Information Evening 2015

 A new Government.  Introduction of UFSM.  A new curriculum.  Assessing Without Levels.

 John Hattie has been Professor of Education and Director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute at the University of Melbourne since  His books are based on 15 years of research looking at the influences on achievement.  His work builds a story about the power of teachers and of feedback, and constructs a model of learning and understanding.

It is teachers seeing learning through the eyes of students; and students seeing teaching as the key to their ongoing learning.

 Teachers set the right challenges based on where the child is and where they next need to be.  We have high expectations that all children can learn.  We welcome mistakes as opportunities to learn.  We are passionate about and promote the language of learning.

It helps when the following are in place!  They want to learn.  Want to be challenged.  Want to achieve the aim of the learning and beyond.  Have a growth mindset.  A supportive home environment that values learning and allows children to take risks.

Deliberate practice RehearsalErrorReteachingListeningTryingExploring

Fixed MindsetGrowth Mindset A “fixed” mindset is the belief that a person’s intelligence, creative ability and talent are fixed at birth and cannot be significantly changed. A “growth” mindset is the belief that intelligence, creative ability and talent can change.

Fixed MindsetGrowth Mindset Individuals with this view are reluctant to take on challenges because they see failure as a sign of weakness or lack of ability. Individuals with this view believe they can learn from their failures and improve their performance through persistence and a willingness to try different approaches.

The new National Curriculum has been referred to a ‘mastery’ curriculum. There are many opinions on what ‘mastery’ means in children’s learning. Tim Oates -  Refers to mastery as deepening rather than learning more and leaving gaps.  Says mastery is a journey not a destination  Speaks about mastery is getting ‘it’ enough to move on and needing practice that is expansive not dull repetition. We will be using the term ‘deep’ learning instead of mastery.

 Each year stands alone and everything must be taught.  All children start the year group programme of study at the beginning of each new year. Some children will ‘get it’ quicker so their progress will be rapid. Other children will take longer and may need to revisit learning more than once.  We all need to know whether children are on track towards meeting Age Related Expectations.  The emphasis is very much on children being junior ready, secondary ready and life ready!

We have:  Implemented the new curriculum working with HIAS inspectors to ensure we were teaching to the raised expectations.  Modified our planning, teaching and assessment reflecting the raised levels of expectation for Key Stage 1.  Changed our vocabulary of levels because 1, 2 and 3 no longer exist.  Worked collaboratively with other local schools to build a broader evidence base and develop a better understanding of expected progress.  Recognised the effect that feedback has on children’s learning.  Had a visit from OFSTED in February who judged Tavistock as a GOOD school.

As result of the changes towards the Government expectation that 85% of all children reach Age Related expectations, our end of KS1 SATS results were higher than previous years.  Children achieving 2B+ Reading 94% Writing 85% Maths 94%

Assessing with Levels has gone and has been replaced by Assessing without Levels.  Why have the levels gone? Research has shown that by having levels 1, 2C, 2B, 2A and 3 this meant everyone focused on the number and moving up to the next number, rather than on the learning and next steps in learning.

 Learning fewer things but in greater depth.  Children knowing something so well so they can apply the knowledge to new learning.  Schools nationwide are developing their own systems and looking to the Government and LEAs for future developments and guidance.

We have always known that assessment has to be:  Reliable and accurate.  Ongoing and diagnostic.  Identifying misconceptions and correcting them before moving on.  About knowing children’s thinking. This is the same as it always has been.

We will continue to assess children’s learning through:  assessment matrices,  planning,  marking,  conversations with children,  HT drop ins, monitoring and observations,  external monitoring and observations,  HT reports termly to Governors, who also have a monitoring schedule.

During 2015/2016 we will:  Continue to have high expectations of all children regarding their learning and behaviour.  Embed the new curriculum and the raised expectations.  Attend training led by HCC and clusters of schools.  Continue to work collaboratively with other local schools to moderate so we ensure expected progress is consistent.  Continue to embed our Assessment system as shown in the depth of learning gauge.

 Met is an indication that children have achieved the Age Related Expectation (ARE) for their year group.  We will be using colours to enable children to assess their own level of understanding/learning in line with the colours on the gauge.