Impact - Assessment, Attainment And Progress
WORD forms the foundation of our curriculum and therefore progress in in each area is assessed by teachers in each subject and communicated to parents in each Academy assessment and reporting cycle.
To support teacher workload, assessment of WORD skills do not stand outside of subject assessment but interleave so that students are fully cognizant that fluency and accuracy are as crucial as applying subject knowledge and understanding.
The Bedrock programme for vocabulary learning appropriately spaces the assessment of each student’s vocabulary acquisition and sends appropriate diagnostic reports to teachers and leaders. The overall attainment of students is reported to us termly, with a specific focus on those with SEN and those from disadvantaged backgrounds, allowing teachers to easily use this information to close the vocabulary attainment gap.
An academy wide active marking code is also used to identify technical errors within each student’s written work. Students respond to these codes consistently and teachers use them to determine common misconceptions that require addressing.
Formal, standardised reading age tests (NGRT) are used each year to measure the impact of WORD related activities, ensuring the review of interventions is regular and robust. Particular emphasis is placed on scrutiny of our most vulnerable students, the disadvantaged and those with SEN, so that we can accelerate their acquisition of knowledge and skills so that no child is left behind.
Other specific and specialised standardised tests are used by the Speech and Language therapist and SEND department to measure the intricate WORD progress of some of our most vulnerable, complex and disadvantaged students. This assessment data informs future interventions and where appropriate the involvement of outside agencies.
As previously mentioned our school library plays an integral part in our drive to improve reading across the school. The number of ‘loans’ from the library gives a guide as to the success of promoting reading for pleasure. Our librarian provides regular reports regarding borrowing from the library. This proves the extent of wider reading within school. Loans can also be broken down by class or year group. Reports show yearly loans in comparison to other years, number of students who have never borrowed a book, percentage of fiction to non-fiction borrowed. As a consequence, this information allows us to target individuals who haven’t borrowed for some time. Similarly, Accelerated Reader quiz results provides an insight into the success not only of promoting reading for pleasure but also the success of the strategies deployed to teach reading.
