Progress and PastriesChanges to the assessment system

Many of you will be familiar with assessment levels.

The government have decided that this system had to go.

They felt that the levels did not help parents to know what their child could and could not do

ongoing assessment is a crucial part of effective teaching, but it should be left to schools. The government should only prescribe how statutory end of key stage assessment is conducted;

They will still measure children’s attainment at 7 and 11 on external exams, of which they have provided one example

Children’s attainment is to be measured against the national curriculum

Theoretically every primary school could have their own system (you can imagine how thrilled secondary schools are about this)

Summary of Changes:

National Curriculum levels have been removed and not replaced. The new national curriculum makes no mention of levels.

The new National Curriculum programmes of study set out what pupils should be taught by the end of each key stage. Schools have to introduce their own approaches to formative assessment.

Teachers will continue to track pupils’ progress and provide regular information to parents. How they do so will be for schools to decide, suited to the curriculum they teach.

National Curriculum Tests

Statutory National Curriculum tests at key stages 1 and 2 will continue. The first tests based on the new national curriculum will take place in summer 2016.

The new National Curriculum tests will be more demanding, with a higher and more ambitious expected standard. This will ensure that pupils who clear the bar are genuinely ready to succeed in secondary education.

They propose to report National Curriculum test results using a scaled score, with a score of 100 being an expected score at age eleven.

In order to measure pupils’ progress, they will report how each pupil performs at key stage 2 compared to pupils with similar prior attainment.

Schools are expected to develop assessment systems which:

has a curriculum and assessment framework that meets a set of core principles and:

sets out steps so that pupils reach or exceed the end of key stage expectations in the new national curriculum;

enables them to measure whether pupils are on track to meet end of key stage expectations;

enables them to pinpoint the aspects of the curriculum in which pupils are falling behind, and recognise exceptional performance;

supports teaching planning for all pupils; and

enables them to report regularly to parents and, where pupils move to other schools, providing clear information about each pupils strengths, weaknesses and progress towards the end of key stage expectations.

We have opted to join a system developed by Essex County Council

Target Tracker is now used by one in five schools in England

It is used by many other local schools such as Abbey Meads and Catherine Wayte, with who we work closely

If the government should decided to change again, Target Tracker will develop a system to fit in!

It enables the teacher to track the progress of your child against the demands of the national curriculum

The software means that we can see at a glance how they are doing and can present this to you at parent consultations or in reports

They have produced documents which show what expected of a child for maths, reading and writing in any year group.

These are on our website under the “Helping at

Home” tab, feel free to download or just look at

what is expected from your child

http://www.bridlewoodprimaryscho

ol.org.uk/HelpingAtHome03.html

One element of the programme which helps teachers to see how children can demonstrate competence in an area are the examples

Assessing Under the Target Tracker System

Beginning

Beginning Plus

Working within

Working within Plus

Secure Secure Plus

B B+ W W+ S S+

From Year 1 to Year 6 there are 6 Bands – one per year group e.g. Band 1 = Year 1. Children work through each band during the course of a year.

The descriptors in each Band exactly match the descriptors for each Year group in the New National Curriculum for Numeracy and Literacy.

Within each band are 6 steps:We would expect the average child to begin the year at the Secure stage from the previous year and then reach the Secure stage of their current year by the end. At the end of each year Secure = average for their age.

At the moment this programme can be accessed by every teacher at home or at school (it is secure and password protected)

The company are working on a parent log in so they anticipate in the future, you will be able to log in to see the progress of your child

This is the first year we have used the system so we are working through it, starting with reading, writing and maths, but we hope to move onto other subjects in the future.

We should be able to tell you not only where your child is, but what they can and can’t do

Very unreliable but interesting poll… Schools are using….