targets using the transition matrices with the expectation that they add at least 10% to national for both attainment and progress.

Reviewing Progress

Teachers, Curriculum and House Leaders and DoLs should regularly review students’ progress against these targets and take timely and appropriate action where underachievement is identified.

Teachers will add strategies for any students falling below their target and in particular for those falling behind their expected levels of progress. They must also be able to identify and target any key groups of learners failing to make progress.

Learning Leaders will ensure they have a complete picture of all of their year groups in terms of progress and attainment and any specific learner or teaching groups within those year groups. This will be presented as the ‘patterns on a page ‘attached (Appendix 3)

Formal ‘Progress Review Meetings’ must be held periodically between CLLs and the teachers in their departments, with the agenda driven by the progress of each student in the class. All Learning Leaders will review their progress with the Headteacher and Deputy at least twice in the academic year.

Recording Policy

At Brookfield we expect records:

To be manageable, clear and up to date

To be used to promote and to structure the learning process

To provide evidence of progression and learning

To provide summary information at least in line with statutory requirements

To cover the whole range of the learning experience e.g. Reading, Writing, and Speaking and Listening for English

To be used to monitor and review student progress and to provide the basis for summative

3

assessment and reporting.

To be available for monitoring by the Learning Leaders, DoLs, House Leaders and Tutors

We will keep on-going records of student achievement and progress centrally, collected up to four times per academic year for Years 7-11. This data will be available on SIMS and 4 Matrix. Teachers are expected to ensure class-level intervention strategies are updated in SIMs, regularly reviewing the available data. Learning Leaders are responsible for monitoring this data to track student progress intervention when necessary, ensuring they regularly review the progress of students towards agreed targets for the end of the academic year and the Key Stage. The impact of this intervention should be measurable and clear.

Learning Leaders are expected to ensure that the QA folder is kept up to date following Data Collection, key assessments and formal examinations.

Reporting Policy

Reporting is a key element in the process of planned continuous dialogue that promotes a learning partnership between students, parents and teachers. It involves oral and written communication, which recognises the statutory requirements, includes a summary of what has been achieved and provides information to plan future progress.

Statutory Requirements Parents must receive a minimum of one written report each year, (The Education (Pupil Information) (England) Regulations Act 2005) which forms part of each student’s official school record. It must include information about the student's:

Attendance

Attainment and Progress

Arrangements for parents to discuss reports with staff.

These reports should highlight each student's overall achievements and effort and be subject specific:

Strengths;

Areas for development and targets for improvement;

Standards and progress benchmarked to national figures

Behaviour and Attitude, especially to work.

Summative reports must be provided at the end of each Key Stage. Contextual information must be provided for students with special educational needs.

In addition, parents will be provided with interim reports every term, which includes GCSE and CAB data and also behaviour and attendance data.

Each data collection staff insert AFI comments which are generated in SIMs and are the key areas for improvement for each student based on their recent assessments. For most students there are 3 AFI’s in Yrs 10 and 11 and 2 in Yrs 7 to 9. These are reported to parents after every data collection.

Each year group has a written tutor report in addition to the interim reports annually; for Yrs 10 & 11 this is during the Spring term and for Yrs 7 to 9 this is during the Summer term.

House Leaders will be expected to check reports for the quality and professionalism of the comments in the tutor report. Learning leaders are expected to ensure the AFI’s are appropriate, individual and reflect accurately the key areas for improvement from moderated assessments. Records of attainment and student reports will be kept until students reach the age of 25.

4

Content of Annual Tutor Report

These are accessed through SIMs in a separate marksheet labelled tutor reports

The report should contain around 140 words. The report must focus on the student's contribution to the PD group e.g. relationships with others,

verbal contributions, presentations, participation in challenges, as well as any leadership activities. The report may touch briefly upon any other significant data, e.g. behaviour or rewards (obviously

available on SIMS). It would also be relevant to include a comment on attendance and punctuality if significant (positive or negative, again, available on SIMS). However, this is already available as hard data to parents so keep comments brief.

They do not summarise subject data or comments by teachers.

House leaders will also write a short statement for each student, of around 1 or 2 sentences.

We therefore require staff to:

Meet deadlines recorded in the school calendar

Ensure they are able to discuss a student’s progress effectively at parents' consultation evenings having grades, data and targets at hand

Ensure that the statutory requirements for reporting are met

Comment on progress, strengths, attainment, standards achieved, targets for improvement, attitudes and behaviour

Ensure that comments are constructive and largely positive.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Review

The Policy is reviewed annually by SLT and Governors as part of the self-evaluation cycle. Appropriate action is taken if changes are required.

