Dalmally Primary School: Recognising Achievement, Profiling and Reporting Policy.
Our policy is based on the key messages of
“Building the Curriculum 5”:
“Recognising achievement, profiling and reporting are all integral elements of
Curriculum for Excellence. To meet the principles of Curriculum for Excellence, education authorities, schools and learners will undertake a range of activities and processes to support recognising achievement, profiling and reporting.”
The Guidance from Education Scotland states that, for practitioners, the key features of recognising achievement, profiling and reporting is:
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All children and young people are entitled to have the full range of their achievements recognised, and to be supported in reflecting and building on their learning and achievements.
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Schools and other establishments will provide opportunities for learners to achieve and encourage them to participate.
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A profile of a learner's best achievements will be produced at P7
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There will be an on-going process of dialogue and reflection for all learners from 3 to 18.
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The information drawn together through this process will enable profiles to be produced whenever required to inform the next stages of learning.
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Parents will continue to receive regular information about their children's strengths, progress and achievements.
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They should be informed about any gaps in their children's progress, about next steps in learning, about any specific support needs and about ways that they could help support learning.
The focus of reporting must always be to support and improve learning
. Building the Curriculum 5: A framework for Assessment, outlines the key purposes and features of reporting within Curriculum for Excellence .
“Reporting has two main purposes. Firstly, it provides clear, positive and constructive feedback about children’s and young people’s learning and progress, looking back on what has been achieved against standards and expectations. Secondly, it creates an agenda for discussions between learners and those teaching and supporting them about their next steps in learning.”
Reporting allows information to be shared and exchanged amongst children and young people, parents and staff. At the centre of reporting are the informed discussions between teachers, parents, children and young people regarding their learning. Reporting should focus on achievements and progress against individual expectations. Reporting provides a summary of learner aims and targets; describes progress in terms of what the learner has achieved so far; and sets out next steps for the learner, parents and staff to ensure continued progress and improved standards of achievement.
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Dalmally Primary School: Recognising Achievement, Profiling and Reporting Policy.
Reporting makes the child or young person’s learning and achievements explicit and helps engage parents actively in their child’s learning. Reporting encourages active parental involvement and provides information on how to support learning at home.
The purpose of reporting at Dalmally Primary Schools is to support and build on learning.
We think the following aspects are particularly important:
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Assessment information should be shared and discussed between children, young people, parents and staff.
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The key to the reporting process is the informed discussions between parents, staff and pupils about learning.
 Parents need to know about their child’s achievements in relation to prior learning, progress across time and how this is reflected against national expectations.
 Parents should be clear about their child’s learning targets, what has been achieved so far and what needs to be done to ensure continued progress and improved standards of achievement.
 Reporting should help parents to engage actively in their child’s learning
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We will use the following reporting methods to share children ’s progress and achievements:
Reporting format How will this work in practice?
Individual meetings with parents and children
Personal Learning Logs
Formal parent teacher consultations held in November and May
Regular “learning conversations” with children using the feedback sheets in children’s “ Learning Logs”
These will include learning targets which are shared with parents and children set by the teacher. They will contain termly personal targets which children set for themselves. They will contain samples of learning that the child has some say in including as well some recognition of personal achievements which may occur in or out of school.
They should contain photographs which may be annotated by teachers or children and regular written learning observations from across the curriculum which may detail progress and next steps.
At the end of each school session there will be a one page summary sheet of your child’s current working levels and achievements, created in partnership with your child.
We are hopeful that if the local authority are in a position to provide funding that we can implement an e-portfolio of
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Dalmally Primary School: Recognising Achievement, Profiling and Reporting Policy.
learning for pupils in P7 in order that this can be continued in S1 therefore providing a seamless transition into secondary school.
Curriculum Plan and Overview Each session parents will be signposted to our annual curriculum plan which can be found on our website. Paper copies can be requested. In addition every family will receive a copy of the class annual overview which will give an indication of the core elements, interdisciplinary topics, short courses and individual subject areas which will be taught.
“Sharing our learning “evening/afternoons Parents will be invited to be shown around classes and view their child’s learning while their child talks about their
Fly on the wall sessions learning and achievements.
These will be held each term
–parents are invited to join the class to observe the learning and teaching that is going on.
Evening “ show case of learning” events This will include performances and
Curriculum information sessions
Special achievement certificates
Open door policy
Assessment folders presentations from pupils on their learning
Curriculum information sessions will be held at various points in the year which detail our learning and teaching methods for different areas of the curriculum.
These can be issued throughout the year by class teachers/support staff or at family assemblies. These certificates will recognise all forms of achievement and will not be limited to academic achievement.
We will encourage all parents to meet with us at any point during the year if they would like additional information or have any concerns or questions.
Each teacher holds regular assessment information using progress “tracking” sheets in Maths/Numeracy, Reading and
Writing. Copies of standardised assessments are also kept which give an indication of reading and spelling ages.
These can be accessed by parents at any time on request.
Reporting on Progress and Achieving a Level
In Dalmally Primary School, reporting is based on assessment of progress. The following points are important:
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Assessment takes place as part of on-going learning, periodically and at points of transition.
