Group Assessment

Purpose

The group assessment will assess the ability and attainment level of whole classes and identify children with potential learning difficulties or disabilities (i.e. children with special needs)

Working together with the class teacher and /or the learning support teacher, whole classes will be given group tests of abilities known to be related to potential learning problems. These may be supplemented, where appropriate, by checklists completed by teachers and the results of attainment tests previously administered in the school. Children will not be identified by name, but by a coding system known to the teachers.

Report

The school will receive a report of the results of the class assessment, identifying those who may have special educational needs or who may need further investigation.

Benefits

• The school identifies those pupils who may need learning support
• The school identifies pupils who may have disabilities who may require referral onwards
• The school can identify able underachievers
• The results are objective and independent of the teachers’ perceptions
• The school can ‘benchmark’ successive pupil intakes
• The results can inform target setting and evaluations of whole class performance
• The results could be used to establish the level of resource allocation needed to address special needs.
• The overall results can be compared to other schools nationally and schools with particular disadvantage can be identified.