Assessment without levels

Why remove levels? levels were used as thresholds and teaching became focused on getting pupils across the next threshold instead of ensuring they were secure in the knowledge and understanding defined in the programmes of study. Depth and breadth of understanding were sometimes sacrificed in favour of pace.

What is assessment? There are three main forms of assessment: in-school formative assessment, which is used by teachers to evaluate pupils’ knowledge and understanding on a day-to-day basis and to tailor teaching accordingly; in-school summative assessment, which enables schools to evaluate how much a pupil has learned at the end of a teaching period; and nationally standardised summative assessment, which is used by the Government to hold schools to account.

Assessment at Oliver Tomkins Assessment and marking policy sets out • Why pupils are being assessed • The things which the assessment is intended to measure • What the assessment is intended to achieve • How the assessment information will be used Purpose Assessment enable pupils to take more responsibility for their achievements by encouraging pupils to reflect on their own progress, understand what their strengths are and identify what they need to do to improve. Focusing assessment on the content of the school’s curriculum will allow for communications with parents and carers to provide a clearer sense of how to support their children to build and consolidate learning.

This statutory interim framework is to be used only to make a teacher assessment judgement at the end of the key stage following the completion of the key stage 1 curriculum. It is not intended to be used to track progress throughout the key stage. • The interim framework does not include full coverage of the content of the national curriculum and focuses on key aspects for assessment. Pupils achieving the different standards within this interim framework will be able to demonstrate a broader range of skills than those being assessed. • This interim framework is not intended to guide individual programmes of study, classroom practice or methodology. • Teachers must base their teacher assessment judgement on a broad range of evidence from across the curriculum for each pupil. • The evidence used must include the key stage 1 English reading test, which does not focus solely on the key aspects listed in this interim framework. • Individual pieces of work should be assessed according to a school’s assessment policy and not against this

Plan to year appropriate curriculum and age expectations Success criteria Differentiation

For teacher’s using this on a regular basis to ensure teaching and learning is effective and specific to the children in their class this allows them to dig into the content

This can be used for discussion with the pupil, parent or support staff enabling effective intervention Or for groups ….

Gap analysis – the proportions show the teacher where the focus needs to be across the curriculum. As a quick guide to inform planning a teacher can click on block to show who is behind it

2 count from 0 in multiples of 4, 8, 50 and 100; find 10 or 100 more or less than a given number Use to inform planning and next steps in teaching – where to extend, consolidate, introduce

Term one and two Term one pupil progress Review children who have entered year group working below age expected discuss gaps and actions Term two Assess review progress what children have demonstrated they are secure in and what elements of age related expectations they have achieved are they beginning working within or secure in what has been taught? Children who have made limited no progress or are working at expectations or standards below those of their age band books will be brought to pupil progress and moderation meetings(staff meetings). Work in books will be discussed what strategies are children using now weren’t before? What is the barrier that is stopping them making increased progress?

Term 3 and 4 5 and 6 Term 3 term 5 Pupil progress meeting Review actions and gaps identified in term 2 what progress has been made SENCO to be involved Look at any children that are able how are they showing signs of mastery? Term 4 term 6 Make judgements on progress whether children are working towards the expected standard but not reached it yet who are these? Assess review progress what children have demonstrated they are secure in and what elements of age related expectations they have achieved are they beginning working within or secure in what has been taught? Children who have made limited no progress or are working at expectations or standards below those of their age band books will be brought to pupil progress and moderation meetings(staff meetings). Work in books will be discussed what strategies are children using now weren’t before? What is the barrier that is stopping them making increased progress?

Attainment Judgements will be made if children are Working towards age expectation Working within/met age expectations Exceeded/working beyond age expectations Within each year group then we assess if children are beginning to work within age appropriate objectives working within Or securely working in age expected band Eg in year 4 4b 4w 4s

Pupil Progress Assessed at Target /if on track would be Progress seen in books between given dates At this assessment because What are the gaps and barriers to their progress What actions need to happen before next scrutiny to move this child to address the gaps?

Pupil Progress Beginning Within Will reach Expected Progress seen in books What can they do now that they couldn’t two months ago….. What are the gaps and barriers to their progress What actions need to happen before next scrutiny to move this child to address the gaps? What will their personalised targets be? What will you be marking to in their next steps?

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Finally a word on mastery ‘Mastery’ denotes a high level of performance against curriculum expectations, deep, secure learning for all" focus on all children achieving what is expected of their age group and not going beyond this. Evidence shows that children need to be able to understand a concept, apply it in a range of situations and then be creative to really understand it. Simply going beyond their age group does not guarantee they understand something, it just means they have heard it. At our school no child will be taught content from the year group above them, they will spend time becoming true masters of content, applying and being creative with new knowledge and skills in multiple ways.

‘mastery’ denotes a focus on achieving a deeper understanding of fewer topics, through problem-solving, questioning and encouraging deep mathematical thinking. ‘Mastery’ approach is a belief that all children can achieve a high standard a deeper understanding/using and applying skills in a range of opportunities making connections and that the purpose of assessment is not differentiation, but ensuring all children have grasped fundamental, necessary content. Assessment is built into this process. Following high-quality instruction, pupils undertake formative assessment that shows what they have learned well and what they still need to work on,

Mastery in Maths In Oliver Tomkins this is developed through investigation, problem solving and questioning: Eg in maths what do you notice? How do you know? Pupils are challenged to think for themselves and justify their answers to questions. All pupils encounter challenge during the lesson. Developing mastery with greater depth is characterised by pupils’ ability to: - solve problems of greater complexity (i.e. where the approach is not immediately obvious), demonstrating creativity and imagination; • independently explore and investigate mathematical contexts and structures, communicate results clearly and systematically explain and generalise the mathematics.

Questions to prompt What do you notice? If you know that then what else do you know? How do you know? prove it!