Assessment is an important part of teaching and learning. St Peter's is committed to making assessment meaningful to ensure that it provides teachers, parents, and pupils with information that benefits the continued progress of each child. We believe assessment should support a child in being successful; it should be about helping to analyse what is happening in every individual pupil’s learning at any given point and enabling teachers to tailor their teaching accordingly. Assessment provides us with the opportunity to find out what children’s’ abilities are, what they have learned and which strategies teachers need to employ to ensure that children make continued progress.

Some aspects of assessment are an integral part of everyday class teaching. The teacher’s marking of the work provides a basis for written and verbal feedback between teacher and pupil. 

Other examples of informal assessment include:

• Weekly spelling tests;
• Regular comprehension exercises;
• Weekly mental Maths tests;
• Times tables tests;
• End of topic tests in Maths and Science;
• In preschool and Reception Class, detailed observations of each child are made and recorded frequently against the Early Learning Goals.

Some aspects of assessment are more formal, taking place termly or yearly and providing standardised scores which show a child’s current achievement and ability in the context of national data.

Our formal assessment includes:

• Baseline assessment of pupils entering Reception Class;
• Termly Rising Stars English and Maths tests;
• Yearly Rising Stars Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar test;
• GL Assessment CAT4 test (Cognitive Ability Test) for Year 4 which looks at Verbal, Non-verbal, number and spatial reasoning.

All standardised test results are tracked using Bromcom and used by teachers to inform their future planning. For Year 6 pupils, their English and Maths standardised scores are used to inform secondary schools of their current ability.

Parents receive regular progress reports, of both formal and informal assessment, with ‘show your work’ sessions eagerly anticipated by pupils and parents alike. All assessment is undertaken in a supportive environment and is designed to promote confidence. Through our approach, St Peter's is able to build a full picture of each child’s learning journey and ensure that our children are confident learners who work alongside teachers to celebrate their strengths whilst identifying developments needed to make further progress.

Parents receive written notification of their child’s effort and behaviour grades towards the end of each term. This includes brief interim attainment reports at the end of the Michaelmas and Lent terms and a detailed written report at the end of the Trinity term. Parents are invited to two Parents’ Evenings each academic year.