I. PHILOSOPHY FOR PYP:
At The Pupil International School, our motto is to help children develop, to the fullest extent, their physical, emotional, mental, social and spiritual dimensions of their being, so that they can pursue their chosen path with confidence and success.
We believe assessments, are an integral part of our growth and a stepping stone to promote lifelong learning in our students.
Assessments are continuous processes that promote an inclusive approach by all the stakeholders in the development of a child. It is used to provide information about student performance in areas of both strength and challenges.
Assessments also provide information on the efficacy of a programme. They focus on what the students know and understand; their abilities and feelings at different stages of the learning cycle, with the aim of assessment being to maximize the potential of each student.
At The Pupil International School, we believe that Assessments are a positive process, which acts as a mechanism of feedback to enhance student learning, teaching methodologies, and parents supporting the overall development of student achievement.
Assessments can be holistic and analytical (i.e. they can diagnose strengths and identify areas of improvement). As the learning style of each child may be different, a range of assessment strategies is adopted at the school.
Evaluation is varied (self, peer, facilitator). The assessment process is transparent to allow students to build confidence in their abilities and take ownership of their learning achievements. Finally, our assessments provide opportunities that bring about the emergence of out-of-the-box thinkers, improved performances, demonstrations, and product development.
II. RATIONALE
In this respect assessment should:
● be viewed as being integral to planning teaching and learning;
● assess the level of current knowledge and experience before embarking on new learning (assess prior knowledge);
● utilize a balanced range of strategies that are reviewed regularly;
● involve the students in both formative (peer and self) and summative assessment where appropriate/possible;
● provide prompt feedback for students with regular opportunities for reflection on their own learning;
● ascertain that learning outcomes are in alignment with curriculum objectives and goals;
● act as a feedback mechanism for curriculum development;
● reflect the intercultural dimensions of the programme;
● meet the needs of the students at particular ages and stages of development;
● require the storage of and easy access to student work showing progress over time;
● make clear to the students and parents the learning expectations and the integral assessment strategies;
● be documented in a written policy of assessment;
● allow for the analysis of assessment data in order to inform the evaluation and modification of the programme and teaching and learning strategies;
● allow for meaningful reporting to parents on student progress
III. AIMS OF THIS ASSESSMENT POLICY:
Students go through the process of learning by acquiring knowledge, understanding concepts, acquisition and mastery of skills, development of attitudes, and the required wherewithal to take the necessary action.
The aim of this policy is to:
– ensure that assessment takes place regularly and is reflected in the program
– make certain that assessment tasks and reporting are developed, implemented and assessed collaboratively by teachers
– provide guidelines for assessment
This helps:
– maintain a varied approach to assessment
– seek and ensure continuous improvement
– us know that adequate assessment takes place to facilitate authentic evaluation and reporting.
IV. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
All the teachers are responsible for the assessment, evaluation, and report generation of the students under their instruction. Students also have a role to play in assessments. They do self and peer assessments and take ownership of their learning.
When and How Will We Assess?
Assessment will be continuous and ongoing through:
- Observation – All the students are observed regularly focusing on a whole class or a one-on-one activity. This is particularly useful for assessing attitudes and skills.
- Selected responses – Single occasion, one-dimensional exercises (tests and quizzes)
- Open-ended tasks -Situations in which students are presented with a stimulus and asked to communicate an original response (essays, diagrams, presentations, organized debates, problem-solving activities, investigations and research)
- Performance assessments– A demonstration that transforms ideas into something concrete and observable through visual, audio, art, drama, movement, and/or music. This could also include opportunities to demonstrate and explain procedures and strategies such as a science experiment or a solution to a non-routine math problem.
- Oral presentations -include speeches, storytelling, retellings, recitations, drama, videos, debates, and oral interpretation and are evaluated according to predetermined criteria.
- Process-focused – Students are observed often and regularly and observations are recorded by noting typical as well as non-typical behaviour. (Eg: Hands-on activities and experimentation)
- Rubrics – An established set of criteria to rate students in all areas. The descriptors tell the assessor what signs or characteristics to look for and how to rate on pre-determined scales. Rubrics can be used for almost all areas like reading, writing, group presentations, math evaluation and so on.
- Portfolio – Student products represent completed student work in a variety of forms. Students can demonstrate understanding, application, originality, organizational skills, growth in social and academic skills and attitudes, and success in meeting other criteria.
- Exemplars– Samples of students’ work that serves as concrete standards against which other samples are judged.
- Checklist– These are lists of information, data, attributes or elements that should be present. Checklists can be used to in reading, writing, goal setting, self and peer evaluation.
- Anecdotal records – They are brief written notes based on observations of students. “Learning stories” are focused, extended observations that can be analyzed later.
