Assessment without Levels (AWOL)

Why get rid of them? Never meant to be a label Undue pace Levels mean different things Successful nations don’t use them

Philosophy ‘schools should have the freedom to decide how to teach their curriculum and how to track the progress that pupils make’ DfE 2014

Statutory Assessment National Assessments KS1-2 the existing statutory two-year-old progress check undertaken in early years settings; • a short reception baseline that will sit within the assessments that teachers make of children during reception; • a phonics check near the end of year 1; • a teacher assessment at the end of key stage 1 in mathematics; reading and writing, informed by pupils’ scores in externally-set but internally-marked tests (writing will be partly informed by the grammar, punctuation and spelling test); and teacher assessment of speaking and listening and science; • national tests at the end of key stage 2 in: mathematics; reading; grammar, punctuation and spelling; and a teacher assessment of mathematics, reading, writing, and science.

Ks2 More detail: The results of the tests in reading, mathematics and grammar, punctuation and spelling will be reported to pupils and parents as scaled scores. Parents will be provided with their child’s score alongside the average for their school, the local area and nationally.

What are Learning Ladders? The curriculum broken down into manageable key skills understood by pupils and parents. Each ladder is made up of rungs [milestones] for the key subjects of Maths, Reading and Writing

Why Learning Ladders? Learning Ladders: DFE Assessment Innovation Competition Winner Original ladders developed by an outstanding school – Hiltingbury Tried and tested Can inform planning for new curriculum Focus on what a child can and can’t do rather than give them a general label. Pupil friendly

How it works… Very simply, stages on a track relate to key concepts for that skill/ladder. These are signed off over time and the next rung on the ladder is the child’s target. (not always linear!) Child’s copy is black and white so they don’t know which end of year expectation a rung relates to but the teacher copy is colour coded so they do know! These rungs can be signed by teachers or TA and can be prompted by children. Planning tool – helps teachers identify where the gaps are but also for expected outcomes and pitch. Where a rung matches the LO/WALT for the day then it is used so teachers know what they are aiming for. The rungs are key concepts – want this to be a steady journey, including the depth behind the ladders. The children colour in the rung with the year group colour that they are in, rather than the year group colour that rung relates to so that teachers can see quickly when they had achieved their rungs. Setting targets with children – can have longer term targets highlighted in their book or can select them at the start of a unit, such as two weeks on fractions. www.learningladders.info

Data This is all very well but...... how do we show progress how do we see how groups are performing how do we know if ‘Joe’ is catching up?

Data Ticks for each child are entered to a web based programme. This will give them some points. A child should be making 90 points progress a year – this is good progress. A score of 345in Maths suggests a child working at a Y3 level (mid year) Isn’t 345 another label like a level?

Accuracy This is all very well but ……. A Y3 teacher may believe a child has achieved a statement while a Y5 teacher may be more cautious. A teacher may just tick off statements to make themselves look good!

Accuracy Moderation is key. Where is the evidence that ‘Joe’ can use apostrophes in work? Is the evidence sufficient? Tests – ‘I know they can normally do that’ ‘They had a bad day’

Parents This is all very well but………. How are parents going to be informed? Will parents understand this new system better? What will parents be told about the attainment/progress of their child?

Parents General Information Parent Booklet Website Curriculum meetings Child specific Consultation Evening/ target sheets

Parents Each term parents will be told whether their child is: Working above age expectations. Working at age expectations. Working below age expectations. Each term parents will also be told how well their child is progressing. Not progressing as quickly as we would like. Making good progress (What we expect at Hawridge & Cholesbury C of E School). c) Making accelerated progress.

Is it up and running? Only just! BLT recommended ‘Learning Ladders’ late in June. A training course was held in mid July

Any more questions?