Developing Formative Assessment

1
Developing Formative Assessment

• Lord Williamss School
• Thame
• UK

2
Lord Williamss

• 11-18 Comprehensive school
• 2100 students
• Split-site
• 140 teachers
• Small town and surrounding villages
• Committed to development of teaching and learning

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How we got started

• Kings College project (1999)
• 4 teachers join research project
• Whole school launch - September 2000
• Gradual spreading of formative practices
• Core group expanded

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Key events

• Introduction of Formative assessment as whole
  school focus for Performance Management
• Commitment to AfL as a focus for curriculum
  development
• Review of School Assessment Policy

5
More Key events

• Focus Performance Management on different aspects
  of AfL in successive years
• Learning to Learn group established
• Joint training day with partner primary schools
  
• Whole staff meeting to celebrate AfL practice

6
Conditions for lasting change

• Commitment and enthusiasm of School Senior
  Managers
• Support for peer observation
• Meetings focus on learning not admin.
• Teachers encouraged to mark less and assess
  better
• Development of comment banks

7
Lasting change

• Communication of good practice
• Sharing of resources
• AfL approaches and tasks written into Schemes of
  Work
• Communication with parents
• Keep Formative Assessment on the school agenda

8
Challenges

• Consistency across large teaching body
• Reluctance to change
• Need for internal summative events
• External high stakes summative assessment looms
• Self-assessment is hard!
• How do we capture and keep it?

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Where next?

• Response to primary practice
• Archive of peer and self-assessment strategies
• Video leading practitioners in action
• Introduce student self-assessment as focus for
  Performance Management
• Research formative-summative relationship