Assessment and Reporting at Key Stage 4
Assessment is an integral part of the learning process. It involves learners by providing them with opportunities to prove their learning, to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and skills and for this learning to be observed, evaluated and appreciated. Assessment is most effective, and becomes most truly a part of the learning cycle, when the evidence produced is interpreted and used by learners and their teachers to decide where the learners are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there.
Assessment must be an integrated part of the learning and teaching cycle, emphasising the active, ongoing nature of the process and not just the end point. It promotes the involvement of pupils in the process through making the learning explicit and through engaging pupils in ongoing assessment of their own work and that of others. It values the professionalism of teacher judgement based on ongoing observation and interaction in the classroom. Assessment is used not only to chart progress but also to move pupil learning forward by providing timely, precise, genuine and constructive feedback. Assessment information should be used to inform future planning, learning and teaching.
The assessment arrangements for the revised Northern Ireland curriculum embrace the principles of Assessment for Learning. (Assessment Reform Group, 2002)