Assessment - What's it all about?

Assessment is carried out to see what children and young people know and understand, and for teachers to be able to adapt their methods to benefit each and every student. Assessment is very important for tracking progress, planning next steps, and involving children and young people in their own learning.

Standard, traditional assessments – tests that we are all familiar with – can be helpful in allowing teachers to communicate with students, families, administrators, and other educational stakeholders, keeping them apprised of student progress. But this is only one of many forms of assessment in the modern classroom – others include verbal questioning, group discussion, peer assessment, extended writing, flashcards, exit tickets, and interactive quizzes, to name just a few.

A key consideration for teachers when conducting any kind of assessment is how to ensure it is valid and reliable, leading to meaningful, insightful and actionable information.

We at BISA, give each and every student the best opportunity to reach their full potential. This begins with understanding how each student learns and what their hidden potential may be. The CAT4 assessments give teachers a student profile which allows them to understand each student's learning preferences and match learning material to their needs.

Alongside CAT4 assessments, we use PASS assessments to understand each student’s attitude to learning, their feelings about BISA, and their emotional and social well-being. We know a happy learner is a more successful learner and so we endeavour to create the best learning environment for all.

Once we have understood our students' preferences for learning and how they feel about BISA, we tailor our environment, resulting in the perfect setting for each young person to achieve the best possible results in their annual assessments.