The Purposes of Work Sampling
Studying a collection of pupils’ work across various subjects is a key tool in undertaking effective school self-evaluation. It provides tangible evidence of how pupils are fulfilling their potential and enables staff to plan for improvements in the future.

Work sampling gives a school a sound understanding of its current strengths and weaknesses, complementing information from 5-14 data and classroom observation. It can provide reliable evidence of whether or not planned improvements have had an impact on pupils’ learning and can point the way forward in tackling under-performance.

To summarise, it helps a school to:

• gain insights into the range of achievements and progress of pupils throughout their education
• monitor the variations in achievement of pupils in different curricular areas
• identify strengths and weaknesses in what pupils know, understand and can do
• find evidence of pupils’ motivation and commitment as reflected in their written work.

Identifying the Focus for a Work Sample
Without a clear purpose, work sampling cannot produce useful and accurate judgements which help to take the school forward. The decision about the focus for each work sample will stem from discussions with staff. These may cover a series of issues about which the school feels it needs to know more e.g. in an audit of the programme of work in science, the school may wish to focus on pupils’ ability to report on a practical activity. It should focus on the development of core skills in reading, writing and mathematics each session. It might focus on a development priority within the school development plan e.g. the development of ICT skills in using spreadsheets and databases. The sampling of pupils’ work will allow staff to analyse the impact which the development has had on pupils’ learning and overall progress.

In summary, work samples may focus on a range of issues which are meaningful to the school including, for example:

• how far programmes of work in reading, writing and mathematics are impacting on pupil attainment
• how effective the school is in identifying and meeting the needs of high ability pupils
• the reasons for and extent of a perceived underachievement by e.g. P6 boys in writing
• the differences between progress made by boys and girls in mathematics in P3, P4, P6 and P7 and their patterns of achievement
• the effectiveness of support strategies employed for those pupils who are failing to meet their predicted levels of 5-14 attainment within the required timescales
• how far policies e.g. handwriting, are having an impact on the presentation of pupils’ work
• how far policies e.g. the use of formative assessment are being implemented by teaching staff across the school.

Planning and Organising a Work Sample
Once the key areas of enquiry have been identified for the session, the head teacher, in conjunction with teaching staff, should plan when each sampling exercise will be undertaken. The scale of the sample must be realistic in the time available. It is recommended that no more than six samplings should be undertaken in any one session. The focus of each sampling exercise should be detailed within the monitoring calendar and published to teaching staff at the start of each academic session. The head teacher will normally manage each work sample but in larger schools the sampling may be managed by another member of the senior management team. A sampling exercise is generally most effective when more than one staff member is involved. It is recommended that each class teacher be involved in at least one sampling exercise each session as part of their continuing professional development. The skills developed as part of the monitoring of pupils’ work will be a positive extension of each teacher’s professional skills and will allow him / her to observe broad trends and patterns in pupils’ work outwith their own class. It is recommended that staff work in pairs so that they benefit from the discussion and varying viewpoints as work is examined.

For each sampling exercise, staff will:

• decide on the staff involved
• decide on the number of pupils/classes whose work will form the sample - this may extend across all classes but should be restricted to a definitive number of pupils within each class e.g. sampling two pupils from each ability grouping in writing to a total of six samples per class - care should be taken to ensure that samples from both genders are included within a general sampling exercise
• in specific sampling exercises e.g. for pupils who are attaining above national 5-14 levels, consult with staff to identify the number and details of particular pupils whose work will be sampled
• agree what is to be included in each collection of pupils’ work e.g. sample of writing from writing jotter, homework jotter etc and the number of samples to be submitted from each class with all teaching staff. In each sampling exercise, photocopies of pupils’ work should be submitted in order that these can be retained by the head teacher as evidence of the sampling having taken place
• establish clear criteria for the sampling exercise.
  download an exemplar sampling record sheet here
• organise the collection of pupils’ work - it is recommended that a folder is issued to each class in which samples of work will be stored - the focus of the exercise e.g. writing should be clearly displayed on the exterior of the folder
• provide written feedback to the pupils involved - it is recommended that a generalised report be issued to all classes on the outcomes of the exercise and that no individual pupils are highlighted within this report
• provide feedback to all staff on the main features which emerge from the work sampled e.g. during Collective Activity Time session. Individual pupils’ work can be highlighted within this feedback - the information arising from the sampling exercise will provide valuable evidence during the school development planning audit process
• draw up an action plan (as part of the overall school development plan) which can be implemented in the future to tackle any issues arising from the sampling exercise - action may involve staff training to support shifts in practice
• track the impact of any agreed developments by resampling pupils’ work over time.