Other Relevant Policies This Policy should be used with reference to one or more of the following policies:

Learning and Teaching

SEN Policy

Curriculum Policy

RRR (Behaviour) A full copy of the School’s Curriculum Policy will be available on line at www.brookfield.hants.sch.uk. Hard copies of each document are available from the School Reception. A small charge may be made to cover the cost of photocopying. Please allow time for copies to be made.

5

Appendix 1: Marking and Feedback Rationale Marking and Feedback is underpinned by three basic principles:

Feedback should cause thinking (D. Wiliam (2011))

Feedback aims to reduce the gap between where the student 'is' and where he or she is meant to be (Sadler (1989))

Feedback should be more work for the recipient than the donor (D. Wiliam (2011)) Aims

To ensure all marking is meaningful, rigorous and consistently applied across the school

To ensure feedback is a regular part of the learning process that generates student response and sustainable student progress

To ensure marking and feedback is monitored rigorously to improve both consistency and impact on student learning

To ensure all students take pride in their work and engage in the process of marking and feedback Non-Negotiables:

Written feedback must be given regularly and ideally every 5/6 lessons ,where appropriate, or at least twice over a half term for subjects with low contact ratios

Written feedback should motivate students and allow them to recognise progress or areas of strength alongside identifying next steps for learning including, whenever possible, provide an opportunity for the student to respond. Written feedback that requires students to respond should be written by the teacher using a purple pen or in the colour used for marking.

Literacy (QWC) must be marked in line with whole school policy

Target stickers must be completed by the students on the front of all books and/or folders

Regular time given for student reflection (DIRT) ideally this should be once every fortnight but a minimum of 2 every half term using a green pen (it will be acceptable to continue in their normal colour as an alternative)

Work is not to be marked in green pen and pupils are not to respond in purple pen to avoid giving mixed messages.

Students are to regularly take part in peer and self-assessment(peer and self-assessment skills need to be developed with students over time and consideration given to scaffolding to ensure students are taking more responsibility for their learning)

The expectation is that all Subject teams ensure all of the above are taking place; however, they can apply different marking styles as long as these are applied consistently across each subject. Monitoring

This is to take place in a variety of forms: o Curriculum areas – through CTMs and by the department team using the ‘Work scrutiny

feedback form’ (Appendix 4) o Curriculum areas - through LL and DLL o DoL/Line manager – in line management and through classroom observations o SLT – whole school monitoring through classroom observations and drop in

Responsibilities Classroom teacher:

To ensure all non-negotiables are applied for all the classes they teach

To ensure books are made available for scrutiny and/or moderation processes at the request of their Learning Leaders, Senior Leaders, Governors and Parents.

To develop learners to support their peers and themselves in providing and responding to feedback

6

Student:

To take pride in their written work

To respond to feedback using a green pen

To be responsible for their books particularly when taking them home Learning Leader:

To produce a marking and feedback policy in collaboration with their team which responds to the school’s overall policy

To ensure it is rigorously and consistently applied throughout their curriculum area

To monitor and lead whole department monitoring of marking and feedback every term using the ‘Brookfield work scrutiny form’ and other methods of monitoring

To lead moderation to ensure assessment is consistent across the curriculum area

To challenge the quality of marking and feedback in their team where appropriate SLT line manager:

To monitor marking and feedback in their lines through line management meetings, classroom observation and discussion with students

To challenge the quality of marking and feedback in departments where appropriate Key Terminology Assessment: process of making a judgement of students’ work that can be justified or benchmarked producing either a graded or comparative rating Summative Assessment: assessment that is a judgement which encapsulates all the evidence up to a given point in time Formative Assessment: assessment which requires feedback to bridge the gap between where the learning and progress is, to where it needs to be Feedback (often referred as Formative Feedback): Any direct communication to students either written or oral that positively impacts on students’ future learning by enabling them to see how to bridge the gap between where their work currently is to where it needs to be Response: Where students directly respond to feedback by correcting, redrafting, and improving work, the response should progress the knowledge and level of understanding from where it currently is to where it needs to be Marking for Literacy

Cross Curricular Literacy Focus

PUNCTUATION COMMON MUDDLES HOMOPHONES

Capital letters

Thursday, Mrs Allan, new

sentence

Full stops

Ends of all sentences –

objectives, titles, lists, whenever

they are sentences.

Question marks

Check titles too.

Apostrophes for contraction

doesn’t, won’t, could’ve

a lot

because

does

done/did

it’s / its

should’ve/could’ve/would’ve/(have)

were/where (wear)

of / off

ys/eys/ies

are / our

know / no (now)

there/they’ve/their

which (witch)

your / you’re

to/too/two

In addition, agreed subject

specific spellings

7

Background Information and Guidance Key Principles about feedback

Feedback should cause thinking (Dylan Wiliam)

Feedback should be more work for the recipient than the donor

Feedback should close the gap between where students are and where they should be.

