Feedback and Assessment

Assessment and Feedback at Northwood School

Key Principles

• The purpose of assessment and feedback should be to understand how pupils are currently performing, to further students’ learning and provide teachers with insight into students’ learning. 
• Assessment is provided regularly to ensure that pupils are making progress in the curriculum of that subject.
• Feedback should empower students to take responsibility for improving their own work.

Assessment and Feedback at Northwood comes in three main phases: continuous, mid-unit and end of unit.  Students will be expected to act on all of this feedback as quickly as possible, through ‘Feed Forward’ in green pen, this is to make areas of improvement and correction clear to both the student and teacher. 

Continuous

Feedback is often most effective when it is immediate, so students will receive feedback on their work verbally when the teacher is circulating, and through self and peer assessment which will be led by the teacher in providing correct answers, success criteria or model answers.  As soon as a student realises they could improve their work, they should do so in green pen. 

Mid-unit

In every subject, teachers will set a mid-unit mini-assessment task. This test is ‘low stakes,’ meaning tests won’t be graded or sent home.  Instead, teachers will analyse the results of this task and use the information to re-teach key misconceptions to the whole class or small groups.  This will give students a chance to get it right or further improve before the final assessment. 

End-of-unit

End of unit assessments are always marked by the teacher and returned swiftly to students, with key areas for development highlighted.  The marks from these will be shared with students and will contribute towards their tracking data which is sent home three times per year.