City of London Academy Assessment Position Statement
At City of London Academy (Southwark), we view assessment as an important tool in delivering outstanding outcomes for students and integral to high quality teaching. Assessment of students is used regularly to inform teaching, provide feedback to students and to communicate children’s progress to parents.
Why do we focus on assessment?
‘Assessment is defined by its purpose and driven by our curriculum intent such that, our teachers can access and engage effectively with data generated.’
Our aim is to create data and tracking systems which provide teachers with useful information that can inform their planning and interventions. The data itself is not just a means to an end; it is how the data is used in the classroom to support teaching, and at a school level to support accountability.
Assessment Principles give reliable information to parents about how their child, and their child’s school, is performing and help drive improvement for students and teachers.
Baselining
We run the GL Assessment progress test series for English, Maths and Science at the start of the year for year 7 and at the end of the academic year for students in years 7 to 9. The data gathered is used to set students in Year 7, identify weaknesses that need addressing in the short term, measure progress and accurately position student knowledge against the national picture.
Three modes of assessment
At CoLAS we talk about three modes of assessment because we want to ensure that assessment is purpose driven allowing for staff and students to gain valuable and appropriate information. As well as, accuracy and consistency of the interpretations derived from the assessment reports.
Mode 1 – Assessment for learning, ‘low-stakes’ formative assessment frequently used within lessons.
Mode 2 – Assessment of learning, internal summative/end of unit assessments or an extended piece of writing that generates a picture of mastery of the curriculum.
Mode 3 – Assessment for evaluation, cumulative assessment that focuses on outcomes that allows for tracking and the generation of grades and scores.
Reporting
We track the progress of students rigorously against their targets.
Data points will occur three times a year. Each data point will be reported to parents and reports will be issued each data drop in December, April and July.