Target setting at Balwearie High School – managing assessment for learning and assessment as learning

Managing assessment for learning and assessment as learning

Craig Munro, Depute Headteacher at Balwearie High School in Fife, provides an update on the progress of the school's Target setting programme. This was introduced in May 2004 and the school's quality of passes for fifth and sixth year students has improved, particularly for boys. The programme is underpinned by the use of formative assessment strategies, and the involvement of pupils, staff and parents has been crucial to its success.

Aims

• Formative assessment strategies will become embedded into the learning and teaching experience for all at the school.
• Quality feedback will allow pupils to know how they can make further progress in their learning.
• Pupils should take ownership of their learning by planning the next steps and strategies for improvement through discussion with their teachers each term in each class.
• Reports should be part of the learning process and the product of dialogue between teacher and a pupil.
• Pupils, parents and teachers are all involved in the learning process and take part in regular discussions carried out in a way suitable for the individual learner.

Method

The school is striving to achieve these aims through:

• increased interaction between pupils and staff both formally and informally
• building capacity through empowering members of staff to take the lead role in aspects of the curriculum and staff development
• ensuring that appropriate CPD sessions are provided
• discussing and sharing good practice on learning and teaching in the cluster throughout the year
• reducing the amount of staff time spent on paperwork by ensuring that systems 'join up', eg reporting, tracking, target setting
• creating a learning process that is learner-driven and learner-centred
• selling the message strongly, regularly and simply
• developing a strong partnership between pupils, teachers, parents and primary schools.

Progress so far

Support for teachers is crucial to help them achieve the aims: all staff have been involved in INSET and twilight CPD sessions delivered by colleagues within the Balwearie High School cluster. The seminars covered a range of formative assessment strategies, from effective questioning to sharing the success criteria. The Assessment and Reporting policy was developed, rewritten and then discussed at departmental meetings.

Enhancing AifL strategies through discussion has been a real success. Discussion centred around five papers on AifL issues (sharing criteria, effective questioning, feedback on learning, collaboration – learning, collaboration – peer and self-assessment), followed up with CPD sessions.

Brief papers on all these formative assessment strategies were issued for discussion one month prior to the CPD sessions to all teachers in the cluster. The networking with primary colleagues at these sessions has proved highly worthwhile.

Communicating the strategies

Staff now discuss with pupils areas for improvement and strategies each term. The next steps in their learning and the strategies to improve are logged in the personal learning planning ('yellow sheets') part of their planner three times per year. This is over and above the regular feedback on learning that pupils already log in their planner.

The planner's profile with parents has been raised through newsletters and an information evening. The use of the planner is emphasised regularly at assembly. The planner contains material on learning styles and revision strategies.

A folder of good practice across all departments has been compiled and is updated annually: all staff now have a copy. Moreover, all departments continue to work through AifL strategies in the improvement plan; every teacher has completed an audit of AifL Quality Indicators. Most departments are ensuring that summative assessments and their outcomes have a positive effect on the learning process.

Monitoring progress

To increase efficiency and to improve evaluation processes, the Tracking, Reporting, Information, Monitoring (TRIM) information system was introduced: it stores and links all pupil-related data, ensuring that they are easily accessible.

An efficient system of target setting is already in place in the upper school (S4/5/6). The target setting process involves interviews with guidance teachers and the senior leadership team, and is supported by the TRIM system.Pupils have been highly involved in these processes: a pupil committee devised the 'yellow sheets' for pupils to record the next steps in their learning. Pupils sit on most staff committees and the AifL committee.

Most pupils have now had their individual learning styles identified and this information is available to all teachers using the TRIM system. These styles and the strategies around them have been explained to staff, pupils and parents.

Further involvement has come through 'selling the message'. This was partly done through an art competition based on the four big ideas, which was judged by pupils and staff – winning entries were professionally printed and displayed throughout the school and cluster primaries on large (5ft by 3ft) colour mounted posters.

Finally, pass rates remain high in all years. Moreover, the quality of passes has increased notably in recent years: there has been no gender gap in S5/6 results for three years running.

Next steps

Current strategies will be developed further, with the aims of increasing pupil involvement and enhancing AifL.

Each department will draw up its own marking and assessment policy around a central framework. Staff will share these strategies in department, interdepartmental and cluster meetings throughout the year. Elsewhere, the school website will be actively considered as a way to progress the initiative, particularly to encourage faster communication with parents about learning.

The regular meetings of the AifL cluster group will continue with the aims of:

• seeking to share good practice across the cluster
• ensuring consistency of approach in formative assessment strategies
• simplifying the information on learning targets for pupils in the P7-S1 transition and the process by which it is transferred
• arranging for joint CPD sessions across the cluster.

Target setting will contain whole person targets and be linked to achievement as well as attainment.

All initiatives and processes will be scrutinised to ensure that partnerships and communications are regular, three-way, effective and meaningful.

• Email this page
• Print friendly format
• Digg this
• Save to del.icio.us