Uptown School uses various formative and summative assessment methods aligned with IB philosophy to improve student learning. Assessment includes continuous classroom assessments, common summative tests, and annual standardized exams to track individual progress and provide feedback. The primary goals of assessment are to inform instruction, identify student strengths and weaknesses, and support student learning rather than solely ranking students.

1. Assessment at Uptown School

2. A Vision for Student Learning at Uptown
Every Child Challenged
Every Child Successful
Every Child Supported

3. Assessment at Uptown Primary
• Uptown is an IB World School
• Assessment is in the line with the philosophy,
principles and requirements of the IB for the PYP
and MYP programmes
• Assessment principles and practices at Uptown
are embedded in current educational practice

4. Assessment Principles
Principle 1: assessment should first and foremost
inform and improve student Learning
Principle 2: Assessment procedures help teachers
discover what students can and cannot do – forming
the basis for planning and differentiated learning
Principle 3: Every assessment should be
selected with a specific purpose in mind

5. Assessment Principles
Principle 4: assessment should be linked to
accountability
Principle 5: assessment should allow teachers and
parents to identify a student’s progress and attainment
in a comparative context
Principle 6: assessment should be used to track
individual progress and growth over time
Principle 7: assessments should be reliable, valid, and
efficient, preserving as much time as is possible for
teaching and learning

6. The primary purpose
of assessment is not to
rate, rank and sort
students, but to provide
meaningful feedback
that informs decisions

7. Assessment Practices in Effective Schools
• Continuous (Formative) classroom Assessment for
Learning (part of the learning process)
• Common Summative Assessments (developed by
collaborative teacher teams to assess the learning
targets for a specific time period / area of study)
• Annual external standardised testing undertaken to
compare performance and achievement in a larger
context than a single school

8. Assessment of Learning
& Assessment for Learning
Two key forms of assessment employed
• Assessment of Learning is summative and
descriptive, supporting programme review and
planning – it comes at the beginning or end of a
period of learning – it follows a cycle
• Assessment for Learning is formative and ongoing,
supporting adjustment to teaching and learning as
the student is learning – it follows a cycle

9. Summative Assessment Cycle
for Planning and Review
Long-Term (Unit) Learning Goals
Assessment – what do they already ‘know’?
Analysis and review
Planning, teaching & differentiation
Assessment – what do they know now?

10. Assessment for Learning
• Ongoing ‘daily’ activities in the classroom that form
part of the learning and teaching process
• Undertaken by teachers and by their students to
provide information to be used as feedback to the
student and to modify teaching and learning
activities
• Provides continuous descriptive rather than
evaluative feedback
• Acknowledges the critical importance of teachers
and students working as a team

11. Formative Assessment; Assessment for
Learning Cycle
Short-term Learning Goals
Assessment
Feedback to and with student – goal setting
Differentiation
Assessment
Feedback to and with student – goal setting

12. External Standardised Assessment at Uptown
• ACER, International Benchmark Tests (IBT)
• Annual Assessment in English, Mathematics and
Science - Grades 3 to 6 (November)
• Over 50,000 students in international and national
schools – growing year by year
• Norm referenced against students of a similar age;
norm referenced against TIMSS world assessment
in Science and Mathematics
• Excellent diagnostic feedback at individual, class
and grade level
• Disaggregated data i.e. boys / girls / native
speakers / second language learners etc.
• Long-term tracking of individual students

13. Principles of Assessments in the Classroom
• Using representative examples of students’ work
or performance to provide information learning
• Collecting evidence of students’ understanding
and thinking
• Documenting learning processes of groups and
individuals
• Engaging students in reflecting on their learning
• Students assessing work produced by themselves
and others
• Developing clear rubrics
• Identifying exemplar student work

14. Assessment Tools
• Rubrics: An established set of criteria for rating in all
areas - developed by students as well as teachers
• Exemplars: Samples of students’ work that serve as
concrete standards against which other samples are
judged
• Checklists: Lists of information, data, attributes or
elements that should be present
• Anecdotal records: Brief written notes based on
observations of students that can be analysed at a later
stage
• Continuums: visual representations of developmental
stages of learning -show a progression of achievement
or identify where a student is in a process

15. Subject Specific Assessments
• Ongoing, anecdotal records of observations, quizzes,
paper tests, performance tasks, written products,
projects, end of unit projects etc.
• Early concepts about print, running records, miscue-analysis,
conferencing, reading logs and journals.
Writing prompts, written responses and rubric-based
writing assessments
• Basic mathematics concepts assessment, discrete
skills assessments (times tables, number bonds etc.)
common end of unit mathematics assessments

16. Reporting to Parents
• Parent Conferences
• Student Led Conferences
• Interim Reports
• Written reports
• Portfolios