Using the primary systems: A Head Teacher’s perspective. Dale Cartwright Merchiston Castle School

Introduction How did we come to use InCAS? How do we use InCAS? What are the benefits? What are the challenges? What are our aims?

Introduction Me –not a Head Teacher… –oversee academic provision for our J4 – 3 rd Form (P4 – S1 equivalent) Merchiston Castle School –all boys, 70% boarding –age 8 to 18 –total of 480, 100 sit InCAS assessments

How did we come to use InCAS? The demise of 5-14 – required a point of stability. HMIE (7 years ago) – how do we demonstrate progress? PIPS vs. InCAS – we required greater flexibility.

How do we use InCAS? To demonstrate year on year progress, but…

How do we use InCAS? As a source of diagnostic data –target setting –ASFL

How do we use InCAS? As a benchmark for performance in internal assessments.

How do we use InCAS? As part of our entrance procedure –how does the individual compare with the current cohort? –does the diagnostic data hint at any undisclosed issues? Reporting to parents instead of 5-14 levels, but… As a replacement for SWST

How do we use InCAS? To help with transitions

What are the benefits? Adaptive questioning – limits frustration. Flexibility in timing of assessments. Zero marking. Large amount of diagnostic data in addition to standardised scores. Standardisation enables valid comparisons – can be an issue with 5-14 levels…

What are the challenges? Building confidence in the data –the move away from 5-14 –comparisons with internal data –INSET Use of data in planning –differentiation? –improving literacy and numeracy standards How to evaluate classroom impact of data?

What are the challenges? “Point and click” –more of an issue with boys? Reporting to parents –confidence in progress over a one year period –how to explain if a learner’s standardised scores decline? –feasible to go into statistics with parents? How best to deal with a mountain of data in a timely and effective manner?

What are the challenges? How can we explain “unexpected” data? –individual cases –whole year groups!

What are our aims? To improve the use of InCAS data in classroom planning –at transitions –throughout the year Evaluate the use of the data for target setting –does the next data set demonstrate progress clearly?

What are our aims? Fine tune reporting –What do parents want? –What can we realistically give them? Improve our understanding of “unexpected” data –what does it tell us about our learners? –what should we be doing differently?

Any questions, comments or suggestions?

InCAS content Picture vocabulary Non-verbal ability Attitudes Word recognition Word decoding Comprehension Spelling Mental arithmetic General maths DEVELOPED ABILITY READING

How InCAS works Easy Difficult Age 1 st Question