- Continuums – These are visual representations of developmental stages of learning. They show a progression of achievement or identify where a student is in a process.
- Peer assessment– Peer evaluations consist of student analysis and assessment of peer proficiency using either established or self-generated criteria.
- Self–Assessment – A key concept in alternative assessment is having the student learn to recognize his/her own progress by taking the time to reflect. Those who are able to review their own performance, explain the reasons for choosing the processes they used, and identify the next step, develop insight and self-involvement. Self-reflection, an important concept in any form of assessment, is a particularly important component of a student portfolio.
What will we Assess?
The main objective of the assessment is to provide feedback on the learning process by gathering evidence about a student’s knowledge, the individual’s ability to use the same, his/her disposition towards a discipline and for making inferences from that evidence for a variety of purposes.
Assessment involves gathering and analyzing information about students’ performance in various essential elements of learning such as –
Knowledge
Concepts
Skills
Attitudes
Learner Profile Attributes
Action
V. REPORTING ASSESSMENT:
Reporting is a means of giving “Feedback” for assessment. Assessment without feedback merely serves as “Judgement”. So, “Effective Feedback” is a component of assessment that lets us make sense of judgment and helps improve individual work.
Reporting on assessment is communicating what students know, understand and can do. It describes the progress of students’ learning and identifies areas for growth.
Effective Reporting at The Pupil International School includes:
- involving parents, students and teachers as partners reflecting the school philosophy and values;
- being comprehensive, honest, fair, and credible;
- being clear and understandable to all parties;
- identifying strengths, and weaknesses and providing guidance for future improvement;
- ensuring that teachers incorporate what they learn during the reporting process into their future teaching and assessment practice;
- ongoing reporting throughout the course of lessons;
- summing up what students know, understand and do.
At The Pupil International School, we report on each student’s development through:
1. Conferences [PTM]
2. Written report [Term 1, 2, and 3 Report]
3. Gallery walks
4. Portfolio
5. Teacher’s Assessment Folder [Class Record Sheets]
1. Conferences:
The purpose of conferences is to share valuable information about the student’s progress. Parents, students. and teachers are all valued partners in the reporting process.
At The Pupil International School, we have 3 formally structured conferences:
OPTM (Orientation Parent Teacher Meeting) at the beginning of each academic session.
These are designed to give students feedback so they can reflect on their work and further refine and develop their skills. This is done frequently and is ongoing in order to support and encourage students’ learning.
Teacher – Parent:
This is done six times a year to give parents information about each student’s progress development and needs. This is an opportunity to share appreciation, to address concerns, answer parents’ questions, define the curriculum program, and gather background information.
Three-way:
This involves the student, parent and teacher [done very rarely, on a need basis]
2. Written report [Term 1, 2, and 3 Report]
The Written Report or Feedback is sent home at the end of Terms 1, 2, and 3. The school strives to communicate, share and reflect on students learning at the end of each term.
This is a Summative record for students, parents and the school on a student’s progress. The Report indicates areas of strengths, areas of improvement across the curriculum. The learner profile attributes, attitudes and skills of students are reflected in the comments that teachers write.
3. Gallery walks
At the end of every unit, parents are invited to school and the students showcase their learning to their parents. This provides an opportunity for children to demonstrate independence and responsibility for their own learning. They also share the journey of their learning with their parents through independent presentations, group presentations, art, performances, demonstrations, and experiments.
It provides an opportunity to report students’ understanding of the unit, concept, a topic, to parents. It unites students, teachers and parents to collaboratively celebrate the child’s success.
4. Portfolio
The Portfolio is used to identify students’ growth and to provide a continuum for students to track their learning process and define their growth as a learner.
The portfolio provides data to parents, teachers, and students on student progress in all areas of curriculum, handling attitudes, skills and learner Profile attributes.
At the end of term-1 children share their portfolio with parents during the Gallery Walk. The portfolio consists of work samples of different subject areas, Summative assessment, and student reflection sheets from all areas of development.
Both students and teachers select items to go into the portfolio. Key workpieces in the portfolio have a reflection completed by the teacher/student. The work collected reflects student’s growth as a learner.
5. Teacher’s Assessment Folder [Class Record Sheets]
The teacher will maintain an assessment folder for the class. This includes ongoing assessment on all areas of concern to students’ overall development. This folder is kept with the teacher and is referred to when working on the written report for terms 1, 2, and 3.
VI. POLICY REVIEW
The assessment policy is a working document that will be reviewed annually. The policy review committee comprises the Managing Trustee, the Head of School (HOS), the Primary Years Program Coordinator (PYPC), the Curriculum Coordinator, and a teacher lead from each class.
The last review was done in April, 2021.
Next review is due in March, 2022.