The Welsh Government has announced that online personalised assessments for schoolchildren are to be extended in the new term to take in reading assessments.
This follows the launch of the assessments last December with an initial focus on numeracy (procedural), which measures skills in numbers, measuring and data.
The assessments are designed to support teachers, learnings and parents, with the questions that match earlier responses to provide the appropriate challenge for each child. The system then provides schools’ management information systems with tailored information about each learner’s skills that can be used to plan future teaching.
A statement from Minister for Education Kirsty Williams (pictured) said the reading assessments will be available in English and Welsh, and that benefits include next-day feedback, automatic marking and flexibility in when they are taken.
“We will be able to see learners’ scores shortly after the assessments are taken rather than having to wait until the end of the school year,” she said. “This is because the scores for procedural numeracy will be automatically generated, based on the all-Wales data from year one of the assessments.
“In introducing these innovative assessments we need to make sure we get it right, which is why we are phasing the roll out. This means we can receive ongoing feedback from schools to make improvements along the way.”
She added that the website, which is available through the Hwb portal, has been developed to integrate learner reports and scores to monitor their progress, and will be further developed to take in numeracy (reasoning) assessments, which cover problem solving.
It will be closed during September while it is configured with data for the new academic year.
Image from Welsh Government, Open Government Licence v3.0
