Q1. How do teachers assess the progress of their pupils in science and maths?
Why this is important
The Department for Education (DfE) removed assessment levels in 2014, giving schools the freedom to develop their own means of assessing pupils’ progress.37 Your school will be expected to demonstrate (with evidence) how it assesses pupils’ progress. These assessments are used to keep parents informed, to enable governors to make judgements about the school’s effectiveness, and to inform Ofsted inspections”.38
Benchmarks
- gives reliable information to parents about how their child, and their child’s school, is performing
- helps drive improvement for pupils and teachers
- makes sure the school is keeping up with external best practice and innovation.3940
Pupils in Key Stage 1 will complete statutory tests marked by the school. Pupils in Key Stage 2 will continue to complete statutory tests, including maths, marked externally. In science, biennial sample tests will be used from 2016 to estimate national performance.41
Schools should track pupils’ performance and benchmark it, where possible, against previous years’ results, national performance data (See Q2 for national benchmarks) and across different groups of pupils.
Ideas for improvement
School leaders should check that new models for assessment under consideration meet the DfE’s core assessment principles.42
Other questions in Assessment
- Q2. How well do pupils achieve in science and maths and what is the trend over time for achievement?
- Q3. Do different groups of pupils make equally good progress in science and maths?