1. Information session for parents to explain the changes to assessment
The Assessment Maze
Life After Levels
February 2016
Information session for parents to explain the changes to assessment

2. Assessment Life After Levels
Definitions – What is assessment and why do we need it?
Assessment for learning – Removal of levels.
Changes in expectations- Pitch and progression.
Key themes covered in this session fall into three parts

3. What is assessment? Questioning Marking Observation Dialogue Testing
Assessment evaluates progress to date (rear view mirror) and where we need to go next and gaps (windscreen)
Testing is just one element of assessment.

4. Who wants to know what? Pupil What do I know?
What do I need to do next?
Am I getting better?
Teachers
Where are they in relation to where they need to be?
What are the gaps in their knowledge and understanding?
What do they need to learn next?
Parents
What can they do?
What do they need to know next?
Where are they in relation to where they should be?
How can I help?
Leaders & External Agencies
Are the children meeting expectations?
Are they making progress?
Is provision as good as it should be?
Are there groups making less progress than others?
Common thread for pupils, parents and staff is the use of good assessment to identify next steps for learning.

5. Where have we been? Where are we going?
The power for learning is in the next steps. Assessment for teaching and not for accountability
Where are we going?

6. Summative Assessment – Testing:
Purposes of statutory assessment
The main purpose of statutory assessment is to ascertain what children have achieved in relation to the attainment targets outlined in the national curriculum.
The main intended uses of the outcomes are to:
hold schools accountable for the attainment and progress made by their children
inform parents and secondary schools about the performance of individual children
enable benchmarking between schools, as well as monitor performance locally and nationally.
(Standards & Testing Agency)
This is the primary purpose of national testing as listed by the Standards and Testing Agency

7. A teacher’s view of assessment…
“People talk about assessment as though it’s separate to teaching. For me assessment is what you have to do to be able to teach effectively.
When assessment is driven by accountability it becomes a very different thing.”
Assessment needs to be driven by learning. If it doesn’t move the learning forward then it’s not effective.

8. Pupil’s view on assessment, marking and feedback…
“I like to check my next steps and find out what I have done well. I don’t like it if there isn’t a green comment. I want to know how to get better at what I am doing.“

9. The government’s view…
“Levels have been a distracting, over-generalised label, giving misleading signals…Crucially, levels have failed to give parents clarity over how their children are performing.”
This was the prime driver for the government wanting to move away from levels towards a reporting system to support parental understanding of what their children can and can’t do.

10. Assessment is for learning!
Our view…
Assessment should support good teaching and learning. It should help teachers and students keep track of progress and drive improvement.
Assessment is for learning!
Good assessment informs good teaching which leads to good progress.

11. Changes No more numbered levels Lift in expectations
Changes to Year 6 and Year 2 testing arrangements

12. Challenge or opportunity?
No more levels!
A great opportunity to remind ourselves of just how important assessment is to inform planning, pitch and expectations. We have been working with the current system of levels for over 20 years, so it’s good to re-learn and remind ourselves what good practice looks like.
Challenge or opportunity?

13. What is meant by a ‘scaled score’?
It is planned that 100 will always represent the ‘national standard’.
Each pupil’s raw test score will therefore be converted into a score on the scale, either at, above or below 100.
The scale will have a lower end point somewhere below 100 and an upper end point above 100.
A child who achieves the ‘national standard’ (a score of 100) will be judged to have demonstrated sufficient knowledge in the areas assessed by the tests.

14. Scaled score examples
A child awarded a scaled score of 100 is judged to have met the ‘national standard’ in the area judged by the test.
A child awarded a scaled score of more than 100 is judged to have exceeded the national standard and demonstrated a higher than expected knowledge of the curriculum for their age.
A child awarded a scaled score of less than 100 is judged to have not yet met the national standard and performed below expectation for their age.
Marking guidance for KS1 tests will include conversion tables. Teachers will use these to translate pupil’s raw scores into scaled scores to see whether each pupil has met the national standard. Teachers will use the scaled scores to inform their teacher assessment judgements.

15. Assessment going forwards needs to:
Set out what children need to know, understand and do by when.
Explain with clarity to parents what their child does well and their next steps.
Support target setting to ensure, where possible, pupils meet the expected standard at the end of each Key Stage.
Pinpoint aspects of the curriculum in which pupils are falling behind and recognise exceptional performance.
Support effective planning, pitch and progress for all pupils.

