A member of Dales Academies Trust 
Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of all garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.’
Matthew 13 vs.31-32
Our entire curriculum, including how we assess, is underpinned by the ‘Parable of the Mustard Seed’ and summarised by our motto:
Together may we give our children: roots to grow and wings to fly.
Providing high-quality feedback to all pupils is integral in ensuring all children make progress with their learning. Equally, gathering feedback on how well pupils have learned a topic is important in enabling teachers to address any misunderstanding and provide the right level of challenge in future lessons. Where data is gathered, it should also be used as a means to support those children who are struggling with aspects of their learning.
We believe that the best form of assessment result from ongoing dialogue and interactions with children. Daily interactions are what provide the soundest judgments of pupil progress and are what should inform planning and teaching. We recognise that progress in learning is not linear and therefore children should not be judged solely on the basis of a test.
Assessment at Trinity Academy Eppleby Forcett and Middleton Tyas is used to inform teaching and learning in the classroom to ensure that the curriculum meets the needs of the children. It helps drive improvement for pupils and teachers, supporting school improvement and raising standards of achievement and attainment for all our pupils.
Our formative assessments provide information that is used to ensure that all children are supporting in their learning. We believe that teachers know their children better than anyone and are the most accurate judges of their children’s progress. Our units of learning for each curriculum subject (alongside our ‘Learning Mats’ for subjects such as History; Geography; Science and Design Technology) provide the basis for formative assessment on a lesson by lesson basis. Teachers are able to monitor children’s understanding and support, or provide more challenge, accordingly.
For our foundation subjects, children take part in fun, interactive quizzes based on their prior learning. These quizzes enable teachers to better monitor and track understanding of each subject, ensuring prior knowledge and skills are retained and learning is embedded across the curriculum.
Alongside daily formative assessments, our end of unit assessments in Mathematics provide a summative assessment at the end of each unit of learning. This enables teachers to provide targeted support, if necessary, to ensure children who may have developed misconceptions are supported.
At 3 points in the school year (the end of the Autumn term; Spring term and Summer term), pupils undertake more summative assessments in our core subjects of English (reading and spelling; punctuation and grammar) and Mathematics. Our NTS Assessments provide a national test style assessment that ensure children become familiar with the format of testing used for statutory assessments. The detailed curriculum maps for these assessments ensure that they work alongside our English and Mathematics curriculum.
Statutory assessments are completed at the end of Reception (Baseline Assessment); Year 1 (phonics screening); Year 4 (Multiplication Tables Check) and Year 6 (End of Key Stage 2 Assessments).
Through ‘Insight’ (our online data tracking system), teachers are able to monitor children’s understanding of every curriculum subject. This data is used to support children who may have gaps in their knowledge (using our ring-fenced support time) and can support future planning to ensure that every child’s knowledge is supported and developed.
Additional Information
For more information regarding our approach to assessment (including our Assessment Procedure and examples of our assessments), please click on the ‘Useful Documents’ links below.
If you require information relating to a specific subject, please click on the individual subject page on our website.
Similarly, if you would like to see our latest results, please click on ‘Useful Links’ below.
Useful Documents
Marking and Feedback Procedure
NTS Assessment Sample (KS2 Mathematics)
NTS Assessment Sample (KS2 Reading)
Useful Links
