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Section 4
ASSESSMENT AND RECORDING
Undertaking regular and systematic assessment of the work of
pupils across the full range of the school curriculum is an essential
professional responsibility for all teachers. The assessment of
attainment in the expressive arts will take place within the broader
context of the school's policy on assessment across the curriculum.
Guidance for teachers on the principles and practice of assessment
can be found in the guidelines Assessment 5-14, which give
advice on planning, teaching, recording, reporting and evaluating
pupils' work.
In the expressive arts, the responses and performances of pupils
may be evidence of many aspects of learning: not only knowledge
and understanding, skills and attitudes, but also values, interests
and talents. The professional judgements made in relation to these
are central to effective learning and teaching in the expressive
arts, providing information about progress which is essential
to teachers and pupils for planning the next stage for each pupil
or group of pupils.
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In the past, assessment in this area of the curriculum has often
relied on judgements based on vague and subjective criteria. Effective
assessment in the expressive arts should involve the consideration
of the quality of pupils' work against criteria which are agreed
and understood by everyone involved and as objective as possible;
they should describe for any particular task or artefact those
features which characterise a successful outcome. The criteria
for making judgements about successful attainment in particular
strands should be based on the attainment targets and programmes
of study for each of the three attainment outcomes: using
materials, techniques, skills and media; expressing feelings,
ideas, thoughts and solutions; and evaluating and appreciating.
These outcomes encompass the technical, creative and critical
development of pupils in the expressive arts and provide a basis
both for selecting and structuring activities and for designing
assessment procedures. Assessment should therefore be concerned
with pupils' abilities to:
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select, control and use media, techniques and
skills appropriate to the task;
generate, investigate and communicate their
own ideas and show that they can develop and sustain them in
a variety of ways;
describe significant features of their own
and others' work and make informed judgements and choices.
Assessment should be the concern of class teachers and subject
specialists, in collaboration with learning support staff, pupils,
parents and others as appropriate. A variety of approaches to
assessing attainment will be appropriate, usually in the context
of day-to-day classroom activities and interactions with pupils,
but sometimes also as assessment tasks which teachers devise to
check the attainment of particular aims and targets. Approaches
will include:
observation of on-going work and ways of working;
observation of or listening to completed work;
discussion of their work and responses with
pupils;
assessment of pupils' responses to special
assignments or tasks.
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