1. Assessment at Somerville Primary School in Years 1 to 6

2. Progress and attainment system at Somerville
In September 2014 the government removed the national levelling system that has been in place since the 1990s
The levels for primary school went from 1c to 5a
The expected attainment for the end of KS 1 was 2b and 4b for the end of KS2
This only gave a progress window of TWO levels through the whole of KS2

3. So what was the problem?
The biggest challenge for teachers and leaders was that this narrow band of possible attainment meant that it was sometimes difficult to accurately show how well, or otherwise, a pupil was doing academically
Also, a pupil attaining a L3 in Y2 for example looked like they were approaching Y6 levels already – this was simply misleading for parents and deeply frustrating to the profession

4. Where are we today?
The government removed the whole national levelling system and asked all schools to develop their own ways to measure attainment and progress

5. So what does Somerville assessment system look like?
The school is now using school pupil tracker online (SPTO) software to measure pupil attainment and progress. It has proved to be invaluable.
To replace national levels SPTO has devised a system of ‘steps’
This performs the function of communicating progression and attainment in a simple format where the number represents the year group the pupil is currently in
Each year of learning is then split into 3 ‘steps’

6. What are the steps?
Each year of learning has been broken down into six steps:
Towards (T)
Working within (W)
Secure (S)
Each pupil will begin a year group as a ‘T’ and progress through the steps as the year evolves

7. Where should my child be ideally?
This will obviously depend on the pupil’s ability and how hard they work!
However, the expected standard at the end of each academic year will be ‘S’ – ‘secure’
BUT we will be tracking progress as well and each pupil will ideally make 3 ‘steps’ of progress from one year to the next
So Bob who was ‘2S’ (in Year 2 and ‘secure’) at the end of Y2, should be ‘3S’ by the end of Y3
Obviously this is based on an ideal

8. What does each step actually mean?
The three steps may be thought of in these terms;
Towards – Pupil learning is chiefly focussed on the criteria for the band. There may be minimal elements of the previous band still to gain complete confidence in
Working Within – Pupil learning is fully focussed on the criteria for the band. This is a teacher best fit decision but could be informed by statement assessments between around 40% and 70% achieved
Secure – Confidence in all of the criteria for the band. There may be pupil learning still focussed on gaining thorough confidence in some minimal elements but the broad expectations for the band have been met

9. Year 1 Autumn 1 assessment
So what should the age expected ideal attainment and progress look like?
Year 1 Autumn 1 assessment
End of Year 1
target
End of Year 2 target
End of Year 3 target
End of Year 4 target
End of Year 5 target
End of Year 6 target
40-60s+ 1s 2s 3s 4s 5s 6s
For a pupil to attain thorough coverage of the year band, children should reach the secure (or S) step by the end of the appropriate year
We believe this makes reporting your child’s progress and attainment much clearer for you

10. ‘hashtag’ So what’s the ‘hastag’ step all about?
The advice from the Government is that pupils who have gained a secure understanding of the Y4 programme of study, for example, should not be automatically moved on to the next year’s programme
Instead they should be provided with extension work to deepen and consolidate their understanding of the concepts and skills already grasped
The new curriculum is already more challenging so this extension work will be covered by a small cohort of each year group

11. ‘Secondary Ready’ expectation
This year, Y6 will be taking the new, more challenging SATs tests in English and maths
There will still be a national expected level of attainment for these pupils
This level is to be called ‘Secondary Ready’ and is based around a scale score of 100
100 will be the expected attainment level