Northfield House Primary Academy
Assessment Policy
P 10| Assessment Policy
Assessment Policy
Monitoring, Evaluation and Review
This policy will be promoted and implemented throughout the academy. This policy will be reviewed
biennially, unless there are significant legislative changes in the interim period.
Policy reviewed:
30.09.2016
Signed
Position
Principal
Date
30th September 2016
Version
Date
Author
Reason for Change
0.1
Oct 2011
NHPS
Due for review 2013
0.2
30.09.2016
BB
To reflect Academy status
Review Frequency:
Next Review Date:
Biennially
30.09.2018
1
P 10| Assessment Policy
Assessment Policy
Related policy – Teaching & Learning Policy
Ethos
At Northfield House Primary Academy, we aim to provide a safe, nurturing environment where
everyone is inspired to enjoy learning. We build self-esteem and develop skills that enable
everyone to maintain high aspirations and reach their full potential. We understand that all
children learn in different ways and at different speeds and we aim to create a learning
environment and assessment procedures that take this into account.
Our Aims







For every child to fulfil their full potential
For the needs of every child to be met
Create an atmosphere where everyone believes they can achieve
To create a curriculum that will let every child have an equal chance of achieving high
academic success.
To provide a welcoming, safe and supportive environment where children become selfdisciplined and self-confident.
To monitor the progress and attainment of all children and groups to ensure that all
children can achieve
To monitor the effectiveness of our teaching and learning to ensure that we are providing
the best opportunities for the children in our school
What planning and marking should look like at Northfield House Primary Academy
PLANNING
- WALT, WILF and TIB for each lesson (see information below)
- Differentiation including G&T and SEN
- Questioning in italics (see questioning page for more detail)
-  to show speaking and listening opportunities
- An identified group for a Teacher/TA focus on during the independent session
- 2 AFL questions in the plenary to allow you to complete the assessment folder pages.
Planning should be saved on the S: drive.
2
P 10| Assessment Policy
This is the area that the children are learning about in the session e.g WALT
write in complete sentences. This may span over a series of lessons. This may
or may not be differentiated. EG - MA – WALT write compound sentences
This is how children show that they are have been successful in meeting the
WALT. They record this in their books and this will be differentiated. When
the teacher marks the work they are looking for examples of the WILFif they
have achieved this teacher will highlight the WILF. Eg –
SEN – capital letters and full stops
AA – 3 sentences with a capital letter and a full stop in the right place
MA- 3 sentences that are joined together with a connective
Try to use this whenever it is appropritate as it gives the work a purpose and
a meaning.
TIB – it makes our work clear to read and understand.
The children can generate the TIB and it can be recorded on the board.
MARKING
√√
Very strong feature
√
Creative writing good feature (years
3 – 6)
Come and Talk (CAT)
//
New paragraph needed
PA
Closing the gap comment/ moving
on comment
Peer assessment (purple pen)
SA
Self-assessment (purple pen)
Good example of the WILF (upto 3 in
every piece of work)
Spelling mistake (a maximum of 3 in
any piece of work
Change choice of word to make it
more suitable for the text type or
more ambitious
Missing or incorrectly used capital
letters and full stops.
Text marking activity
Children’s response to marking,
including correcting spellings and
punctuation
Creative writing/levlelled piece to
show good feature (years 1 & 2)
Teachers will use the school’s marking key and they will mark in GREEN pen and all teachers
Teachers recognise that feedback is an essential element in helping pupils improve. When using
assessment for learning strategies, teachers need to move away from comments that may not be
related to the learning intention of the task (e.g. ‘try harder’ or ‘join up your writing’) and move
towards giving feedback to help the pupil improve in the specific activity. This will help to close the
learning gap and move pupils forward in their understanding. Teachers will make at least one
moving on comment per week in each subject.
3
P 10| Assessment Policy
Marking and Feedback Guidelines
We believe that feedback and marking should provide constructive feedback to every child,
focusing on success and improvement needs against learning intentions; enabling children to
become reflective learners and helping them to close the gap between current and desired
performance. All work should be aimed to be marked or given oral feedback before the child’s
next lesson in that subject, it is understood that this cannot always be possible.
Marking and Feedback should:
• Relate to learning intentions, which need to be shared with children.
• Involve all adults working with children in the classroom.
• Give children opportunities to become aware of and reflect on their learning needs.
• Give recognition and appropriate praise for achievement.
• Give clear strategies for improvement.
• Allow specific time for children to read, reflect and respond to marking.
• Involve children in the same process (whether oral or written) to ensure equity in all subjects
and for all abilities.
• Respond to individual learning needs, marking face-to-face with some and at a distance with
others.
• Inform future planning and individual target setting.
• Be accessible to children.
• Be seen by children as positive in improving their learning.
• Success Criteria (WILF) can be highlighted to show feedback
Formative Feedback/marking
With oral feedback, in the course of a lesson, teacher’s comments to children should focus firstly
on issues relating to the learning intention and only secondly, on other features.
Developmental Marking









