Ratified by Management Committee: January 2014
Review date: January 2015
Cheltenham & Tewkesbury
Alternative Provision School
Assessment Policy
Purpose
Finely tuned accurate assessment of pupil progress facilitates high quality teaching and learning;
consistent and appropriate levels challenge are essential to accelerate learning .
The aim of assessment must be to accelerate learning by raising the standards of teaching and the
learning expectations of pupils. High quality marking, as an essential element of assessment, should
be diagnostic and involve written and verbal dialogue between teacher and pupil.
Good practice includes:
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Accurate baseline assessment
Assessment targeted to individual need
Explicit teaching and assessment of learning objectives.
Regular, purposeful and formative marking of pupils’ work.
Regular review of progress with the pupils.
Recording and monitoring small steps in learning using APP framework, or similar.
Consistent and accurate measurements of attainment.
On-going dialogue and comprehensive feedback to pupils and parents
Clear and consistently used procedures for marking and assessment.
Opportunities for independent learning, peer assessment and self-assessment
Positive, formative and summative assessment.
A whole school drive to raise attainment through tightly focussed assessment.
High quality marking is used to:
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Motivate, encourage and include pupils in their own learning
Provide ‘next steps’ to further improvement
Inform teachers’ planning for building in challenge to accelerate learning.
Monitor progress and set challenging targets
Assessment –sequence of procedures
1. Learning objectives are shared with pupils for each piece of work. These target individual need
within the APP framework, or similar (APP is used by core subjects and has been adapted as
appropriate by other curriculum areas)
2. Each piece of work in the pupil’s book/file/folder has clear reference to what aspect of learning
it is targeting and how this relates to raising levels of attainment for that individual.
3. Teachers record whether learning objectives have been met and share this with the pupil using
written diagnostic feedback, encouraging a written response from the pupil.
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4. Teachers enter individual progress on the school progress tracking system every half term. Details
are analysed by the SLT and concerns discussed with teachers/pupils/parents/ as appropriate. Any
actions/interventions agreed are communicated to the whole staff.
Monitoring assessment across the school
1. Scrutiny of pupils’ work is conducted each half term by the SLT
2. Teacher records of pupil assessment are shared with the SLT at regular intervals
3. A scheduled lesson observation programme takes place throughout the year with class ‘drop
in’ sessions conducted by the head teacher as appropriate. *NB
4. The SLT analyse assessment data from the school tracking systems each half term.
*NB
Teaching and learning inset during 2012/13 and a review of observations in this period highlight three
areas of focus to further improve the quality of teaching and learning.
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Independent learning.
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Opportunities for pupils to review and reflect their work and that of
others.
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Increase ownership of what they (the pupils) are doing and learning.
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Literacy and numeracy across the curriculum
Teachers will work to embed these in their lessons and lesson observations during this academic year
will monitor how well this is done.
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