Monitoring, evaluation and assessment in SRE

Monitoring, evaluation and assessment are essential in good SRE and are an important part of gaining or maintaining Healthy School status. The school should: 

• Monitor and evaluate PSHE provision to ensure the quality of teaching and learning
• Assess children and young people’s progress and achievement in line with QCDA guidance.
   

Monitoring: overseeing the planning and delivery of PSHE and SRE including reflective monitoring by individuals and lesson observations by the PSHE / SRE coordinator.

Evaluation: judgements about the effectiveness of the teaching process and the activities and materials/resources used, in achieving the specific learning outcomes of the programme.

Assessment: judgements about an individual’s learning and development.

Learning is most effective when we:

• establish what children and young people already know and set relevant goals with them
• ensure that children and young people can actively participate in the learning process, and work with them to confirm they have learnt what we intended and what they wanted to learn
• identify any unexpected learning
• clarify future learning needs
• celebrate progress and achievement
• continually identify and reflect upon the effectiveness of our practice and how to improve it .

Assessment

• Assessment for learning, for example baseline assessment to find out what is already known and to identify learning needs, and formative assessment to assess progress against agreed learning outcomes and to identify the next teaching steps (using an active learning cycle model).
• Assessment of learning, for example summative assessment to ascertain whether the learner achieved the desired learning outcomes.

Assessment in SRE involves knowledge and understanding but also skills development and the ability to explore values and attitudes.

There are different approaches to assessment :

The school should have an established process to monitor student achievement in PSHE, citizenship and SRE as part of this. This should:

• be planned as an integral element of teaching and learning
• be active and participatory and include pupils' views
• discuss learning outcomes to build a shared understanding
• agree criteria to indicate progress
• set personal goals and agree strategies to reach them.

Against this, assessment of progress and recording of achievement can take place. Factual knowledge about sexual health and its application, and agreed personal and social skills can be assessed. The OfSTED report Sex and Relationships (2002) recommends that schools look for a wide variety of evidence recognising that SRE contributes to pupils’ moral and emotional development and to their personal skills. Examples of assessment opportunities include:

• giving a talk or presentation
• demonstrating skills through role play or simulation
• devising a quiz or board game or resource for younger pupils
• preparing a display, video or website.

Pupil profiles and records of achievement can provide a summative picture about pupil development in PSHE and SRE. Ongoing evidence can be recorded and collected using diaries or logbooks.

Reporting to parents should include PSHE and SRE.

Primary and special schools will seek to make their assessment of PSHE/SRE both creative and manageable using some of the above along with selecting significant pieces of work or other evidence of achievement to show progress and the development of skills.

Evaluation

Evaluation in SRE is concerned with both impact and process.

Impact evaluation This focuses on long-term aims and outcomes to gauge the impact of a piece of work.

Process evaluation This focuses on how a programme or particular piece of work has been delivered. Most evaluation falls into this category, quite simply because impact evaluation is so difficult within realistic timescales or at all.

Evaluating the process could involve:

• reflecting on whether everyone was able to participate and achieve at their own level
• considering how activities were organised and delivered
• considering whether resources were fit for purpose and
• identifying what went well and what could be done differently next time.

When done well, process evaluation encourages children, young people and adults to develop:

• self-awareness
• communication skills and an ability to offer constructive feedback
• an ability to reflect on events and action
• a sense of responsibility for their own learning
• an awareness of what they liked and disliked, and the ability to express this.