1. Assessment and reporting to parents at Windmill Hill

2. Purpose of tonight’s meeting
To understand the recent national changes in primary assessment
To know how we assess at Windmill Hill
To understand the information that will be shared at parents’ evening
To understand more about Windmill Hill’s SATs results 2016

3. Recent national changes to assessment
There has been a new National Curriculum for KS1 and KS2 since September EYFS remains unchanged.
The pre-existing system of levels doesn’t work as a way of assessing children’s attainment against the new curriculum as the new curriculum is much more challenging.
Levels for measuring attainment were removed from September 2014 for Y1, Y3, Y4 & Y5 children. Y6 & Y2 in 2014/15 continued to be assessed using levels.
The Government has not replaced levels and have left it up to schools to design their own assessment framework. From September 2015 all year groups had to be assessed against the new measures.
May 2016 was the first year of the new national tests assessing the new National Curriculum for year 2 & year 6.

4. Department for Education (July 2013)
“… the current system of national curriculum levels and level descriptions will be removed and not replaced.”
Department for Education (July 2013)
“Schools need to be conscious that the new curriculum is not in alignment with the old national curriculum levels.”
NAHT Commission on Assessment (February 2014)

5. What are the implications of these changes ?
Schools had to find their own ways of assessing
Difficult to draw comparisons between children in different schools
The new curriculum is more challenging so it may be that children are not initially working at the stage that corresponds with their chronological age.
It will take time for teacher assessments to be as accurate as they were before, whilst teachers become familiar with the new criteria and more materials are developed to help them make consistent judgements.

6. How we assess at Windmill Hill
Teachers and Teaching Assistants use a range of assessment techniques to identify what children can do and their gaps in learning:
Books
Observations
End of unit quizzes
Formal assessment tests
Discussions
Lesson work
This information is used to inform future planning & teaching and is updated frequently on our school tracking system

7. Non-negotiables
Each year group has a set of objectives they should be taught. These are the ‘non negotiables’ that we expect to be achieved by the end of the year
In EYFS these cover the whole curriculum
For KS1 & KS2 they currently cover Reading, Writing & Maths
They are derived from the nationally published Interim assessment frameworks for the end of KS1 and KS2

8. EYFS Reports will look slightly different Relate to the ELGs
Front sheet and highlighted grids

10. Our assessment system uses the following codes: . / x
. – has been introduced to but cannot do with/without support
/ – has mastered the skill – can independently do it
X – has mastered the skill and can now apply to solve problems and can reason about the skills they have used (at depth)
(see what this looks like)

11. Tracking Attainment
Each half term we track the % of objectives children have met
By the end of the year: 100% of non-negotiables (Yellow /) = at expected standard Less than this = working towards expected standard or working below (if in stage below) 100% of non-negotiables (green X) + additional objectives = greater depth

12. Targets
All children have a target set for Reading, Writing and Maths. (Y1-Y6) EYFS for every area of learning.
Targets are based on last year results and End of Key Stage results to ensure progress. (Baseline assessments for EYFS)
These will be shared with you at parents’ evening.

13. Targets Targets are checked every half term.
If a child is not on track to reach their target they will be discussed in PPR, targeted for interventions, additional class support etc.
Those showing positive progress will be encouraged to exceed further and work ‘at depth’; where they apply their learning to new concepts and real-life problems.

14. Parents’ Evening
At parents’ evening there will be 2 documents that will be discussed:
Mentoring Meeting sheet
Progress Booklet
The progress booklet will be yours to take home and clearly shows areas your child has achieved and what they need to work on (therefore, their targets)
We hope you find this information useful and can see what we will be working on in school to support your child, as well as what you can support on at home.
Teachers will share with you your child’s targets for the end of the year for reading, writing and maths
Teachers will also tell you about any interventions / additional support your children will be receiving this term

15. End of year outcomes 2016
Based on combination of new challenging tests (Reading, maths & SPAG) and teacher assessment judgements (writing)
School focused on plugging gaps between old and new curriculum
Not all new Non-negotiables were covered as there were too many to cover (the gap was too wide to plug)
Continued giving wider opportunities

16. What we are doing differently this year
Jumping the gap (most children working from age appropriate objectives immediately)
Not ability setting – making sure all children experience all objectives
More regular monitoring (weekly book looks, lesson observations, discussions with children, half termly to check progress and put in place provision if necessary)
Working closely with other schools to cross check (moderation of standards and judgements)
Changing way we teach reading skills

17. How do we know this will make the difference?
Learning from what worked well in other schools
Receiving regular monitoring visits from external sources to validate
Autumn term data suggests that children are making good progress towards the new more challenging objectives

18. Any questions?