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| The Cornelius Vermuyden School and Arts College - Canvey Island | |
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Assessment for Learning (AfL)
Assessment for learning is an ongoing part of teaching and learning at The Cornelius Vermuyden School: providing strategies to implement and support personalised learning; helping teachers to recognise and support the needs of the individual, remove learning barriers and raise achievement. Assessment for learning is part of effective planning. Assessment for learning focuses on how pupils learn. Assessment for learning is central to classroom practice. Assessment for learning is a key professional skill. Assessment for learning is sensitive and constructive. Assessment for learning fosters motivation. Assessment for learning promotes understanding of goals and criteria. Assessment for learning helps learners know how to improve. Assessment for learning develops the capacity for self assessment. Assessment for learning recognises all educational achievement. Assessment for Learning in Practice
Sharing Learning objectives - pupils learn best when they know what to do and understand what teachers are looking for when assessing work. Learning Objectives (lesson objectives) should be displayed on the board or interactive whiteboard at the beginning of the lesson, and should be referred to by the teacher and shared with the pupils; Feedback - pupils need regular feedback to judge how well they are making progress. This could be in the form of written comments (marking) or oral (spoken) feedback. The main principles of feedback are:
It should be related to the Learning Objective; It should show where the work meets the criteria for success; It should be constructive and point out how the work could be improved, or how the pupil can move on to the next level or stage of learning. The school has a marking policy and each department should also have a marking policy that relates to this. The Marking Group, chaired by Mr Horn (Assistant Head Assessment) meets regularly and checks the quality and consistency of written feedback.
Oral feedback is checked through the school’s observation programme. Questioning - questioning is an important part of learning. By questioning a teacher can test how well an individual has understood a concept or a unit of work. The teacher might use 'no hands up' which ensures that pupils are not overlooked because more confident or dominant members of the group always put their hands up first. Good questioning is differentiated – in other words tailored to the learner to ensure they are moving forward in their learning. The teacher may well use a mixture of Closed Questions such as 'What is the capital of France?' or more open questions such as 'Why do you think there has been an increase in teenage drinking in Britain?'. Self and Peer Assessment - pupils learn a great deal by actually assessing their own work and the work of others. Most departments now use peer assessment as a useful tool in improving learning. Obviously, the work is also checked by the class teacher, but pupils enjoy marking each others’ work and find that this also helps them understand the marking and assessment criteria thus improving their own work. Pupil Voice - see below. Pupil Voice Year 9 Form Inspections - pupils are individually interviewed by a member of staff on their progress, targets and achievements; Subject Reviews - groups of pupils are interviewed by the Headteacher and other Senior Leadership Team members about learning in the subject which forms the focus of the review. During the meeting, the opportunity is presented for pupils to comment on a variety of whole school themes; School Council - the formal school structure for Pupil Voice is the School Council. This consists of representatives from the Year Councils who meet regularly. These consist of two members from each tutor group and send issues forward to the main council. The groups meet regularly in school time and have raised some useful issues which have been acted upon, such as the use of outdoor space ( the provision of picnic tables and equipment such as the basketball hoops and table tennis tables) and the toilets (which have been completely refurbished). We hope in future that learning and teaching issues will be discussed; Mentoring - all pupils in Year 11 have the opportunity to discuss their learning with a mentor. Many of these mentors are volunteers from the world of industry and commerce and bring valuable insights and experience. Areas covered include time management, deadlines and study skills. Learning Support - Learning Support is not just those who have problems with their learning. All abilities are catered for including Able Gifted and Talented pupils. The Learning Support department have a highly structured individual approach to help pupils learn. Regular assessments are used to measure progress against agreed targets and pupils, parents and subject teachers are all involved. Review meetings enable pupils to have a say in how they think they are progressing and to point out areas where learning is being hindered. The pupil support in the school was recently given the highest grade possible by the OFSTED team; Peer Assessment - an increasing number of subject areas are using peer assessment to help make pupils aware of what is required from various units of work. Pupils are given the marking criteria and asked to apply these to a partner’s work. Obviously, training is given beforehand and the marking is also checked by the subject teacher. Pupils take peer marking very seriously, and are often harder in their marking than the subject teacher! Everyone gains from this approach as once pupils understand what is required to gain a certain grade or level, they can apply this to their own work and improve it; Current Best Classroom Practice - we have a rigorous self – review programme at The Cornelius Vermuyden School. Subject areas have individual inspections and reviews by the Senior Leadership Team and all teachers are observed teaching at least twice in the year. These observations are carried out using the OFSTED criteria and are extremely rigorous. AfL has been built into the observation checklist, so teachers have to use Learning Objectives, for instance, if they are to gain a 'satisfactory' or better grade. AfL has therefore become embedded in best classroom practice by way of building it in to the school’s review process; The Learning Dialogue To create a dialogue between staff and pupils that focuses on developing the individual learner. To produce a list of key ideas that can be adopted by staff and pupils to create a mutually purposeful and effective learning environment. A report is available from the Additional Information section below. The Year 7 Learning Lunch Photographs - Year 7 Learning Lunch Additional Information | ||||||||||||||
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