ASSESSMENT IN EARLY YEARS
Reception Baseline:
During the first few weeks of school, in accordance with government policy, the children will be assessed using national baseline assessment tool as of September 2020. This baseline will be an activity-based assessment of pupils’ starting points in language, communication & literacy and mathematics. The assessment will be age-appropriate and lasts approximately 20 minutes. Teachers will record the results on a laptop, computer or tablet. It will not be used to label or track individual pupils. No numerical score will be shared and the data will only be used at the end of year 6 to form the school-level progress measure. However, teachers will receive a series of short, narrative statements that tell them how their pupils performed in the assessment at that time. These can be used to inform teaching within the first term.
Alongside this teachers will also use their observations of your child within the first few weeks, information shared by yourselves and their pre-school settings to provide an overview of where you child is working within the Early Years Curriculum. From this the staff can plan and support your child in continuing their learning journey within the environment and sharing this with you to support them at home.
Foundation Stage Profile:
The Foundation Stage Profile is a statutory assessment of children’s development at the end of the Reception year. Each child’s level of development is assessed against the 17 Early Learning Goals across all 7 areas of learning.
The completed profile will be developed into an end of year report which celebrates your child’s journey and achievements over their first year at school, and will help the Year 1 teachers to plan a programme of work to suit the needs of your child.
As parents we ask you to contribute throughout the year by adding observations, photos and videos to your child’s online Tapestry journal. At Wheatfields we believe in all adults and environments being part of your child’s learning journey. As staff, being able to see how they are exploring their home environment, applying newly learnt skills and responding to new experiences outside of school really helps build a picture of their progress and attainment over time.