Year 2 2017-18 Assessment Meeting

Assessment at the End of Key Stage 1 Children are continuously being assessed by their teachers throughout Primary School. However, an assessment of their attainment has to be officially reported at the end of each Key Stage. At the end of Year 2, children’s attainment in Reading, Writing and Maths will be formally assessed and reported. Year 2 children complete formal tests (SATs). However, these are only used to support the teacher assessment. As a school, we encourage children to achieve their best throughout the year and explain to them that tests are one way of assessing how they are getting on in their learning. At Year 2, we are aware that we are working with very young children and we do everything in our power to limit the amount of pressure put on them around tests.

The National Curriculum has changed and levels are no longer used. Children are now assessed according to broad criteria based around what is termed the Expected Standard. Children are assessed as either: Working Below the Expected Standard Working Towards the Expected Standard Working At the Expected Standard Working at Greater Depth within the Expected Standard

As a high achieving school, we aim for all of our children to be working at the expected standard or at greater depth within the expected standard. The tests which your children will complete are designed to allow children to independently demonstrate the skills needed to be working at this expected standard. The tests are marked and given a scale score. This scale score is then translated into whether the child is working at the expected standard in that test or otherwise. These test scores are then used to support the class teachers’ overall judgement of that child based upon their achievement across the year.

Teachers are supported in their judgements by national guidelines issued by the Department for Education. Teachers also take part in moderation and training exercises both within the school and with teachers from other schools to quality assure their judgements.

Some children with additional needs or special educational needs may not be able to take the formal tests for various reasons. This will be discussed with parents. These children will be assessed in a different way by the class teacher and will still have a final teacher assessment at the end of the year.

Reading Class teachers are continually assessing children’s reading ability throughout the year through individual, guided and whole class reading sessions. Teachers provide a range of reading experiences across the curriculum. At the end of the year, children will take two reading tests.

Reading Paper 1 Paper 1 is a combined reading and answer booklet, usually containing some fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Questions generally centre around basic information retrieval or the meaning of words. They take the form of multiple choice or writing answers on a line provided.

Paper 1 Example Questions What is William’s job? Where did Bella take William’s message? Find and copy one word that shows knights were very good fighters. All of these questions will have the answers in the text. Encourage your child to locate where the answers are in the text.

Reading Paper 2 .Paper 2 consists of a separate reading and answer booklet. The level of difficulty of the text is generally higher and the questions require a deeper level of understanding and the ability to make inferences and express opinions. Children are expected to complete both papers independently but not on the same day!

Paper 2 Example Questions The greedy man searched for a wounded bird. Why did he do this? Give two things the greedy man does that tell you he could not wait for the seed to grow. Why did the greedy man start clapping his hands in delight? These questions require your child to use their skills of inference and deduction in response to what they have read. These are higher order skills and children will need to refer back to events in the story and interpret the story to give their answers.

How can you help your child? The home-school reading scheme is only designed to support children with basic word recognition and simple comprehension skills. Once a child is reading these books fluently, the best way to support your child and extend their reading skills is to introduce other genres, preferably initiated by your child’s own interests, and focus on enjoyment, comprehension, discussion and interpretation. Racing through the stages of the home-school reading scheme will not result in deepening or broadening your child’s reading ability which is how your child’s reading is assessed. We encourage all children to recognise reading as a gift to be enjoyed and to read for pleasure. Adding pressure or encouraging competition between children in reading generally reduces their enjoyment and confidence and is not encouraged. We do not recommend completing additional sample reading tests with your child at home as it can make them feel more pressured and can also make teacher assessment more difficult if children have prior knowledge of the text.

The Expected Standard The pupil can: • read accurately most words of two or more syllables • read most words containing common suffixes • read most common exception words In age-appropriate books, the pupil can: • read words accurately and fluently without overt sounding and blending, e.g. at over 90 words per minute • sound out most unfamiliar words accurately, without undue hesitation. In a familiar book that they can already read accurately and fluently, the pupil can: • check it makes sense to them • answer questions and make some inferences on the basis of what is being said and done

Writing Children are taught writing in a variety of styles throughout the year with SPAG integrated into the English lessons. Children experience shared, modelled and guided writing sessions in school and are encouraged to write independently. Children evaluate their writing through discussion with the teacher and the school marking scheme. Good features are highlighted in green and pink highlighting requires children to think about an error and correct it. Teachers mark and assess children’s writing throughout the year and take part in moderation sessions with other professionals to quality assure their judgements.

The Expected Standard in Writing After discussion with the teacher, pupils can: • demarcate most sentences in their writing with capital letters and full stops, and use question marks correctly when required • use present and past tense mostly correctly and consistently • use co-ordination (e.g. or / and / but) and some subordination (e.g. when / if / that / because) to join clauses • segment spoken words into phonemes and represent these by graphemes, spelling many of these words correctly and making phonically-plausible attempts at others • spell many common exception words • form capital letters and digits of the correct size, orientation and relationship to one another and to lower-case letters • use spacing between words that reflects the size of the letters

Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar Children are taught SPAG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar) at the beginning of every English lesson and complete independent activities outside of this time. Children are then expected to use these skills in all of their writing across the curriculum. Children also have discreet spelling sessions where they learn common spelling patterns and rules. At the end of the year the children will take a SPAG test which will help to inform the teachers’ final judgements when assessing writing.

