Assessment supports learning by focusing on the process of children and young people moving from where they are in their learning towards their desired goals. Assessment can also be used to identify and plan any support they will need to achieve these goals.
Staff should discuss with learners what they are expected to learn. They should clarify and share learning intentions and success criteria and appropriate experiences for achieving these. Both staff and learners should foster a sense of achievement by sharing challenging and realistic expectations. Sharing success criteria along with learning intentions allows learners to 'see what success looks like'. With practice, success criteria can often be devised by the learners themselves.
High quality interactions between learners and staff lie at the heart of assessment as part of learning and teaching. These interactions should promote thinking and demonstrate learning and development. They should be based on thoughtful questions, careful listening and reflective responses and effective feedback strategies. Conversations about learning between teachers and children and young people, among teachers and among learners should be part of the planned activities or experiences.
Learners need timely, accurate feedback about what they have learned and about how well and how much they have learned. This helps them to move forward in their learning and to identify what they need to do next and to decide who can help them build up their knowledge, understanding and skills.
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