Assessment
Assessment Without Levels at Wells Park School
At Wells Park, pupil learning is assessed in a variety of ways. The school considers learning in its broadest sense, spanning both academic and social situations throughout the 24-hour curriculum. This means that staff are looking out for and considering learning opportunities at all times, be it in more formal classroom situations, during lunch times or whilst undertaking activities during their residential times in school.
As a school for pupils with SEMH, our foremost concern is the progress pupils make with their behaviour and their social skills. Social and behavioural learning is currently assessed by education staff using PScales in the following areas: Interacting and Working with Others, Independent and Organisational Skills and Attention. The school is currently in the process of adapting and developing these to create our own ‘BWell’ scale, which will personalise assessment to match the needs of the school and, in turn, enable us to track pupil progress more effectively.
Pupils are given a PScale baseline on entry to the school, based on staff observation and records in the first few weeks at the school. This enables targeted learning to take place in order to support pupil progression and ensure appropriate skills are taught and embedded for pupils. The school expects all pupils to make at least a full PScale progress for each year they are in the school, but targets pupils to achieve higher than this (something that most pupils do) to ensure rapid progress with their behaviour and social skills.
In addition to this, staff record pupils’ Token Scores and Physical Restraint Data, analysing it regularly to check progress and to make specific behavioural interventions if required, as well as having regular ‘Every Child Matters’ discussions focused around each individual pupil. Pupil progress is monitored on a half-termly basis, enabling staff to quickly identify any pupils who do not appear to be making swift progress and put in place interventions to address this.
Education and care staff work closely together to ensure a consistent approach to pupil behavioural and social progress: this is at the heart of everything the school does. Key staff for each pupil meet regularly to set individual targets in spoken language and behaviour. Staff also consider specific strategies and activities they may use to support pupils to achieve these targets. Each pupil is observed regularly by the child’s residential keyworker to enable the child’s progress and achievement to be closely monitored in the residential setting. In classrooms, staff plan specific activities to support pupils to achieve their behaviour and spoken language targets and record their achievements on our EDart monitoring system.
Academic learning is monitored through the use of BSquared, a comprehensive assessment tool which breaks the National Curriculum and P-Scales down into small, manageable chunks. BSquared allows staff to recognise achievement for all pupils, measuring progress in small steps and supporting staff to understand pupil gaps in learning, subsequently enabling staff to target any areas that pupils find more difficult. Pupils are formally assessed on a half-termly basis; from the information generated from assessments, a number of measures are put into place to ensure the school is striving for excellence from all of its pupils.
In addition, pupils are assessed using RM Assessment materials for Reading, Hodder Basic Number Screening test for Maths and The Helen Arkell Spelling Test (HAST2), which generate reading, number and spelling ages for each pupil. This is conducted initially within the first term of being at the school and thereafter on a yearly basis at the end of each academic year. These tests generate a reading, spelling and number age for each child, enabling us to monitor progress and achievement against their chronological age. We are also in the process of adding these to our EDart behaviour monitoring system to support cross-referencing of behavioural and social progress against academic gains.
At Wells Park, we recognise that each pupil may have differing needs and may make academic progress at a different rate, depending on their personal circumstances and on the particular learning need they may have. Because of this, the school carefully considers what ‘good’ progress looks like for each pupil on an individual basis, rather than providing generic figures for all pupils to work towards, creating a personalised learning journey for every pupil. This information is recorded and, at regular intervals, staff check pupil progress towards these targets.
Academic assessment data is used alongside formative assessments by class teachers and HLTAs to formulate Individual Learning Plans for each pupil in the school, as well as to determine which pupils would benefit from interventions in specific areas. Teachers and education support staff talk regularly to discuss pupil progress and to moderate pupil assessment information to ensure consistency across the school. The school has also, and will continue to, partake in external moderation with other schools, both mainstream within the Local Authority and other SEMH provisions in other Local Authorities.