The Future of Assessment at Little Kingshill Combined School

The new progress and attainment system at LKCS In September 2014 the government removed the national levelling system that has been in place since the 1990s. As you will know the levels for primary school went from 1c to 5a. The expected attainment for the end of KS 1 was 2b and 4b for the end of KS2. This only gave a progress window of TWO levels through the whole of KS2.

So what was the problem? The biggest challenge to teachers and leaders was that this narrow band of possible attainment meant that it was sometimes difficult to accurately show how well, or otherwise, a pupil was doing academically. Also, a pupil attaining a L3 in Y2 for example looked like they were approaching Y6 levels already – this was simply misleading for parents and deeply frustrating to the profession.

What has the government done now? It has removed the whole national levelling system and asked all schools to develop their own ways to measure attainment and progress. We took the view that we needed to take a year to find the most appropriate system to assess our pupils and to help them achieve their potential.

Why the change in assesment? The link below is for a video from Tim Oates, Director of Assessment, Research and Development at Cambridge Assessment. In it, he explains the thinking of the specialist panel which briefed the government prior to changing assessment in schools. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q5vrBXFpm0

So what will the LKCS system look like? How will it work? We shall be measuring your child’s attainment in relation to a range of key performance indicators from the Programme of Study in the new National Curriculum.

So what will the LKCS system look like? How will it work? As a result, we shall no longer use to report on your child’s attainment. Therefore, at the end of the year we will state whether your child is showing attainment against the age-related expectations for a subject: • Working towards the expected standard • Working at the expected standard • Working at a greater depth within the expected standard

What are the expectations? In each year group, your child’s attainment will be assessed as meeting the following stages against each of the key performance indicators: Unable to assess Emerging Developing Secure Mastered

Where should my child be ideally? This will obviously depend on the pupil’s ability level and how hard they work! However, the expected standard at the end of each academic year will be ‘Secure’. So Bob who was ‘secure’ at the end of Year 2 , should be –secure’ at the end of Year 3, too. Obviously this is based on an ideal and not all children might reach this target and some might exceed it.

What does each step actually mean? The three broader sections may be thought of in these terms: Unable to assess- there is insufficient teaching to measure your child’s attainment so far. Emerging– pupil learning is chiefly focussed on the criteria for the band. There may be minimal elements of the previous band still to gain complete confidence in. Developing– pupil learning is fully focussed on the criteria for the band. This is a teacher best fit decision but could be informed by statement assessments between around 40% and 70% achieved. Secure– Confidence in all of the criteria for the band. There may be pupil learning still focussed on gaining thorough confidence in some minimal elements but the broad expectations for the band have been met. This reflects the fact that age-related objectives have been achieved. Mastered- showing that age-related objectives have been achieved and the child is working at a deeper level of understanding and application.

So what should the age expected ideal attainment and progress look like? End of Year 1 target End of Year 2 target End of Year 3 target End of Year 4 target End of Year 5 target End of Year 6 target 1s 2s 3s 4s 5s 6s For a pupil to attain thorough coverage of the year band, children should reach the secure (or ‘s’ in the above) step by the end of the appropriate year. We believe this makes reporting your child’s progress and attainment much clearer for you.

So what is the term ‘Mastered’ all about? The advice from the Government is that pupils who have gained a secure understanding of the Y4 programme of study, for example, should not be automatically moved on to the next year’s programme. Instead they should be provided with extension work to deepen and consolidate their understanding of the concepts and skills already grasped. The new curriculum is already more challenging so this extension work will be covered by a small cohort of each year group. Children who are assessed as being at this position will be judged as being at the ‘mastered’ step.

The new ‘Secondary Ready’ expectation This year, children in Year 6 will be taking the new, more challenging SATs tests in English and maths. There will still be a national expected level of attainment for these pupils. This level is to be called ‘Secondary Ready’ and is based around a scale score of 100. 100 will be the expected attainment level. This will approximate to the previous level 4B as a national expectation for children at the end of Year 6.

The take home message!

The take home message! This term, we are starting a new assessment and progress system which will be: Clearer to understand for parents and teachers. Works hand in hand with the new National Curriculum and its expectations.