Curriculum Planning and Assessment

At Millfields First School we use assessment as a means of working out what the children know and what skills they have, in order to help them along their learning journey by planning the right next steps for them. The children are assessed in an informal way (formative) throughout the school day and are also assessed more formally (summative) at various times during their time at Millfields First School, in line with national assessments.

- Entry to Reception – baseline assessment using a nationally accredited assessment, this involves assessing the children’s personal and social skills as well as their knowledge of Language and Number
- Exit from Reception – end of Foundation Stage assessment using the national criteria for Early Years which assesses all areas of learning including personal and social development.
- End of Year 1 – national phonic check to assess children’s ability to read phonetically.
- End of Year 2 – national tests in reading, writing and maths to establish whether children are meeting the expected level for their age.
- End of Year 4 – National multiplication check.

In Years 3, the children do not undertake national tests and the school uses internal systems to assess their progress.

Reception Assessment and Performance

Reception
In Reception, the children follow a differentiated curriculum to work towards and beyond ‘The Early Learning Goals’ within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) profile. This develops the ‘whole child’ and prepares the children for the National Curriculum in Year One. The Early Years Framework states that every child deserves the best possible start in life enabling them to fulfil their potential. The EYFS ensures that children receive a broad range of knowledge and skills that promote the right foundation for good future progress through school and life.

There are four SPECIFIC areas, through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied. These are:

Literacy development involves encouraging children to link sounds and letters and begin to read and write.

Mathematics involves providing children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems and to describe shapes, spaces and measures.

Understanding the World involves helping children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment.

Expressive Arts and Design involves the children exploring and playing with a wide range of media and materials as well as providing opportunities to share their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities in art, music, movement, dance, role play and design and technology.

There are different ways you can take part and contribute to your child’s learning journey to achieve these goals.
• Reading
• Practising their letters and sounds sent home in packs
• Half-termly Home Learning related to topics

Our Home Learning activities cover all areas of our Early Years curriculum in an active and fun way.

The topics we are doing provide a context for the children’s learning. These, however, are a starting point with the children’s needs and interests leading the way. Please see our half-termly overviews in Our Curriculum to find out what your children are learning.

From the end of Reception to the end of Year 4 the school uses an assessment system which ensures that the children are making progress and having their individual needs met. The children are assessed informally through their everyday performance in school and then judged to be at one of the following stages:

Below the Expected Standard (BE) – this means they are working below national age expectations
Working Towards the Expected Standard (WT)– this means that they are working well towards national age expectations
At the Expected standard (EXP) – this means that they are comfortably working at national age expectations.
Exceeding the Expected standard (EXC) – this means that they are working above the national age expectations for their year group.

These assessments are in place to ensure that children are making good progress in school. It is the progress that is rigorously monitored by teachers in school. The children’s school reports inform you about both the standards that they are working at and the progress that they are making.