Developmental marking is quality marking, next step marking and closing the gap marking
Comments should focus on what has been achieved i.e. WILF
A comment should be written to help future development or to reach the next step.
Developmental Marking should take place in writing and maths at least once a week.
Children and teachers should not ignore developmental comments from week to weekthey should be the focus of improvement for the next pieces of writing (be it in Science,
topic and so forth).
Not all pieces of work can be ‘quality marked’ all the time.
Marking will be done alongside each child (always in Foundation Stage and where possible
in Key Stage 1 and 2)
Any written comments will be read to the child as they are written (always in Foundation
Stage and where possible in Key Stage 1. Where children can’t read comments
independently in Key Stage 2, they will also need to be read)
Children will be given the opportunity to read, understand and respond to any comments
made. Set lesson time needs to be given for children to read the marking (3 minutes) and
to focus on the one improvement to be made (5 minutes)
The WILF for the lesson will be written by the child whenever possible, or will be written by
the teacher. The use of stickers where the WILF has been typed and printed is good
4
P 10| Assessment Policy


practice and is encouraged
Up to 3 yellow highlights will be used to identify where a piece of work has met the WILF
for that lesson
An arrow indicating the place being referred to in the ‘closing the gap’ comment will be
used. One of 3 techniques may be used to help the children make an improvement:
Closing the gap comments
The emphasis in marking should be on both successes against the WILF and improvement needs
against it. The focused comment should help the child in ‘closing the gap’ between what they have
achieved and what they could have achieved. E.g. What else could you say about the prince? Write
a sentence using one of these words: handsome, elegant, or snooty.
In summary ‘close the gap’ comments can be:
 A reminder prompt (e.g. ‘What else could you say here?’ / Did you simplify the fraction?)
 A scaffolded prompt (e.g. ‘What was the dog’s tail doing?, ‘The dog was angry so he…’,
‘Describe the expression on the dog’s face./ If 3 x7= 21, check your answer to 4X7))
 An example prompt (e.g. ‘Choose one of these or your own; He ran round in circles looking
for the rabbit. /The dog couldn’t believe his eyes./ An example of a solved maths problem).
In more detail they are:
1. Elaborating and extending
Often used to redirect the child’s focus, good for more able children who need less support
 Write a character description of James
 Describe the merman in more detail
 Say more about the fire
 Explain this for me
2. Scaffolded prompts for elaborating or extending
They often focus the child’s attention on specifics OR delve via two or more questions or
statements
 Can you tell me more about how the girl felt walking into her new class?
 You need to put more suspense into walking into the old house. Use the word ‘eerie ‘ to
create suspense.
 Describe what the forest looked like to Red Riding hood. Remember to use all your senses
when describing.
 Can you tell me more about why you like playing football so much?
 How do you treat your horses? Write about the times you have anything to do with them
3. Example prompts for elaborating or extending
Giving the children models of words or phrases they could use in their work
 Describe what you are seeing as you begin to turn into a giant. Perhaps: Cars looks like
toys, Houses look like dolls houses, People look like ants
 What did you see on the boats trip? Majestic killer whales? Friendly dolphins splashing in
the crystal sea?
 What did you find in the old house? Could it have been? A dusty old cobweb An antique
clock
4. Adding a word or a sentence- this is usually done in a structured way
5
P 10| Assessment Policy

Missing words- teacher writes out sentence for child to put missing words in- usually
specific like adjectives

Letting the child finish a sentence the teacher has begun

Asking for one or two new words ‘You have written said three times, please list two
synonyms for said’ ‘Please write a really powerful adjective to describe the wolf’ ‘Chose an
adjective which would best describe the noise: cacophony, screeching, wailing’
5. Asking for one or two more sentences
 Can you tell me two more things about the beach?
 What did the teacher say to the young girl before they went home?
 Think of a line to rhyme with devour
6. Changing the text

Replacing individual words- teacher could highlight in green and ask for them to be
changed- needs to explain why though. Could give examples to help child and extend their
vocabulary

Replacing individual sentences- again teacher needs to explain why and can give examples

Replacing paragraphs- usually the last paragraph as the child has ran out of time OR as
teachers we spend more time teaching about story openings than endings I am not quite
sure what happens at the end of this story. Please rewrite the ending, explaining what
happens in more detail. Does the main character survive even though you have hinted he
would die?
7. Justifying- very useful tool to get the children to add more detail
 Why was his voice shaky….? Tell me more!
 Why were the ugly sisters jealous of Cinderella?
Summative Assessment
There are four assessment weeks across the year. This is a time for teachers to make judgements
on where the children are working at in relation to age related expectations and the child’s end of
year target. Age related expectations are:
Assessment Week 1
b
Assessment Week 2
b+
Assessment Week 3
w
Assessment Week 4
w+
For example, in Year 3, for a child to be working at age related expectations they would be
assessed at a 3b in assessment week 1, 3b+ in assessment week 2, at 3w in assessment week 3 and
at 3w+ in assessment week 4. It is possible for a child to be assessed as working above or below
age related expectations at each assessment week.
At Northfield House we understand that not all children will be working at age related
expectations and that all children learn at different rates. Therefore, we set end of year targets for
all of our children. The aim is for children to make 4 steps progress each year. This target is based
on the child’s previous end of year level. This allows us to measure both how our children are
doing in relations to progress as well as against age related expectations.
6
P 10| Assessment Policy
Teachers use their professional judgements, knowledge of the child, the child’s work and
assessment grids to make their final assessments on the children in their class. There are
assessment sheets in reading, writing and maths which show the age related expectations in each
subjects as well as objectives above a below them.
Monitoring and evaluation
The aims and objectives outlined in this policy are evident in the day to day working of the school.
This will be monitored through:
 classroom observation
 book monitoring
 moderation of assessments
 the progress of the School Improvement Plan
 external inspection
 Visits from our school improvement advisor
 value added data
 communication with children, parents and the rest of the school community
 staff professional reviews in line with the Performance Management policy
7