Assessment and Reporting at Key Stages 1 & 2
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Assessment is the cornerstone of good learning and teaching. It can make a vital contribution to improving educational outcomes for all pupils. It’s about collecting, interpreting and using information to give a deeper appreciation of what pupils know and understand, their skills and capabilities, and what their learning enables them to do.
Assessment should:
- complement and support the key aims of the Northern Ireland Curriculum;
- be fit for purpose;
- be manageable; and
- be supported by teacher professional judgements that are consistent and reliable.
Since teaching and assessment have the same purpose – to help pupils learn – teachers need to plan them as complementary aspects of one activity. Teachers can use different assessment types to gather information. They can use this information for a range of purposes, including:
| Purposes of Assessment | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Diagnostic | Formative | Summative | Evaluative |
| To identify strengths and areas for improvement and to inform next steps | To use assessment information to make specific improvements in learning | To acknowledge, record and report pupils' overall performance and achievement at a point in time | To inform curriculum planning and to provide information for monitoring and accountability |
In Years 3 to 7, teachers assess pupil progress in the statutory curriculum (the Cross-Curricular Skills, the Areas of Learning and the Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities) and report this progress to parents.
In Years 4 and 7, there are additional end of key stage requirements for assessment and reporting. See the Assessing the Cross‐Curricular Skills section for more information.
The Northern Ireland Curriculum encourages a focus on active learning methodologies. CCEA therefore encourages teachers to create assessments in meaningful contexts, which should involve using formative assessment strategies such as Assessment for Learning.
