Assessment at Cromer Road School Information for Parents Wednesday January 13th 2016
Aims of the session To give the background to Government changes to the National Curriculum To explain changes to assessment and the removal of levels To explain how progress and attainment is tracked To explain what Assessment for Learning is and the impact on progress To give information about updated Statutory assessment
National Curriculum change New National Curriculum introduced on September 1st 2014 Higher focus on knowledge base and emphasis on technical language Content brought down to earlier years [higher expectations] Curriculum set out in end of KS expectations. Core subjects also divided into end of year 4 and year 6 [upper and lower KS2]
Assessment changes To avoid ‘The level race’ where children moved through NC levels quickly to achieve higher attainment Previously levels were not linked to NC year group so children could achieve higher levels without being secure in their understanding The DfE felt that the old national curriculum and levels system failed to adequately ensure that children had a breadth and depth of knowledge at each national curriculum level.
Assessment changes From September 2015, schools should not continue to use levels to track children’s progress and attainment ‘Schools will be free to design their approaches to assessment to support pupil attainment and progression’ DFE
Assessing without levels Assessments are made against the objectives and end of year expectations from the National Curriculum. Models of assessing without levels are all similar to the system in EYFS, taking end of year expectations for each year group Emerging, expected, exceeding
School Pupil Tracker Online Vocabulary for reporting at Cromer Road is: Emerging – working towards end of year expectation [still requiring support] Developing – secure in significant proportion of end of year expectations Secure – secure in vast majority of end of year expectations
Assessing without levels At the beginning of the year every child is expected to be emerging Children who are fully secure with the end of year expectations will be expected to add more depth and breadth to their knowledge. [Mastery and depth] Children who are unlikely to be emerging at the end of the year may work towards expectations from the year below
Assessment for learning Any practice which provides information to pupils about what to do to improve Also known as formative assessment Ongoing in the classroom Informs planning and next steps for children
Assessment for learning in practice Make the comment here about writing specifically – AfL is ‘you could have done this’ (but you didn’t) – For it to move into assessment as learning, we need to give children the opportunity to apply the feedback given. 11
Year of transition Interim teacher assessment frameworks for Y2 and Y6 in May – week of 9th May Y1 Phonics Check – week of 13th June Baseline for Reception (2016)
In a Nutshell New NC is designed to increase depth of learning not to race through levels Levels are no longer being used to assess progress and attainment Formative assessment is ongoing in the classroom and helps to inform children of their ‘next steps to learning’ Summative assessment is judged against age related expectations Parents will be informed about whether their child is likely to reach their age related expectation
Any Questions?