Students must act upon feedback

Feedback must be timely

Grades and feedback- feedback has significantly more impact on learning than grades The Feedback cycle: Feedback should be based on the following feedback cycle. The idea of a cycle ensures that the feedback given is part of a continual cycle allowing students to improve or progress their learning. The various components of the cycle are as follows: Understanding & meaning – Lessons must be pitched to appropriately challenge all students. Feedback reduces in effectiveness if learning is too easy or pitched well beyond student capabilities. Check understanding - In order for feedback to be relevant, there must be opportunities for students to demonstrate that they understand. Feedback - The teacher provides high quality feedback that reflects on what has been achieved (feedback) but also provides instructions or provokes thinking on how to move the learning forward. Act upon and learn from feedback - Time must be allocated for students to actually engage with the feedback and act upon it to close the gap between where they are and where they should be. Reassess – Checking learning to ensure that feedback has been responded to and this has closed gaps in leaning

8

Reduce workload AND increase impact! Student engagement with written feedback

Instead of…

The teacher… The student…

Writing annotations in the body of a piece of work and giving an overall comment

Only writes annotations in the body of the work

Writes an overall review highlighting two strengths and one area for improvement

Writing annotations in the body of a piece of work and giving an overall comment

Only writes and overall comment. Annotates areas of the work where the areas of strength are apparent and where improvement needs to be made.

Writing extensive comments Only gives one strength and one possible improvement: WWW EBI

Works to “Close the Gap” on the one issue identified

Writing ‘well done you have…’ next to good aspects of the work.

Put a double tick next to the best parts of the students work.

Adds the reasons for the double ticks.

Marking every question in detail Only marks the highlighted questions in detail. There is no expectation that all class notes will be marked. Check your area policy and mark tasks where your marking will have an IMPACT!

Marks (or peer marks) the work before it is submitted, highlighting the two areas where they would most like help.

Writing the same explanation on every piece of work when the same mistake is made by many students.

Goes over this question in class. Writes their own correct answer

Writing out a full solution when a student gets a question wrong.

Writes a hint or the next step. Completes the correction.

Correcting work when a student makes a little mistake.

Writes WWWT? (What’s wrong with this?) Or RTQ! (Read the question)

The student makes their own correction.

Marking only extended pieces of work

Reviews in class students’ initial plans for this work prior to marking the extended piece of work.

Does not hand in rubbish!

Giving back work and moving straight on. Give students time to Close the Gap to make all that marking time worth it.

Departments have lots of strategies for giving students specific skills to work on. A way of starting this can be if teacher asks students to ‘put a tick next to my comment if you know how to improve and a ? if you don’t. This can be a first step to engagement. Paired work to resolve some of the ? prior to asking you for guidance is good practice and reduces workload.

Students read and start to engage with marking before working on the ‘Close the Gap’ task the teacher has identified.

9

Methods for implementation: What follows is a list of strategies that can be used within the policy. It is not an exhaustive list and departments are encouraged to design methods that work for them within the framework. The methods that follow incorporate a number of the principles above and are based on research, evidence and experience. 1 Critique – “Drafting and crafting”. What: Critique is a process where students are trained to give very clear and concise feedback in order to allow redrafting of work to improve it to the required standard. How: As students are working towards a piece of work, they create a number of draft versions. These drafts are ‘critiqued’ by peers and the feedback that each piece is given is acted upon in the next draft. The comments that are given must be kind, specific and helpful. They must also be instructional and help make the work better. The teacher usually focuses on one aspect of the work and usually requires a dedicated lesson delivered in the form of a public critique or gallery critique. The process does require very thorough modelling to allow students to develop the skills for themselves. Why: Critique goes beyond typical peer assessment. It clearly shows students how to give specific feedback that can be actioned by the recipient. Dedicating a whole lesson to the drafting process helps develop a culture of feedback within the classroom. The use of redrafting helps the students to see the progress that is being made over time. 2 DIRT time – Acting upon that feedback What: DIRT time is allocating dedicated time in lessons to allow students to act upon their feedback How: Plan time within lessons or schemes where students act upon the comments and feedback they receive. This can come in the form of a starter activity, end of a lesson task or a dedicated lesson during a scheme. In this time, students revisit feedback that they have been given and have that time to respond with the help of peers, teachers and resources. Why: Providing feedback in books can easily be forgotten about or simply not acted upon. By creating dedicated time in lessons where students have to act upon it, the gap between where they are and where they should be can be closed. 3 Reteach or Closing the Gap lessons What: Reteach is a period of lessons delivered prior to starting a new unit to allow students to ‘tidy up their understanding’ from a previous unit. How: Following a unit or topic assessment teachers and students analyse where there are gaps both in terms of whole class learning and also individual student gaps. A period of time is then dedicated to reteach where students work together or on individual areas to close the gaps in their understanding. These lessons need to be carefully planned and it is not simply redoing activities it is approaching gaps in learning in a different way. Why:

