Reception children at Greenways Primary Academy complete the Government’s statutory baseline assessment within the first six weeks of their time with us. This is a short, interactive and practical assessment of a child’s early literacy, communication, language and mathematics skills when they begin school, using materials that most children of this age will be familiar with.
At the beginning and end of the year, children also complete a ‘communication and language screen’. This is a quick and easy to administer screening tool designed to identify delay in a child’s understanding and spoken language skills. Results enable practitioners to plan appropriate interventions and measure progress effectively.
Each term, children are assessed again against our bespoke ‘Curriculum Goals’ document to identify the extent of the progress that has been made and to ensure that children are achieving in-line with age-related expectations.
A short assessment of each child’s phonic knowledge takes place in the penultimate week of each half term. This helps practitioners to assess the sounds that children have learned and retained and those that need to be revisited and consolidated. Staff then use this assessment information to inform phonics / reading intervention groups.