ABSTRACT
Informal assessment is that which is continually collected in the course of daily teaching. As C. Bentley and D. Malvern comment: Teachers make assessments all the time. Sometimes they are full and formal, resulting in a mark, a grade, or a certificate. When parents ask teachers how their children are getting on they often have two different questions in mind. They want to know whether the child is working well and making the progress of which he or she seems capable. They also want to know how their child is getting on compared with others of about the same age. Teachers are being held increasingly accountable for their pupils’ progress, and classrooms have become more public places and open to examination with the progressive involvement of parents and community bodies in curriculum planning and development. In some degree every assessment of a pupil is also an assessment of the teachers and of the school.
