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Journey to Excellence

Ensuring quality and confidence in assessment

Transformational Grid
Practice is good to the extent that... Practice is excellent to the extent that...
Staff make sure that quality assurance and moderation activities are identified and reviewed as part of self-evaluation and improvement planning. Staff use quality assurance and moderation guidance in self-evaluation effectively to lead to improvement in the consistency, quality and confidence in assessment judgements about standards and expectations. Staff participate in and are fully involved in a range of quality assurance and moderation activities including planning learning, teaching and assessment prior to delivery, sampling learners’ work and providing feedback on staff’s judgements to inform improvements in practices.
Senior managers provide the opportunity for colleagues to collaborate and participate in professional dialogue and collegiate working. Senior managers provide formal and informal opportunities for staff to participate in professional dialogue aimed at understanding, applying and sharing standards. Senior managers have established regular forums for effective dialogue for colleagues working at the same stage, department or curriculum area. Schools and their partners, associated schools group and education authority place significant emphasis on effective dialogue at points of transition. Staff regularly engage in moderation activities through local and national networks which lead to sharing and applying standards and expectations consistently, including through the use of the National Assessment Resource. Staff involve a range of partners, e.g. CLD, voluntary sector and colleges, in these activities.
Senior managers work with colleagues to quality assure planned approaches to learning, teaching and assessment by periodically sampling and checking and discussing the quality of learners’ work. Quality assurance and moderation approaches are embedded in the practices of schools and their partners. All staff including senior managers, departmental faculty heads and principal teachers provide a consistent and structured approach to quality assurance. They carry out learning visits, sampling learners’ work and have professional dialogue with staff about standards and expectations and learners’ progress and achievements. They monitor and track learner’s progress effectively and use benchmarking information well to inform improvement planning and to raise the achievement of all learners.
Occasionally staff involve learners in moderating their own work to help them understand what is expected of them. Learners regularly contribute to moderation activities across their learning, where appropriate taking account of their additional support needs. This encourages them to reflect on their work and to develop an understanding of required standards and expectations. They are encouraged to develop this understanding by use of self- and peer-assessment and regular dialogue about learning.

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