Progression and Assessment

Arrangement for Progression and Assessment 

We believe progression and assessment is fundamental to ensuring we achieve our school vision. Our school curriculum is underpinned by the mandatory principles of progression which describe what it means for learners to progress and the capacities and behaviours our staff will seek to support, regardless of a learners’ stage of development. Our assessment arrangements are informed by these principles of progression.   

The Curriculum for Wales states 5 mandatory principles of progression upon which learning is based: 

• increasing effectiveness; 
• increasing breadth and depth of knowledge; 
• Deepening understanding of the ideas and disciplines within the Areas; 
• Refinement and growing sophistication in the use and application of skills; 
• Making connections and transferring learning into new contexts. 

Our planned learning within the new curriculum is based on these concepts. The key to this was determining how we wanted student understanding to develop over time as they progressed through the planned curriculum by reflecting on the agreed-upon key concepts that underlie the various disciplines. Every academic discipline has carefully considered how to create essential ideas that reflect the principles of progression.  This learning progression forms the foundation for learning contexts, experiences and the assessment processes that support them. 

We use a variety of evidence informed assessment strategies to enable each individual learner to make progress at an appropriate pace. We ensure our processes identify learners who require further support or challenge and provide rich qualitative intelligence for us to inform next steps in learning for individuals and groups of learners. Our assessment arrangements ensure active engagement between learners and teachers and is based on ongoing reflection on where a learner is, what their next steps are and what is required to support them in achieving these.