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Dalmally Primary School: Recognising Achievement, Profiling and Reporting Policy.
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Assessment involves learners and staff regularly gathering and reflecting on evidence of learning through moderation activities.
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3)
A shared understanding of each learner’s progress through the levels will be identified based on quality support material and next steps formulated.
Such practice underpins the approach to reporting developed in Building the
Curriculum 5 :
“From time to time teachers also take stock of their learners’ progress and achievements in order to be able to plan ahead and to record and report on
progress.”
This ‘taking stock’ relates to broad standards and expectations, for example deciding whether a level for a curriculum area, or part of an area such as reading, has been achieved or what additional learning and support is needed. It involves teachers in evaluating a range of evidence produced over a period of time to provide a summary of progress and achievement, including for qualifications and awards. It can be carried out in a number of ways, by weighing up all relevant evidence, taking account of the breadth, challenge and application of learning. We will use the end of level indicator material as produced by the Argyll and Bute Assessment forum which will be informed by our current assessment evidence.
We will moderate our expectations of what progress “ looks like” as a whole staff and will be committed to engaging with other school staffs within our cluster to ensure that our judgments are fair, consistent and robust. In order to moderate successfully we will use the
NAR flowchart.
If it is judged that a child’s learning has not yet reached a ‘secure’ level within expected parameters set out within Curriculum for Excellence, staff will plan with the child/young person and their parents to formulate learning targets to enable progress to be made.
Approaches to assessment and reporting should not create artificial ceilings, which might limit expectations of what children and young people can achieve. There is no reason why children should be limited to a particular curriculum level due to their age or stage.
For a child or young person to demonstrate ‘secure’ learning at a particular level,
we must provide evidence that:
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A breadth of learning across the experiences and outcomes for a particular subject area has been achieved.
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The level of challenge set out in the experiences and outcomes has been met.
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Appropriate skills can be applied independently in new and unfamiliar situations.
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We will focus on ‘ how much’ and ‘how well’ a child has learned.
Breadth, Challenge & Application
In Curriculum for Excellence the experiences and outcomes at different levels represent the breadth and depth of learning to be experienced by children and young people, typically over a three-year period.
At Dalmally Primary School we aspire to work creatively to devise stimulating and exciting programmes of work for learners in order that children have a rich variety of
Opportunities to learn and progress.
As a child moves through a level, staff should take the opportunity to report on the progress children are making against their individual targets and share with
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Dalmally Primary School: Recognising Achievement, Profiling and Reporting Policy.
parents/carers how this progress can be maintained and developed to ensure secure learning.
The ‘Principles and Practice’ papers will be used by us to help plan a progressive route through the levels, using the significant aspects of learning from each subject area.
We will report to parents on their child or young person’s achievement in terms of levels as well as using brief qualitative comments to reflect ‘how much’ and
‘how well’ their child has achieved their targets. There is no rush to move through the levels and they should be seen more as ‘staging posts’ on a learning journey, which offers opportunities for challenge and depth.
Evidence of progress through a level will come from day-to-day learning as well as from specific assessment tasks, activities, tests and examinations We will use tracking formats in Maths/Numeracy and Literacy
“ Learning Logs”
Our Learning Logs will form the main reporting tool for children, parents and teachers.
Children and young people should have ownership over their ‘latest and best’ work and should be given every opportunity to comment on their learning stored in their “ Learning Log”.
Learning conversations will be based around the contents of the learning log.
Our Learning Logs should:
 Be appropriate and meaningful to the learner’s age, stage, individual needs and interests, and support further learning at the next stage (recognise that children and young people learn and progress in different ways and at different rates)
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Build upon a common language of learning developed between learners, teachers and parents/carers
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Be developed to allow for partnership working between learners, parents/carers and teachers in pre-school, primary and secondary stages to ensure that partners understand the aim of the profile as a working document.
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There will need to be a commitment to the promotion of quality discussions about learning as part of the day-to-day experience of learners.
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Focus on the progress that the child or young person has made and take account of the breadth, challenge and application of learning (how much? and how well?)
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Include robust information on progress and achievement across the curriculum areas (information which is based on a range of assessment approaches and evidence which is valid and reliable and is underpinned by moderation and quality assurance
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For transition into P.1, we will develop ways to share strengths and achievements within the areas of the curriculum while also recording progress on the developmental milestones.
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Include robust and reliable information on progress and achievement in literacy, numeracy and Health and Wellbeing (information which is based on a range of assessment approaches and evidence which is valid and reliable and is underpinned by moderation and quality assurance).
 Include a learner’s statement (for the learner; by the learner) outlining his / her latest and best achievements and aspirations in and out of school.
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Promote learner ownership through reflection by learners and parent/teacher dialogue with learners as central features and serve to build self-esteem, recognition and motivation.
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Dalmally Primary School: Recognising Achievement, Profiling and Reporting Policy.
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Relate to the full range of learning achievements both in and out of school; outlining his / her latest and best achievements
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Be useful to learners (increasing self-esteem and motivation and thereby improving learning) and to those within and out with the school system.
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Be a positive statement reflecting the range of achievement of the broad general education to date.
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