Foundation Stage Assessment

Devonshire Primary Academy Foundation Stage Assessment Policy

Implementation Date: September 2013 Adopted by Governors/HT: HT Review period: 2 years Last review date: February 2014 Person responsible for policy: Mrs J Smith

Devonshire Primary Academy – Foundation Stage Assessment

Foundation Stage Assessment Policy September 2013 Our assessments should be based on our accumulating observations and knowledge of the whole child. We should build assessments throughout the year on a cumulative basis, from ongoing learning and teaching.

Our judgements should represent our assessment of a child’s typical attainment.

We will ensure that we observe closely what children can do, and use those observations as the basis of assessments and planning of the next stages of children’s development.

The EYFS Profile must be completed for each child. The Profile provides parents and carers, practitioners and teachers with a well-rounded picture of a child’s knowledge, understanding and abilities, their progress against expected levels, and their readiness for Year 1. The Profile must reflect: ongoing observation; all relevant records held by the setting; discussions with parents and carers, and any other adults whom the teacher, parent or carer judges can offer a useful contribution.

Each child’s level of development must be assessed against the early learning goals.

Practitioners must indicate whether children are meeting expected levels of development, or if they are exceeding expected levels, or not yet reaching expected levels (‘emerging’). This is the EYFS Profile.

What assessment strategies do we use?

-Observation -Talking to children -Listening to children -Feedback and marking -Questioning -Self-assessment -Incidental Peer assessment -Other practitioners -Parents

What evidence do we keep and how?

From September 2013 the Foundation Stage will be using the 2SIMPLE programme ‘2BuildaProfile’. Every child in Reception and Nursery will have their own online folder in which all staff will have access too. Here we will collect all evidence and use the web suite to provide individual and whole class reports for staff, the local authority and parents.

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Devonshire Primary Academy – Foundation Stage Assessment 

Longer observations (10-15 minutes maximum) should be done 3 times a year on each child

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Pieces of work, photographs or other forms of evidence should be kept on the 2Buildaprofile

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Video evidence will be kept in a folder and cross referenced with 2Buildaprofile as videos cannot be stored on the application

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Assessments should be written as an observation of what the child does not a judgement of what you perceive they can do.

Reception will make judgements 4 times a year.  Baseline assessment – October  Spring assessment – February  Summer assessment – May  Final updates for Year One – July

Nursery will make judgements 3 times a year.  Baseline assessment – October  Mid –Year assessment – February  End of Year assessment - June

These judgements will be places on the 17 Development matters grids, one for each area of learning. Each grid will contain a whole class assessment and will be colour coded to show progression throughout the year.

Parental Involvement Parents have a unique knowledge of their child and we will try to engage their involvement in the assessment process as much as possible. We will develop a dialogue with parents as soon as possible after their child’s induction to Devonshire Primary School Foundation Stage.

We will ask the parents’ views on aspects of their child’s development observed outside the setting. This will be done via a mixture of informal chats; during the home visit, at the end of the day and at parent’s evenings. Parents will be invited to complete two questionnaires, one specifically for parents of children in the FS at the end of the first half term and a general parental questionnaire later in the year.

Children’s’ Involvement Each child’s opinion on their learning will be sought for the Profiles. This information will be gathered through talking informally with the children during everyday activities. We will also complete a questionnaire with the children during the Spring Term.

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Devonshire Primary Academy – Foundation Stage Assessment How do we track a child’s progress?

Every child in Foundation Stage will be tracked using the Development Matters Grids. These grids will show which age bracket the child is working in. For example 30-50 months, 40-60 months or the ELG (Early Learning Goal) By the end of Foundation Stage every child should have achieved the Early Learning Goal for each area of learning, prime and specific. All information at the end of Foundation Stage will be passed to Year One. At the end of the year each Reception class teacher will produce a report to give to parents and year one staff. These reports will include a page on the ‘Characteristics of Learning’.

These are covered by three themes ‘Playing and Exploring’, ‘Active Learning’ and ‘Creative and thinking critically’.

The Foundation Stage manager will collate the data and provide summaries for FS staff. FS staff will meet with SLT throughout the year for Pupil Progress meetings.

Moderation Meet as nursery team/ reception team termly to moderate judgements before entering them.

Foundation Stage manager will be available for advice.

Entire Foundation Stage to meet in the Spring and Summer term to moderate 3 files from Nursery and 3 files from Reception class.

Reception may be moderated by the Local Authority at the end of the Spring term. This will be decided by the Local Authority and a letter will be sent to the school.

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