We believe that every student can achieve excellence.  High quality assessment and feedforward guidance can help to support this by:

• Showing students where they have found success and thus motivating them to want to achieve more

• Encouraging students to become self-aware learners by allowing them the time to reflect and  recognise the next steps to take to close the gap in their knowledge

• Encouraging the retention of core knowledge by regularly checking the understanding of subject specific content through retrieval practice

• Providing feedback to teachers on what students know and need to know

Assessment Practises

Assessment is ongoing through every lesson. It forms part of our everyday Teaching and Learning strategy. 

In lessons, assessment and feedforward guidance may be given to students through:

• Questioning throughout a lesson
• Starter activities and exit questions 
• Peer and self-assessment (red pen marking)
• Low stakes Retention of Core Knowledge tests (ROCK)
• Homework activities

Following the completion of any formal assessment, students complete a feedforward guidance activity.  At Latimer our formal assessment principles are that assessments should:

• Purpose: Good assessment provides opportunities for retrieval practice and produces data to identify gaps in knowledge and understanding which leads to meaningful actions in response to the data.
• Validity: An assessment should be carefully designed to test what it intends to measure and to provide information which is both valuable and appropriate for the intended purpose.
• Reliability: Assessments should be carefully constructed to provide accurate and consistent information.
• Value: High quality assessments provide evidence on ‘what to do next’ which is shared and used effectively.

Formalised assessment is essential for:

• Students: to know how they are doing, where they currently are at, and the key actions that they need to take to make progress.
• Staff: to assess how well students are learning and to identify areas of misconception.
• Leaders: to understand how well they are delivering the curriculum and to review any changes to the curriculum that need to be made.
• Parents and Carers: to understand how well their child is progressing to enable them to offer support.

At Key Stage 3 and in Year 9, student work is assessed according to four bands: Emerging, Developing, Secure and Excellence. Across Key Stage 3 and Year 9, students will be provided with a Personal Learning Checklist (PLC) that measures learning at the end of every unit. PLCs are printed out on blue paper, secured in a student’s exercise book or folder and emailed home. 

At Key Stage 4, in Years 10 and 11, students will be assessed in line with GCSEs grading of 1-9, with 9 being the highest grade. For other Level 2 qualifications, students will be assessed using the appropriate exam board grading of Pass, Merit, Distinction, Distinction*. The criteria for these will be made explicit to students and be evidenced in student folders, portfolios or exercise books. 

At Key Stage 5, A Levels are graded A*-E and BTEC Level 3 qualifications are graded Pass, Merit, Distinction, Distinction*.  The criteria for these will be made explicit to students and be evidenced in student folders, portfolios or exercise books and students will be routinely assessed against these standards. 

Parents and carers will also receive progress tracking reports throughout the academic year so that they understand the progress that their child is making.