Using assessment data to support an evidence-based approach

The senior leadership team have developed a comprehensive programme of assessments to inform activity across the school. The data allows them to benchmark themselves internationally and to ensure that teaching and learning is delivered with a robust, evidence-based approach.

Catherine Paradine, Primary Deputy Head (Pastoral) explains more: “In international schools, confirmation bias can be an issue. Without external benchmarks like UK SATs, it’s easy for standards to slip. Data provides us with an objective measure to ensure that we’re maintaining high standards and are able to support our students to achieve their potential.”

The school uses GL Education’s Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT4) to assess developed ability and academic potential by reviewing each student’s unique profile across four areas: verbal, non-verbal, quantitative and spatial reasoning. The Progress Test Series (PT Series) allows the team to track attainment and progress in English, maths and science, and the New Group Reading Test (NGRT) supports the assessment and tracking of student’s reading and comprehension skills.

The team also use the Pupil Attitudes to Self and School (PASS) survey to gain insights into students’ attitudes to learning and mindsets that may be having a negative impact on their attainment.

Charlotte Karara, Primary Deputy Head (Academic), outlines the programme: “We do PASS and NGRT three times each year and deliver PTE, PTM and PTS at the end of the academic year. We do CAT4 on entry, as part of our admissions process, and also yearly to see the students’ potential.

We use data to support our teachers’ judgement – so the standardised data provided by GL Education’s assessments allows us to take an evidence-based approach.”

Catherine adds “Benchmarking against UK standards is crucial. We use GL products extensively to ensure that we’re aligned with UK expectations and to identify areas for improvement.”

The data feeds into a series of pupil progress meetings where practitioners and SLT agree the next steps needed to support learning. Charlotte explains: “We use the PASS data for pupil progress meetings at the start of the year. These allow the pastoral and teaching teams to understand the students’ attitudes to learning and see how they’ve settled in. 

“We then have separate pupil progress meetings focussing on the academic side where we review the NGRT and PT data and compare it with the results from CAT4. From these we can implement a range of actions – from making referrals to the IL team and putting in place booster groups, to looking across year groups for what the needs are. The meetings inform interventions, planning, parents’ meetings – and the data is embedded in all of our discussions.”

Catherine adds: “For our EAL students, we use CAT4 to look at the verbal deficit (where there’s a gap between a students’ non-verbal and verbal scores) – so that we can then see the potential that a student has and what we can do to accelerate their progress.

We moderate the data against other assessments – for example in maths, the school uses external curriculum-based assessment, so we’ll look for anomalies between the data we’re getting there and our GL data and will investigate further to see what’s happening. 

We use the PM Benchmark Assessment for reading – so we’ll talk to the teaching teams and say, for example, you’ve got a student with an NGRT score of 100 but you’ve put them on a reading level that’s below where we would expect them to be, or another student may have a score of 100 and be on a higher reading level. So, we’ll use the data as a tool to ensure that we’re giving students the appropriate level of challenge.

We’ve also introduced the staff to start looking for fragile learners – those who on the surface may look like they are coping well, but the data can show us that they have the potential to do even better, if we can unlock what’s going on for them.”

Data from the PASS survey is used to inform and guide the activity of the pastoral team. 

Catherine explains more: “The PASS survey at the beginning of the year gives us our baseline and helps inform the actions of the pastoral team. It’s the focus of our first pupil progress meetings as it’s really important that our teachers are starting to adapt the curriculum straight away to meet the needs of the children. We then use the recommendations from the PASS intervention strategies for practical next steps to address any issues that are identified.

The PASS data also informs my strategic plans for what we’re doing with behaviour in school. It links in really well with our activity as an HPL school too – and we’re planning to do more work this year on correlating PASS with HPL.”

The team have updated the way that the PASS survey is delivered, to ensure maximum impact. Catherine explains: “PASS used to be done whole-class, in the computing suite – but we now do it in class, over a few days, in small groups. This means that especially with our EAL learners, Key Stage 1 learners or children with SEND – we can check that they understand the questions and can complete the survey so that we gain the most insights.

All of the pastoral activity that we do has the end aim of supporting learning. We want children to be ready to learn - that’s why PASS works so well, because it’s using the pastoral data to unlock the academic.”

With the large range of past learning that students experience before joining the school, PTM and CAT4 help to support the identification of strengths and gaps, particularly for EAL learners. 

Daniel Paradine, Maths Lead in Primary, explains more: “The GL tests are really important as we have so many children coming from different maths backgrounds, so to have a standardised test where we can see where the gaps are is vital. PTM allows us to do this, then CAT4 can help us to explore whether it’s a language challenge or another reason. 

We know that calculation is only half of the skill set needed for success in maths – language is a big factor. Reading a mathematical word problem can be a challenge for EAL students, so if we can identify their needs then that supports us in personalising their learning.”

The school has been trialling the use of the New Group Maths Test (NGMT) to give them a measure of overall maths attainment. It also allows comparison of performance against learners of the same age and provides insights into curriculum areas of relative strength and those needing development.

Charlotte outlines how the trial has worked: “We used the CAT4 data to identify a group of pupils in a year group where there were large gaps between the students’ quantitative and spatial scores – in either direction – which could indicate that they are struggling with some maths concepts. Around 50% of the students in the year group had a gap of at least 20 points and we wanted to investigate this further to see how we should be addressing this from a curriculum point of view, and to see what specific interventions or catch-up we needed to implement to address those needs.

We are trialling NGMT with 10 students that fit this profile – and are looking to combine this data with other internal tests to further assess the students’ specific needs. We hope that this will give us insights to go wider in the school once the trial is complete.”

Data insights from our Insights Team:

The data clearly shows that assessment tools work effectively together, highlighting the value of triangulating the insights each one provides. For example, the Year 5 PTM and Year 6 NGMT results align closely, as do the CAT4 Quantitative scores and NGMT outcomes. This consistency gives us confidence in the reliability of these tests when evaluating mathematical attainment in relation to students’ underlying abilities.

Using these tools in combination has helped us build a comprehensive picture of maths performance and better understand the specific needs of each student.

To make the most of these tools, schools should:

• Make use of the detailed individual reports, particularly when results show discrepancies
• Compare outcomes across different tests to identify learning gaps and signs of potential underperformance
• Use the Focus Skills documentation to help plan the next steps in teaching and learning

The assessment programme at NCBIS supports school leaders, teachers and the pastoral team to create a nurturing environment where personalised teaching and learning supports all children to achieve their potential.

Catherine closes: “We can’t be an HPL World Class school if we haven’t got the data – whether that’s ability, attainment or wellbeing. 

As a leadership team we are judged on the data, so we can evidence progress and explore value-added metrics to ensure that we are meeting expectations. The data that we gain from the GL assessments provides insights that are invaluable.”