Understanding Key Stage 3 Assessment and Reporting at BIS Hanoi: Part 1

Research has shown that high-quality feedback provided via assessment and reporting is an essential factor if children are to learn effectively. At BIS Hanoi, we try to give a range of feedback to meet the needs of our students, parents and teachers.

What is the most effective type of feedback?

The most effective feedback occurs between the teacher and the student on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Student feedback to the teacher helps the teacher check understanding and plan the next steps of learning; teacher feedback to the student helps the student understand their strengths and identifies for them what they need to do next to improve. If teachers provide high-quality regular feedback to students, students learn.

Assessment For Learning (AFL) provides regular feedback to students and teachers

Assessment for learning leverages student and teacher feedback to ensure learning happens every day. At the British International School Hanoi, teachers assess student understanding through a variety of methods and strategies. High-quality questioning combined with observing student activity and dialogue allows a teacher to assess the understanding of students immediately. Verbal and written feedback from the teacher provides students with the feedback they need to keep improving each day.

Summative Assessment is necessary but of limited use in the learning cycle

Parents and schools want to know the attainment levels of students. Frequently, parents want to know if their child is going to succeed in external exams in the future. Exams like the IB and the Cambridge IGCSE test the ability of children to perform well in an exam. This type of assessment, occurring at the end of learning, is called summative testing. Schools need to know the level of their students’ attainment so they can benchmark themselves against other international schools. Summative test data is therefore an essential tool for measuring student performance. However, presenting for tests is time consuming and develops a narrow range of skills. Therefore, at BIS Hanoi we limit summative testing. At BIS Hanoi, Key Stage 3 students are formally tested twice per year.