How are Yr7s assessed?

[BeyondReason]

Just after some insight...
My dd just got her first year 7 ‘scan’ which provides scores from 1-5 on effort, achievement and readiness to learn in each subject. She’s doing great apparently, but I’m interested in how this is assessed. She has regular homework, but this isn’t marked and there is no evidence the teachers have looked at her class work - her books come home everyday and the little marking in the books is self marked. I understand that learning is much more self-guided in secondary but wonder how a teacher can assess effort or attainment after maybe as few as 6 contacts with an individual child in classes of 30 learners if they’ve not seen their work?
Basically, should I pay much attention to assessment of this type? Dd has all 5s in some subjects, all 3s in others - is this a reflection of her doing less well/making less effort or more that she’s doing fine across the board and teachers express this differently?
Thank you!

[Perfectly1mperfect]

I think you should ask your school.

At my sons secondary school, work is marked by teachers, only sometimes by the child, as books are collected in at least once per week. Homework is also marked by the teacher and feedback is given on both class work and homework. Some teachers are more thorough than others but they all do a certain amount of marking and feedback.

[Killybashangel]

At my dcs' school the grades are based on termly tests only. Has she been tested?

[Killybashangel]

Forgot to say, they do get other grades for behaviour, homework, classwork also

[BeyondReason]

Thank you both. She had a maths test before half term, and had had tests in philosophy and Spanish since the scan was issued so those marks aren’t taken into account, but no other testing. It’s a mystery! I have a ‘progress review’ with her ‘learning manager’ (seriously?!) in a couple of weeks and I will ask about it then!

[Perfectly1mperfect]

I forgot to say, they are also tested every half term. They tell the kids these test results but the only marks reported directly to parents by the school are the end of year test results and effort grades (which are based on class work/homework throughout the year)

[Perfectly1mperfect]

Learning manager 😂

[noblegiraffe]

Just because a teacher hasn’t written on the work doesn’t mean that they haven’t seen any of it - teachers are constantly walking around the class and talking to pupils about what they’re doing.

They really should have at least one teacher assessed piece of work, if not two after the first term though.

There’s no science behind how these reports are written. As a teacher I’d mentally picture the class, pick out the poorly-behaved or lazy ones and mark them down. I’d look at my homework records (I record who hasn’t done homework even if I’m not marking it myself) and mark down persistent offenders. Then go through the rest and decide if they were good or great.

It would probably take less than 10 minutes, far less if there’s no assessment data to enter.

[Jackshouse]

You will need to check with the school. I used to keep all assessed work in the classroom our school inisited it was available at all time for observations. Just because you have not seen an assessment at home does not mean it is not happening.