How can you help your child? Generally, making a child write does not have the desired effect! However, following a child’s line of interest and giving writing a purpose can be really productive. For example, on a trip to the zoo, collecting facts about a favourite animal and then writing a non-chronological report about it. Supporting with spelling in short sharp bursts can really help – it doesn’t have to be written work. Try using magnetic letters on the fridge for 2 minutes, writing words using your finger in tray of sand or make it really messy and write the words in a tray of shaving foam, paint or ketchup!

Maths Children receive daily Maths lessons following the Singapore Maths scheme which is linked to the new curriculum. Children also receive Maths Basic Skills sessions with a focus on arithmetic, basic number and calculating skills. Some children also receive additional Maths support in groups or individually where it is needed. Class teachers assess children’s progress and attainment in Maths throughout the year through marking children’s work, informal observations and tests. At the end of Year 2, children will take two Maths Tests.

Maths Paper 1: Arithmetic This test consists of a range of calculations across all 4 operations ( + - x ÷) Some are very simple equations such as 5+7= and others require a higher level of mathematical skill such as 36+24= or 1/4 of 20 = Children will be expected to be able to add and subtract multiples of 10 and two 2-digit numbers, renaming where necessary. They will also need to use number bonds and facts such as halves and doubles to support their working out. A knowledge of column addition and subtraction methods is useful for this test. Children need to be able to solve missing number equations and multiplication and division questions.

Maths Paper 2: Reasoning This test consists of some mental maths questions followed by a range of questions and word problems covering number, money, data handling, shape, fractions and measures. The questions require some level of reasoning skill and the ability to use and apply basic mathematical skills to solve a problem. There are some sample test questions for you to look at available at the front of the room.

Expected Standard in Maths The pupil can: partition two-digit numbers into different combinations of tens and ones. This may include using apparatus (e.g. 23 is the same as 2 tens and 3 ones, which is the same as 1 ten and 13 ones) add 2 two-digit numbers within 100 (e.g. 48 + 35) and can demonstrate their method using concrete apparatus or pictorial representations use estimation to check that their answers to a calculation are reasonable (e.g. knowing that 48 + 35 will be less than 100) subtract mentally a two-digit number from another two-digit number when there is no regrouping required (e.g. 74 − 33) recognise the inverse relationships between addition and subtraction and use this to check calculations and work out missing number problems (e.g. Δ − 14 = 28)

recall and use multiplication and division facts for the 2, 5 and 10 multiplication tables to solve simple problems, demonstrating an understanding of commutativity as necessary (e.g. knowing they can share 40 cherries between 10 people and writing 40 ÷ 10 = 4) identify 1/3, 1/4, 1/2, 2/4, 3/4 and know that all parts must be equal parts of the whole. use different coins to make the same amount (e.g. use coins to make 50p in different ways; work out how many £2 coins are needed to exchange for a £20 note) read scales in divisions of ones, twos, fives and tens in a practical situation where all numbers on the scale are given (e.g. pupil reads the temperature on a thermometer or measures capacities using a measuring jug) read the time on the clock to the nearest 15 minutes describe properties of 2-D and 3-D shapes (e.g. the pupil describes a triangle: it has 3 sides, 3 vertices and 1 line of symmetry; the pupil describes a pyramid: it has 8 edges, 5 faces, 4 of which are triangles and one is a square)

How can you help your child? Having basic mental maths skills embedded is vital to confidence in Maths. Continued short bursts of doubles, halves, times tables, counting on and back in 1s, 2s, 5s, 10s from different starting points will all help. Practice of addition and subtraction is always beneficial. Allow your child to practice using coins in the shop, making amounts and working out change. Practice telling the time on an analogue clock – What time will it be 1 hour later/earlier? Use scales of measure – rulers, weighing scales etc. and support your child with reading the scale.

Conclusion The formal assessments will take place w/c 21st May. We do ask that children are in school on time having had a good night’s sleep and a good breakfast so that they can work hard and achieve their best. Please do not keep your child off school during the assessment week, unless of course, they are unwell.

We are well aware that Year 2 children are only 6/7 years old and therefore we are reluctant to put too much emphasis on the SATs to the children. We ask that you support us with this. Children generally find Year 2 an enjoyable and fun experience and we do not wish to put them under any pressure. We teach them everything that they need to know and so long as they work hard and try their best we will never ask for anything else!

We are grateful for your support and invite you to please come up to the front and look at some of the examples of children’s assessment materials. The Year 2 team are here to answer any questions about the assessment process you may have.