Assessing, Evaluating and Monitoring Progress

Change can be really difficult to measure – especially changes in attitude, behaviour, emotional literacy and resilience. Often teachers will be able to identify pupils who will be helped by a Circle of Support through their knowledge, experience and intuition, and will then design sessions to maximise the benefit that the children will receive from attending. However, in some situations, you may want to evaluate what you are doing for your own benefit or someone else's. It is worth thinking through the following purposes of assessment: ❖ Formative assessment: Sharing simple ‘I can’ statements with the children and allowing them to assess themselves against these in order to celebrate successes and identify the next target. ❖ Summative assessment: Reporting on absolute achievements and scores for evaluative or accountability purposes. For this type of assessment, a standardised, reliable measuring tool is required. Your school SENCo may use a system of assessment that would suit your purposes. It may be possible to link your learning outcomes and success criteria to the PSHE curriculum, or to other social, emotional and behavioural curricula that your school or education authority uses.