Assessment Without Levels Betty Layward Primary School Thursday 3 rd December 2015 Verity Carter & Chloe Alder

Key dates Education Reform Act established the framework for the National Curriculum, 1988 The National Curriculum was introduced into primary schools, 1989 The first run of Key Stage testing, 1991 The Literacy Strategy was introduced in 1997 The Numeracy strategy was introduced in 1999 New National Curriculum Statutory from September 2014 New forms of assessment developed to align with its content and principles. From September 2015, national curriculum levels no longer used for statutory assessments. Final report of the Commission on Assessment Without Levels is published in September ata/file/461534/Commission_report_.pdf ata/file/461534/Commission_report_.pdf

Why were the levels removed? They were too broad and not detailed enough They were not informative enough – they gave a generic statement about a child rather than give information about the learning They encouraged teaching and learning to race through the levels going higher and higher. The levels did not encourage or reward depth of learning.

AWL Key Government and Ofsted Messages Simplify assessment and reduce teacher administration Raising the attainment bar – embrace 85% as non negotiable Develop mastery and depth of learning Create ‘catch up’ intervention by simplifying methods – chn do not move on until objectives achieved Focus more on progress within books/ pupil outcomes Leaders to use assessment to improve teaching Poverty no excuse for underachievement.

Commission on Assessment Without Levels Clear expectations on reporting arrangements

Recordable measures and impact of assessment knowledge on future progression

Collaboration and subject knowledge

Assessment as learning

Depth & Mastery Before moving on, children should be able to apply their learning in different and new contexts – deepening their learning. Mastery – a child’s ability to apply their learning How much I’ve learned How much I can apply my learning

September 2015 “Schools will be free to design their approaches to assessment to support pupil attainment and progression” New tests for Y2 and Y6 Baseline for Reception (not yet compulsory but we are) Y1 Phonics Check will continue

How are we assessing to support attainment and progression? The new National Curriculum has been written to give Age related expectations (ARE) for the end of each year. As children travel from Year 1 to Year 5 in our school, they will be tracked against the Age Related Expectations. These are numbered bands. The bands give the level of attainment. So Year 1 is band 1, and so on until Year 5 is band 5 and Year 6 is band 6. We are tracking progress and attainment using the Essex Target Tracker system. They have devised a system of steps to track progress between each yearly band.

As children develop through each Band, we track their progress very carefully. Each Band is broken into 3 steps which roughly represents a term’s progress. Over the year the steps are called: ’beginning,’ (B) ‘within’ (W) and ‘secure’ (S)* Teachers can further break down each step into two in order to tightly track children’s progress and ensure they are constantly moving forwards and building on their previous learning. The extra steps are denoted with a ‘+’ beginning (b) beginning + (b+) working within (w) working within + (w+) secure (s) secure + (s+) This gives a total of 6 steps for a year. Where ever children begin their learning in September we expect them to make at least 6 steps progress. Over time accelerated progress of more than 6 steps will close gaps.

Working Within –Up to 70% of the statements* are confidently achieved (Spring) For children to be working at age related expectation, they would need to reach the secure (s) step at the end of the appropriate year. Secure +, pupils have attained a more thorough and wide ranging grasp of the content and concepts. Secure + is a stepping stone on to the criteria in the following band.

What do teachers use to gauge children’s progress? Using the National Curriculum subject statements* (that teachers also plan from) children are assessed continuously. Teacher’s make judgements against these statements. Children’s independent work is the biggest indicator of what they can do and how they do it. Teachers use this on a daily basis to know and check pupil understanding and progress. ‘Prove-it’ tests are set up by teachers to inform assessment This is done along side half termly Reading, Spelling and Maths age tests, the Phonic screen in Yr 1, Year end tests (SATS) in KS1 and KS2 and the EYFS Profile. We use assessment to help ensure that the pupils who need specified intervention are quickly identified, appropriately supported and monitored so that all can fully achieve their potential and no one is left to struggle behind  Fluid intervention  Targeted intervention

How do schools know their judgements match up with each other? All schools have external moderation from the Local Authority. Essex Target tracker enables users to moderate against samples of work nationally. We will be joining a cluster of local schools also using Target Tracker to moderate with.

Reporting to parents and carers Reporting progress By Spring, Ali has achieved 60% of the year 3 objectives. Ali Is working towards the national standards and is on track to achieve all the year 3 objectives. At home he could further practice XYZ. Every pupil’s progress is discussed with SLT during termly pupil progress meetings. Sharing with children and parents