Assessment for Learning

Claire Pender / Harriet Clark

At High Storrs we are working to embed Assessment for Learning into our everyday classroom practice.  AfL is a philosophy and approach to teaching that places student understanding of their own learning at the centre of teaching practice.  Evidence has shown that this approach to learning not only improves achievement, but also enables students to become more independent and thus more effective in the world beyond High Storrs.  Development and implementation of AfL is one of the school’s priorities. We believe putting AfL at the centre of our teaching practice will help us to create learners who understand what the purpose of learning is and who have the desire and the capacity to continue to improve.

In order to address these issues, we will have an ‘AFL’ focus throughout the school year. The first focus was on marking and resulted in a new marking policy across the school. The second focus is on questioning and dialogue. Research has shown that dialogue is an essential tool to furthering learning. We aim to create environments in which all students feel comfortable and confident to contribute to discussions.

We also have a working party which meets every half term and seeks to develop, share and spread good practice throughout the school community.

We will continue with this approach to embed AFL across the curriculum.  With the support of parents ensuring that these messages about learning are reinforced at home, we believe we can create independent learners who will make significant progress.

See link to parental guidance document.