Assessment At Ivy Bank Parents' Meeting

What has changed? We have a new national curriculum. In September 2014 it was introduced for all subjects in years 1, 3,4 and 5. Years 2 and 6 have started the new curriculum for Maths, English and Science this September. The school has had to analyse the new curriculum and devise a programme of study for Ivy Bank. We have kept our thematic approach which has been so successful in the past. However, the themes have changed and staff have had to completely plan, from scratch, whole cross- curricular units of work. We don't use a scheme, instead we prefer to make our planning bespoke so that it meets the needs of the children at our school. Needless to say, this has been a mammoth task and lots of extra work for the teachers, but we are proud of what we have achieved.

Themes

What are the key differences with the new national curriculum? In English and Maths many objectives have moved down a year group. The bar has been raised and children are expected to do more at a younger age. For example,children are now expected to know up to the 12 times tables by the end of Year 4. Maths once taught at KS3 is now part of the curriculum for Year 6. There is now an emphasis on mathematical reasoning and deeper understanding. There is an increased emphasis on grammar and children will now leave primary school knowing what the perfect tense is and able to recognise the passive and active voice. Throughout primary school children now have to use the correct grammatical terminolgy. ICT is now called Computing. Reception children are taught algorithms and KS2 children are now designing and creating Apps.

How has assessment changed? Levels have now gone. It has been left up to schools to decide how to evaluate pupil progress. We now think in terms of whether a child is working at age-related expectations (ARE). Teachers are no longer allowed to teach objectives from the year above to their brightest pupils. More able children can only show they are more able by showing depth of learning and an ability to apply their learning and problem solve. For LA children we need to use objectives from previous years. At Ivy Bank we believe this is a good thing because it stops the race through levels, which can be at the expense of depth of learning and secure foundations. SATs tests are now more demanding and the children are expected to achieve much more in order to meet the governments targets.

How are we now measuring the progress of your children? We use School Pupil Tracker which is a browser based, online assessment tool. We have been using SPT for 2 years. It is fully compliant with all the government's initiatives on curriculum and assessment. It allows us to create an assessment journey for each individual child and to explore their learning so that we can identify next steps and analyse which children are on track for end of key stage expectations and who is falling behind and needs extra support. As well as SPT we also use other termly assessments and teacher assessment in order to triangulate results and measure progress accurately. (Hodder assessments in Reading, Spelling and Maths / Rising Stars assessments in SPAG and Science)

How does School Pupil Tracker fit with ‘without levels’ and ‘depth of learning’ assessment? We now use the language emerging, developing and secure to describe a child's journey through year group expectations. I t is expected that as the children move though the year group objectives most children will be emerging in the Autumn Term, Developing in the Spring Term and then secure in the Summer Term. For example, a child in Year 1 will be Y1E in the Autumn, Y1D in the Spring and finally Y1S by the end of the Summer.

How do we track the progress of the more able children? SPT uses #'s to show the level of depth of learning a child has. SPT depth of learning ratings tie in exactly with DFE test guidance.

#1 - rote learning. 3x3=9 Can be y6 secure #1 because you can train them. # 2 - application of learned fact. 3x?=9 #2 is the expected level of mastery and is where most children will be. These children are expected to achieve SS100 or be secure in their year group.. # 3 - Use facts to solve word problems. # 4 - Understand and use facts to solve more complex problems To be #3 or #4 they have to be able to apply knowledge to other subjects and new learning. The # may remain the same throughout a child's time in our school. Only changed after discussions with other colleagues.

Evidence suggests that some children who were thought to be more able are struggling to achieve #3 or #4. They are used to the 'done it, move on' culture and find it difficult to apply their learning.

'Focus is on high quality, in depth teaching, supported by in-class formative assessment. Teaching and learning is now individual to the child.' DFE

How does SPT help us to make judgements and support us with our formative assessment?

How do we assess using SPT? NC2014Record Fill by individual child Real time saving

Objective Analysis Tool

Children are now tested when they enter Reception to give a Baseline Score. The Department for Education will then use this score to track the progress of children through the school.

Year 2 SATs Although the children do complete SATs tests, the teachers use other evidence from the children's books and from other assessments to decide on a teacher assessment. Nicky Morgan has expressed a desire to change this to an externally marked test instead of teacher assessment. The children do tests in Reading, Maths (Calculation Paper and a Reasoning Paper) and for the first time this year, SPAG (spelling, punctuation and grammar). Writing is teacher assessed by examining a child's writing across the curriculum. The children's results will be in the form of a scaled score. A score of 100 is where an average child is expected to be. A child who has average depth of learning (#2) and who is Y2 secure should achieve a score of around 100. Children with greater depth of learning will achieve a score of more than 100. The government haven't yet told us where the thresholds will be because they are waiting to see how the children do in the tests. We do have sample papers but teachers haven't been told the score the children have to achieve to get a standardised score of 100.

Year 6 SATs Results will be in a scaled score just like KS1 with 100 being the expected score for an average child in Year 6. There are 2 problem solving tests in Maths, as well as a new calculation paper. We no longer have a mental maths paper. Calculators are not allowed in any of the papers. The emphasis is on depth of learning and an ability to apply mathematical understanding. A child who knows all the content of the curriculum but can't apply that knowledge will not be able to achieve a score higher than 100. In English there is a Reading paper (comprehension) and a SPAG paper. Writing is completely teacher assessed and is likely to remain so. We no longer have the level 6 tests which were equivalent to Grade C GCSE. Some of the objectives from that test are now in the papers for all year 6 children. Science is teacher assessed at the moment. We use SPT and Rising Stars assessments to inform our decisions.