Learner progression & Assessment
As Curriculum for Wales rolls out in schools and settings across Wales, it marks a significant shift in the role of assessment within education, at both a national and a school level. The emphasis has moved from comparing a child against an "expected level or outcome" to a system that supports each individual learner to progress at an appropriate pace, ensuring they are supported and challenged accordingly. To do so, the Curriculum for Wales (CfW), as defined in the Supporting Learner Progression: Assessment Guidance sets out that we assess for three key reasons to:
- support individual learners on an ongoing, day-to-day basis
- identify, capture and reflect on individual learner progress over time
- understand group progress in order to reflect on practice
Supporting learners to make progress is at the heart of assessment going forward. As part of this, we can build on and further develop assessment methods that are already in use to support learners to progress on an ongoing, day-to-day basis, and look to develop new strategies. Our assessment arrangements enable teachers to plan appropriately challenging activities for all learners and to enhance and support their progress.
These are embedded in day-to-day practice through a variety of evidence informed assessment strategies. They enable the identification of learners who require further support or challenge and provide rich qualitative and quantitative information to inform next steps in learning for individuals and groups of learners. Our assessment arrangements ensure active engagement between learners and teachers and are based on ongoing reflection on where a learner is, what their next steps are and what is required to support them in achieving these.
As well as on-going every day assessment we also use a variety of standardised and non-standardised tests. These include:
- National tests ( from Year 2 ) - reading, numeracy procedural and numeracy reasoning
- Salford reading test
- Read Write Inc Phonics
- Wellcomm ( language and communication)
- Perma ( well-being)
- CAT ( Y4 / Y6)