A warm welcome! Purpose of this evening: Update on national changes in Assessment arrangements Outline school response to changes Explain school arrangements for SATs Opportunity to look at sample test materials Question and Answers

A new national curriculum was introduced in As a result, the Standards and Testing Agency (STA) is changing the tests so that they assess the new curriculum. Pupils will take the new tests for the first time in May 2016.

DfE position statement As part of the national curriculum review, levels have been abolished. This is in part in response to concerns about the validity and reliability of levels and sub-levels. These concerns had an impact on pupils’ learning, but also on the relationships between primary and secondary schools and the trust in their assessments. Levels have also been recognised as the driver of undue pace through the curriculum, which has led to gaps in pupils’ knowledge.

Our response to the changes… We are changing the way the tests are reported. From 2016, we will use scaled scores to report national curriculum test outcomes. We won’t need to change the way we prepare for, or administer, the tests because of the introduction of scaled scores. We will also continue to use past papers for revision. Within key stages, we will continue to assess what pupils understand and can do in a way that best suits our school. We will report the pupil’s scaled score and whether or not your child met the national standard in our annual report to Parents.

Current DfE Guidance Scaled scores are used all over the world. They help test results to be reported consistently from one year to the next. We can’t give full information about what the scale will look like yet. We need to wait until pupils have taken the tests and the tests have been marked before we can set the national standard and the rest of the scale. We can’t set the scale in advance; this cohort is the first that has reached the end of key stage 2 having studied sufficient content from the new national curriculum. If we were to set the scale using data from pupils that had studied the old national curriculum, it is likely it would be incorrect. We do know the scale will have a lower end point below 100 and an upper end point above 100. Once we have set the national standard we will use a statistical technique called ‘scaling’ to transform the raw score into a scaled score. We will publish this after the first tests have been administered. 100 will always represent the ‘national standard’

A pupil’s scaled score will be based on their raw score. The raw score is the total number of marks a pupil receives in a test, based on the number of questions they answered correctly. The pupil’s raw score will be translated into a scaled score using a conversion table. A pupil who achieves the national standard will have demonstrated sufficient knowledge in the areas assessed by the tests. This will mean that they are well placed to succeed in the next phase of their education. The old national curriculum levels are not relevant to the new national curriculum. However, in order to provide schools with some indication of the new standards, we have tried to indicate equivalence in a broad sense. At KS2 this will roughly equate to an old level 4b. Otherwise levels and scaled scores will not be comparable. Reassurance! Other than the scaling score and the change from a mental maths paper to an arithmetic one, nothing much appears to have changed! We will continue to prepare and administer in the same way as previous years according to DfE guidance. We will be continuing to focus on quality teaching and learning not how the outcome of the tests will be reported at this stage as this could give us unreliable data.

Reading ComponentDescriptionNumber of Papers Number of marks Timing of component Paper 1 English reading test Reading booklet and separate answer booklet A selection of texts (1500 – 2300 words) minutes (including reading time) Total15060 minutes

Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling ComponentDescriptionNumber of Papers Number of marks Timing of component Paper 1 Questions Grammar, punctuation and vocabulary minutes Paper 2 Spelling Spelling (20 words) minutes Total27060 minutes

Mathematics ComponentDescriptionNumber of Papers Number of marks Timing of component Paper 1 arithmetic Assesses pupils’ confidence with the range of mathematical operations minutes Paper 2 and Paper3: Mathematical reasoning Mathematical fluency, solving mathematical problems and mathematical reasoning 270 overall 35 per paper 80 minutes 40 minutes per paper Total minutes

SATs take place: 9 th May 2016 – we expect 100% attendance during the tests How can you help? Outstanding attendance and punctuality throughout the year Support at home with homework, reading, spellings, times tables Liaise with school if you have any issues/concerns at any point Reassure your child that we want them to do their best but there is also more to life at Grappenhall Heys and there is nothing to worry about! DfE video outlining the 2016 changes in KS 1 and KS2: Summary