1. Assessment at St Edmund’s Primary School

2. Aim
The aim of this meeting is to help you understand more about assessment in primary schools and what this means for our children here at St Edmund’s.

3. “Assessment should always improve learning not prove learning”

4. A New Primary Curriculum
The challenging New Primary Curriculum began a few years ago.
What are the changes to the curriculum?
The New Primary Curriculum is a more challenging curriculum. The main changes to the key core subjects are:
The new programme of study for English is knowledge-based; it is also characterised by an increased emphasis on the technical aspects of language and less emphasis on the creative aspects.
Most of the changes to the Mathematics curriculum involve content being brought down to earlier years (this includes secondary Maths content being taught in Year 6 now). There is also a greater emphasis on problem solving and mathematical reasoning where children really have to understand the skills to be able to apply them to multi step problems.

5. The end of curriculum levels
What were ‘levels’? Levels were a way of measuring children’s progress. During their primary career children moved through the ‘levels’ beginning at 1c and hopefully reaching a level 4b or above in each of Reading, Writing and Maths by the end of Year 6. So why did levels disappear? The Department of Education wanted to avoid what has been termed ‘The Levels Race’ where children were moved through the old national curriculum levels quickly to achieve higher attainment. Children were achieving Level 5 and 6 at the end of Key Stage 2, but it was felt that some children achieving a Level 5 or 6 did not have sufficient breadth and depth in the relevant area.

6. Year 2 & Year 6 SATs
The children in Year 2 & Year 6 are still assessed in Reading, Writing & Maths (plus Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation in Year 6). These SATs are much harder than the old SATs and children who pass the SATs are at the expected level. Those who do not pass are below the expected level and higher achievers are working at greater depth.

7. How does this affect the assessment of my child’s progress?
The New Primary Curriculum sets out expectations for each year group and children are assessed against those every year instead of being given a level. So, for example, with the New Curriculum, a child in Year 4 will always be judged against the expectations for the end of Year 4. To tie in with the New Primary Curriculum, the government changed the way children are assessed and their progress measured. Schools were invited to devise their own measurements of assessment, although there are still national tests at the end of Years 2 and Year 6. When Ofsted looked at our assessment system in May 2016 they stated: The school has established an effective and efficient system for recording pupils’ attainment and progress. Staff have worked closely with colleagues, in this school and in other local schools, to ensure that their judgements are accurate and consistent. Teachers use these results well to plan work that is suitably challenging for different groups of pupils.

8. A key element in the school’s approach to monitoring pupils’ progress is the use of individual ‘tracking sheets’ by pupils for reading, writing and mathematics. These show how well pupils are doing in relation to the detailed expectations of the national curriculum, and are filled in by staff and pupils together. The sheets are shared with parents on a weekly basis. Pupils know just what they need to do next to progress, and are keen to succeed. This is extremely motivating for them, and strongly supports their overall good achievement. Ofsted May 2016

9. What are we doing at St Edmund’s?
At St Edmund’s we set targets for all children from Year 1 to Year 6 in Reading, Writing and Mathematics.
Target sheets are sent home weekly and can be found in your child’s book bag every Monday (but fortnightly for Year 1 pupils).  The target sheets are to keep you informed of your child’s learning. NB These sheets are important so please look after them and send them straight back into school every Tuesday.

10. T will be clearly marked on the sheet to show the current target for your child’s learning.
For example:
My Number Targets – Year 3
So in this instance, the child is in Year 3 and their target is finding 10 more or less than a given number.

11. Assessment of progress will be split into the categories: Emerging— Yet to be secure in end of year expectations. Expected— Secure in the majority of end of year expectations. Exceeding—Secure in all the end of year expectations and able to use and apply their knowledge and skills confidently. Just a few children in a year group may be assessed as being beyond ‘exceeding’, and will be given the opportunity to add more depth and breadth to their knowledge and have more opportunities to develop their using and applying skills. This will be termed as ‘Mastery’.

12. The target cards will be out on the child’s table whilst they work and next to the teacher whilst she marks the book. When the teacher feels the child is secure in that target she will record the date next to it, Emerging. Three dates after a target is Expected. After three dates next to a target the teacher will highlight through the target to show that the learning is Exceeding. The child may then be challenged to demonstrate their knowledge in different contexts and with greater depths, this is called Mastery and will be shown as an arrow at the side of the target.

13. Keeping you informed.
As you see your child’s Target Card every week you should have a very clear picture of what they are learning and how they are progressing. You will also be more confident in supporting them at home as you will know exactly which targets they are working on from week to week. Obviously, some targets will need more than one week to achieve so your child may have several targets on the go at any one time as the year progresses.
Keeping parents fully informed of their child’s progress on a weekly basis has led to much more productive conversations at Parent’s Evening in October and March with the class teacher.
You should also understand the terminology at the end of the year as the end of year report in July uses the terms working towards the expected level, at the expected level and exceeding the expected level, which is in line with the outcomes of the SATs for Year 2 & Year 6 pupils.

14. Are there any questions you would like to ask?
Over to you…………………….
Are there any questions you would like to ask?