observations,assessments

• National assessments


  Standardised testing to measure what children should be able to achieve at a particular key stage of their learning
• Formative assessment


  Assessment for learning, involves watching and questioning to review progress in the short term
• Summative assessment


  Assessment of learning, used to measure achievement at the end of a period of learning
• Observations involve noticing what children are doing and recording it, usually by writing it down
• Assessment


  Using observations to work out children's stage of development
• Areas of learning in the EYFS


  • Prime areas
  • Specific areas
• Early Learning Goals


  Examples of what children should be able to achieve at a particular key stage of their learning
• National Curriculum


  Benchmark of what children should be able to achieve at a particular key stage of their learning
• National assessments


  • Key Stage 1 SATs (Year 2)
  • GCSEs
  • A Levels, Level 3, T Levels
  • 2-3 year check
  • RBA (reception baseline)
  • Key Stage 2 SATs (Year 6)
  • Degrees
  • Early years profile (end of reception)
• Children in the Early Years are assessed against the Early Learning Goals
• Purpose of summative assessments


  Promoting standards and confidence in the National Curriculum, supporting regulation of state funded provision, demonstrating good value for money and progress to attract more pupils and funding
• Observation cycle


  • Observe
  • Plan
  • Assess
• Observations can take many forms including videos, photographs and written records
• Observations


  • Purposeful, informative and positive to capture how children learn, what they know, can do, are interested in and their current stage of development
  • Accurate and coherent, stored confidentially
• Purpose of observations


  Support early intervention, support during transitions, plan for individual children's needs, review the environment
• Basic information included in observations


  • Name of child
  • Date and time
  • Name of observer
  • Who the child is with
  • Where the observation occurs
  • Purpose of observation
  • Age of child
• Confidentiality


  Observations and assessments must be kept confidential
• Accuracy of information


  Observations and assessments must be accurate to ensure appropriate support is provided
• Objectivity


  Observations should contain only facts, not opinions, to ensure no bias
• Observations are embedded in everyday practice in the EYFS to build up an accurate picture of each unique child
• Learning journals can include a variety of ways to share and record information such as photos, Tapestry and online journals
• Observations may also be carried out to spot patterns in behaviours or new behaviours related to safeguarding, wellbeing or bullying
• Open-ended questions


  Questions that cannot be answered with a simple yes/no or single word, encourage more detailed responses
• Closed-ended questions


  Questions that can be answered with a simple yes/no or single word
• Self-assessment involves children assessing their own understanding and feeding this back to the teacher
• Peer assessment


  Assessing each other's work
• Planning involves using the knowledge gained from observation and assessment to effectively plan the next steps for learners
• In-the-moment planning / child-led planning


  Planning that is guided by children's interests and learning opportunities identified through observation
• Types of observations


  • Narrative/written records
  • Event/time samples
  • Checklists
  • Snapshots
  • Movement records
• Narrative/written records


  • Detailed observation of any area, allows for more effective assessment and planning, but time-consuming and can be subjective
• Checklists


  Pre-printed tables of developmental milestones to check off as met or not met
• When your Assessor observes you she writes a narrative record
• Narrative record


  You write what you see without bias (objective)
• Narrative/written records are time consuming to carry out and very time consuming to assess afterwards
• It's easy to miss important things because there is so much to write down in narrative records
• It's difficult to capture speech accurately in narrative records
• Narrative records are more likely to be subjective (tainted by your own opinion) which affects assessment afterwards
• Checklists


  You have a preprinted table of milestones in development and you simply check them off
• Checklists


  • They are really quick and easy to do so you don't need specific skills
  • It's clear to see what it is you are needing to observe
  • It's clear cut yes or no to help with easy assessment afterwards
  • You can tailor to any area of development
  • It's objective as it's either yes they can do it or no they can not
• Checklists


  • They are limited to capturing only what is on the preprinted table
  • The child might show that they can do something else but if it's not on the table then it's missed off and could be an important step in development
  • Just ticking yes or no does not give you much insight into how well they can do each skill and it's a bit robotic considering how unique children are