So why the big change, and how will it affect your child? Brill School – Dec 2015

The new curriculum From September 2014 the primary school curriculum began a radical shake-up. (the government judge the UK to be slipping down international student assessment league tables.) The new curriculum is based on what is taught in the world’s most successful school systems. The new national curriculum became statutory (For MAINTAINED SCHOOLS) in September 2014 for Y1, 3, 4 & 5, with Y2 & 6 starting to use it in September 2015 The content for NON core subjects is much slimmed down…..but: Expectations across all year groups have been raised particularly in English and Maths) New more challenging tests are being developed for use at the end of KS1 (Year 2) and KS2 (Year 6) to assess these expectations. schools have been given the freedom to design their own tracking systems to say where children are in relation to the prescribed age expected content for each year group. This will be benchmarked against the national tests at the end of KS1/KS2 and the Y1 Phonic Screening Check

Assessment – WITHOUT levels The rationale A new way of thinking for schools - Assessment will look very different to how it has done for the past 20 years. The DfE want to avoid what has been termed ‘The level Race’ where children have moved through the old National Curriculum levels quickly to achieve higher attainment. It was felt that the system of levels was too complicated and confusing. By removing the levels, schools will be able to give a clearer indication of children who are at the expected level for their age, whilst providing information about what they can do and need to do next. The old National Curriculum was sub-divided into levels, but these were not linked to their national curriculum year group. For example, a child in Year 4 could be a Level 3 or even a level 5. Children were achieving Level 5 and 6 at the end of Key Stage 2, but the DfE thought that although a significant number were able to achieve a Level 5 or 6 in a test, they were not secure at that level because they did not really have a deep understanding or ‘mastery’ of what they were being tested on.

Assessment without Levels: The rationale (cont) The feeling from the DfE was that the old national curriculum and the levels system failed to adequately ensure that children had a breadth and depth of knowledge at each national curriculum level.

What this will look like at Brill As a school we are working hard to put in place our own school system for assessing children without levels. We have spent a long time researching various different methods of assessing pupils, systems and have also worked closely with other schools in our local area to inform our judgement about what form assessment without levels should take in our school. We have divided our ‘Brill School curriculum’ into milestones lasting TWO years – (Years 1& 2, 3 & 4 and 5 & 6) Inside school we track and measure progress towards the end of milestone expectations. The curriculum can be viewed on the school website. (Each document show age related OUTCOMES) Topic teaching for NON CORE subjects is now planned and organised in paired year group teams to reflect this new approach – English and Maths are still planned and taught at a year group specific level. From February 2016, We will inform you at parents evening of your child’s progress towards the end of milestone expectations, and at the end of the each school year we will use the following language to compare your child’s attainment to that expected for their particular year:

What this will look like at Brill Working below :working to secure assessment criteria from year groups below. Emerging: Yet to be secure in the end of year expectations. Expected :Secure in the majority of the end of year expectations. Exceeding :Secure in almost all or all the end of year expectations and is able to use and apply their knowledge and skills confidently. Under the old levels system children who were exceeding might have moved into the next level. The DfE now want children who are in the exceeding bracket to add more depth and breadth to their knowledge, and to have more opportunities to develop their using and applying skills. They are calling this phase of learning Mastery and Depth. The system ( and language) we have adopted will be subject to continuous review and moderation with the systems chosen by other local and national schools in order to ensure that it is fit for purpose. The new National Curriculum sets out expectations for each year group and children will be assessed against those every year, so a child in Year 4 will always be judged in the first instance against the expectations for the end of Year 4

Progress We will talk to you in a different way about how your child is progressing: With the old National Curriculum levels, each year children were given a target for the end of the year. For Example: A child could finish Year 3 with a level 3a, and in Year 4 would have a target of a 4b for the end of the year. At Parent’s Evenings throughout the year you we would update you on progress towards that target. there was no correlation between a level and a child’s year group; for example in Year 6 the range of levels could vary from level 2 to level 6. However, the new National Curriculum sets out expectations for each year group and children will be assessed against those. For each of Reading, Writing, Maths and GPS* Your child will sit a test every year from Year 2 onwards, and we will report those results to you using the language introduced earlier. The test is NOT the be all and end all – we will use it to help us make predictions and measurements for the END of MILESTONE expectation. The biggest question from stakeholders in education; particularly governors and other headteachers has been WHAT is progress and how do we show it? At Brill School – the leadership is very clear:

Progress Continuing to ‘Meet age related expectations’ (Meeting) IS PROGRESS. This is because of the ever increasing expectations about what a child needs to learn and understand. It may be that small umbers of children move between the bands ( eg – from Expected at Year 2 to Exceeding at year 6 but we simply won’t know for a year or 2) ‘Mastery’ is about deep, secure learning for all, (more things on the same topic) rather than acceleration (rapidly moving on to new content). We are predicting that those children mastering the content of a year group (exceeding) to be in the minority!

Questions?

A warning from Sir Ken Robinson We want to develop deep thinking skills for all children, simply knowing stuff isn’t enough – we want our pupils to deepen their understanding through varied interactions with content!