Navigating the Curriculum New curriculum challenges New ways of reporting progress

‘Life Without Levels’ Factors involved in the new assessment arrangements:  Assessment and testing against more challenging learning objectives  Based on age expectations for each school year group  Provision for children to master learning within their age group’s curriculum  Scope for more able learners to cover learning that exceeds the cohort expectations

Frequently Asked Questions?

What changes can we expect?  More rigour, some objectives moving down one or two years  Different ways of assessing and tracking progress  An approach that centres around ‘mastery’  No more levels (at least not in their old form)

Emphasis on ‘mastery’

Will end-of-year reports to parents change?  Each year we look to improve the content of our end of year reports, however the main change this year will be that you will find no reference to old National Curriculum levels whatsoever.  The grading will be centred on your child’s attainment referenced to an expected standard level of achievement for that year group.  Pupil attainment is determined by performance in a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and teachers will use these to base advice for ‘next-step’ targets for improvement.  We will still be awarding Effort level grades and Progress level grades as in previous report formats.

How will I know if my child is making good progress?

Will the new curriculum be more challenging than the previous one?

How will testing change, especially at Year 2 and 6?

Key changes to testing  Internally marked KS1 and externally marked KS2 testing  Scaled scores instead of levels  Arithmetic and Reasoning papers in maths  No level 6 testing, all children do the same tests  Re-testing for Year 7’s not meeting Y6 standard starting 2017

Arithmetic and reasoning focus

Key Stage testing 2016  KS1 tests explained KS1 tests explained  KS2 tests explained KS2 tests explained  Progress explained Progress explained  DFE 2016 testing explained DFE 2016 testing explained

How will learning and attainment be linked to KS3  The focus on ‘mastery’ will give children an in-depth understanding and confidence in each curriculum area that will make them ‘secondary ready’ and provide them with the skills to tackle any further tests set by the secondary school in year 7.  Key Stage 2 results data is fundamental to all secondary school progress tracking and target setting.  We expect all secondary schools to use the Key Stage 2 data to set their GCSE target grades as every secondary will be judged on the progress made from KS 2 to three.

How will the new assessment system benefit the children?  The main difference that children will notice is that they will not be aware of needing to do ‘such and such’ to reach the next sub-level of attainment, rather they will be entirely focussed on coverage and understanding of the curriculum learning objectives to achieve their appropriate age standard or rise to the challenge of objectives that exceed average age standard.  Teachers will not be distracted by a perceived need to target support certain pupil groups to achieve key NC level boundaries.  Children will also benefit through a more transparent home – school link as parents should be able to relate more easily to the concept of assessments pegged to cohort age expectancy, as opposed to the previous NC levels that did not present a clear age related link.

Any questions?