10

Too often we finish a unit and move onto the next without ensuring students are mastering their learning. Providing this structured time with well thought out tasks allows students to close the gap from where they were, to where they should have been. 4 Burning questions/requests – Can you check this for me? What: Burning questions are when students request that a specific part of their work is deeply marked. How: When a piece of work is handed in, the student very clearly highlights on it a part of it that they didn’t quite understand. This is not related to the task, but to the content. Students may, for example be unsure about the functions of the skeleton during a physiology unit; they then highlight that section in their work. Their teacher can then mark the other parts using a marking key, and then give specific time to the piece of understanding that the student is struggling with. This section gets constructive comments and suggestions for moving the learning forward and close the gap. Why: Giving students that sense of ownership and responsibility engages them in the process. They are highlighting a part of your subject that they are still not quite clear on and requesting some help with moving it forward 5 Feedback key – Focusing your feedback What: A feedback key is simply a number of symbols or abbreviations used in marking How: Create a marking key and give students a copy to stick in their books. The codes on this key are then used regularly so that students can check them and respond accordingly. Using a code makes students think about what needs improving, which will help progress learning further. If students need more clarity over why they have a code they can come and seek further feedback. Why: Feedback should provoke thought. This method highlights to the student areas where knowledge is competent, and areas where knowledge is lacking. This is a very efficient method of providing feedback and ensuring meaningful response from the students. 6 Feedback questions What: Feedback questions are simply direct questions given to students in their books during marking. How: Read through students work and place numbers against misconceptions. The number links to questions posed by the teacher at the end of the piece of work. Students have to respond to the questions to demonstrate that they have understood the information. Why: Asking questions makes students think about the error they made and engages them to respond to their feedback.

11

7 Find and Fix – Getting students to think about their work

What:

Find and fix is where a dot or mark in the margin of a piece of work is placed near where a mistake

is for students to locate and fix independently.

How:

When marking a piece of work, place a symbol, dot or mark in the margin next to where a mistake

has taken place. At the end of the work, explain that there are a number of mistakes but do not

indicate what and where they are. Students then have to 'find' and 'fix' them.

Why:

The process involves students thinking about the work they are doing and is suited to tackling

minor issues which can easily be found and fixed. The method also means that students can

quickly amend work themselves. It is an efficient way because the student can quickly amend the

work for themselves.

12

Appendix 2

Monitoring – The Brookfield work scrutiny form

High attaining Middle attaining Low attaining

Do students know their current grades / levels?

How regularly are they given feedback on their work?

Do the levels / grades given accurately reflect the quality of work?

Quality of formative feedback?

Quality of feedback on literacy?

Is there evidence that the students are involved in assessment?

Is there evidence that students have responded to feedback?

Is there evidence of progress in students work?

Comment on the presentation of the books / folders?

Overall Judgement (please circle) 4 3 2 1

Appendix 3 Brookfield subject analysis sheet – please add this to line management notes Subject: Date:

Year Group

*Strengths *Weaknesses Key actions to improve progress Key Students

Year 7

Year 8

Year 9

Year 10

Year 11

*Strength and weaknesses will be specific pupil groups or teaching groups – individual names should be found on the individual class analysis sheets

Support strategies or any other relevant comments or information

Appendix 4 CAB Grades

1 2 3 4 5

If a 4 or 5 are awarded the reason for this grade must also be specified. Therefore, A should be added to signify a problem with ATTITUDE; P should be added to signal a lack of PROGRESS. Both A and P (AP) could be added if a teacher wishes to record a lack of both. 1. Excellent Student is making excellent progress, and shows a consistently mature attitude towards learning. Can learn independently as well as in groups. Student contributes well to class discussion. 2. Good Student is making good progress. Student is motivated to learn in class. Student works well in groups. Student contributes to class discussions. Can mostly work independently. 3. Satisfactory Student is making expected progress and has a reasonable attitude towards learning. Meets teachers expectations in the class room, class work is mostly completed. Requires teacher's direction to learn independently and in groups. Student contributes to lessons from time to time. 4. Disappointing Student is making little, if any progress and displays an immature attitude towards learning. Class work is often incomplete, or completed to a poor standard. Student struggles to work independently or in groups, and is distracted or distractive in class. 5. Poor Student is failing to make any progress and displays a consistently immature attitude towards learning. Student’s behaviour is often distractive, or disruptive to others. Class work is consistently poor. The School’s Reward’s Policy should also be used to reward achievement and/or effort. Include relevant details such as new level to grade conversions when we have it