Assessment of the Curriculum
At Croft Community School, we have designed our curriculum to provide pupils with the components of knowledge required to succeed personally and academically; and build towards educational progression, in a way that is appropriate for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities.
Due to the changeable nature of our cohorts, the curriculum can be adapted and added to; and its corresponding assessment systems can be reviewed and updated termly or annually.
The assessment systems in use directly match the Croft curriculum. They allow the assessment of knowledge acquisition to be made at the end of each taught topic, gaps in learning of composite and component knowledge to be quickly identified, and subsequent teacher planning to address these gaps at the individual or class level.
Assessments are made using SIMS Programme of Study Tracking or the Evidence for Learning app., both of which have been programmed with our bespoke curriculum knowledge statements.
How does it work?
Subject teachers and Lead Practitioner groups identify the composite knowledge in each subject area, considering the statutory requirements by taught year. This is recorded in knowledge grids which form basis of Croft’s curriculum.
Teachers use the composite knowledge grids to choose appropriate topics based on the pupil pathways, these are then mapped across years and key stages in the long-term plan.
Teachers take each topic and identify the non-negotiable knowledge statements for the topic and these, whilst not being the entire taught content, are the statements against which pupils are assessed on a termly basis.
The topic specific component knowledge statements, linked to a corresponding composite statement, are used in pupil knowledge assessment grids and submitted to the SIMS and Evidence for Learning admins for inclusion in the assessment system which is organised by subject, year and term.
At key dates in the school calendar, teachers make assessments.
The school reporting system directly shares with parents and carers what each child has studied, and the knowledge that had been acquired at the point of assessment.
This assessment information is also used to inform teacher planning, annual reviews and during transition.