Academic Monitoring
Assessment is not scary at Hurlingham School! We believe that we can gain a full picture of all children’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as providing pupils with sufficient experience to develop their examination skills in order to perform well in tests for future school entrance, without inflicting undue stress and pressure.
We believe in using informal formative assessment at all times: whenever our children are learning with us, we observe them and check that they have mastered the topic being investigated. If this is the case and they have understood what they have been taught, we extend their learning into new territory. If our observations suggest further reinforcement and practice are necessary, activities are planned accordingly.
We also use a range of summative assessments, as we feel appropriate, in order to track children throughout the school and ensure each and every child makes an appropriate rate of progress. The papers which we use include the computer-based ePIPS (electronic Performance Indicators in Primary Schools) project, which ensures that children are familiar with similar assessment systems that may be used as part of senior school entrance procedures.
When the time comes for children to begin thinking about leaving us at 11+, we tailor each boy or girl’s experience to the schools for which he or she will sit. During Form V, we begin looking at specimen questions from past entrance examinations and in Form VI we practise full past papers, so that children achieve complete “match fitness” by the time the real examinations are sat. We endeavour to ensure that our pupils achieve offers for the schools that are right for them. Consultation about the choice of the next school is carried out on an individualised basis through discussion with the Head and Head of 11+ Transfer.