The Purpose and Importance of Assessment
Assessment is the process of obtaining, analysing and interpreting evidence for use by both students and teachers to enable the review, planning and improvement of learning. It is fully integrated with the delivery of the curriculum and is an essential component of effective practice.
- Assessment lets our students see what progress they are making and provides their teachers and the academy with accurate and timely information which assists us to plan how to help students make further progress and reward them for the improvements they make.
- Assessment enables us to report information to parents/carers, as well as information to help older children make choices about the examination courses they will follow and the qualifications and future careers they will seek.
- Assessment helps us to set targets for the future by consistently measuring our students’ performance. We are constantly reviewing our academy provision because we strive to provide the best possible service to our community.
Understanding Our Assessments
Assessment at Magna comprises of four types of assessments:
- Low stakes, ongoing assessment for learning that takes place in every lesson and is not recorded
- Regular Knowledge Retrieval Tests
- End of Topic Assessments
- End of Year Examinations/Mock Examinations
Knowledge Retrieval Tests
Depending on the number of lessons in a two week cycle, each subject will set a minimum of one Knowledge Retrieval Test every two weeks. This is a low stakes test, identifying gaps in a students knowledge and to embed the knowledge learnt through teachers targeting areas for immediate improvement and celebrating areas of strength. These will always be peer/self-marked and questions that are frequently incorrectly answered will prompt a review of the teaching of that content. They should also form areas of focus for the next lessons to develop the students capacity to store and retrieve accurate information. This knowledge will inevitably be based upon the students’ knowledge organiser, within that subject for that unit. Outcomes will be recorded internally to help plan student interventions.
End of Topic Assessments
Each subject will assess students at regular intervals throughout an academic year. The timings of these assessments will be appropriate for that subject curriculum, and taken at the end of each topic. These assessments will assess what has been taught within the topic, and are pre-planned within the subjects’ curriculum. These assessments will support the development of students examination skills over time and subjects will pause their curriculum delivery in preparation to focus on effective revision techniques beforehand. Outcomes will be recorded internally to help plan student interventions.
End of Year Examinations
For Year 7 & 8 students will sit an end of year holistic assessment ‘End of Year Examination’, assessing the content from that year’s academic subject curriculum. This is in addition to their regular end of topic tests, and will last 50 minutes. These will take place during normal timetabled subject lessons, and will be timetabled during a specific week. They will be marked by the class teacher, moderated within the department, and an attainment level will be assigned to the level the student achieved against the subject’s Age Related Expectations (ARE). Subjects will pause their curriculum delivery in preparation to focus on effective revision techniques beforehand.
Mock Examinations
For Year 9 and Key Stage 4 and 5 in all subjects, students will participate in two mock examination sittings each year. These where appropriate will use Vocational, GCSE or A Level examination material. Subjects will pause their curriculum delivery in preparation to focus on effective revision techniques beforehand. The outcomes will enable us to see how much our students have developed over the full range of skills in each subject and how much they have developed their overall subject knowledge. The outcomes will inform us of what students may benefit from targeted intervention.
Assessment Points and Academic Reports
Academic reports will be generated twice a year after each Assessment Point (AP1 & AP2). Parents/Carers will be notified in writing in advance of every assessment point period to help with preparations at home, access effective revision resources in support and receive key dates. Students will receive a printed copy of their report and parents/carers will be able to access an electronic copy using their Progresso login accounts. There will be a parents’ evening strategically placed after AP1 for each year group where students and parents can meet with their child’s subject teachers to discuss their attainment and agree on targets for improvement. For all year groups, reports will indicate the attainment that the student has made within each of their subjects. Along with other key information.
Please click on the relevant Key Stage button above to visit the information you need.