16. Moderation
As alwsays, the Local Authority will moderate school judgements.
The local authority (LA) external moderator will scrutinise evidence produced during day-to-day teaching to validate the school’s judgements. This will avoid creating any additional workload for teachers. The evidence must show that the pupil demonstrates attainment of all of the ‘pupil can’ statements within the standard and all the statements in the preceding standard(s).
Key stage 1 reading, writing & mathematics – essential requirements
 The LA external moderator will expect to see examples of pupils’ independent work and guided group work for each moderated subject.
 The LA external moderator will request to see pupils’ scripts for the statutory tests and their results to identify how they have been used to inform the TA judgements.
 LA external moderators must be satisfied as to the independent status of the evidence. The school must ensure that the evidence clearly identifies the amount of support a pupil has received.

17. A chance to find out… …what has changed! JL Y6 mental maths test
Writing samples?
…what has changed!

18. Changes: KS1 Reading More emphasis on phonics.
Increased emphasis on reading for pleasure.
Increased emphasis on reading and performing poetry.
Greater emphasis on discussion and questioning when reading.
Whole texts – deeper exploration.

19. Working towards the expected standard (Emerging)
Interim teacher assessment framework at the end of key stage 1 – reading
Working towards the expected standard (Emerging)
The pupil can: • read accurately by blending the sounds in words that contain the common graphemes for all 40+ phonemes* • read accurately some words of two or more syllables that contain the same grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs)* • read many common exception words*. In a book closely matched to the GPCs as above, the pupil can: • read aloud many words quickly and accurately without overt sounding and blending • sound out many unfamiliar words accurately. In discussion with the teacher, the pupil can: • answer questions and make inferences on the basis of what is being said and done in a familiar book that is read to them.
Working at the expected standard (Expected)
The pupil can: • read accurately most words of two or more syllables • read most words containing common suffixes* • read most common exception words*. In age-appropriate books, the pupil can: • read words accurately and fluently without overt sounding and blending, e.g. at over 90 words per minute • sound out most unfamiliar words accurately, without undue hesitation. In a familiar book that they can already read accurately and fluently, the pupil can: • check it makes sense to them • answer questions and make some inferences on the basis of what is being said and done.

20. Working at greater depth within the expected standard (Exceeding)
The pupil can, in a book they are reading independently: • make inferences on the basis of what is said and done • predict what might happen on the basis of what has been read so far • make links between the book they are reading and other books they have read.

21. Changes: KS1 Writing Writing A greater emphasis on spelling. Grammar
Handwriting
Frequent sessions.
Handwriting strategies.
Fluent handwriting supports spelling and enables the child to communicate their ideas more freely.
Again ahead of the curve – a priority for us for the last three years.

22. Grammar expectations at the end of KS1…
A sample of expectations at the end of KS1

23. Working towards the expected standard (Emerging)
Interim teacher assessment framework at the end of key stage 1 - mathematics
Working towards the expected standard (Emerging)
• The pupil can demonstrate an understanding of place value, though may still need to use apparatus to support them (e.g. by stating the difference in the tens and ones between 2 numbers i.e. 77 and 33 has a difference of 40 for the tens and a difference of 4 for the ones; by writing number statements such as 35 < 53 and 42 > 36). • The pupil can count in twos, fives and tens from 0 and use counting strategies to solve problems (e.g. count the number of chairs in a diagram when the chairs are organised in 7 rows of 5 by counting in fives). • The pupil can read and write numbers correctly in numerals up to 100 (e.g. can write the numbers 14 and 41 correctly). • The pupil can use number bonds and related subtraction facts within 20 (e.g. 18 = 9 + ?; 15 = 6 + ?). • The pupil can add and subtract a two-digit number and ones and a two-digit number and tens where no regrouping is required (e.g ; ), they can demonstrate their method using concrete apparatus or pictorial representations. • The pupil can recall doubles and halves to 20 (e.g. pupil knows that double 2 is 4, double 5 is 10 and half of 18 is 9). • The pupil can recognise and name triangles, rectangles, squares, circles, cuboids, cubes, pyramids and spheres from a group of shapes or from pictures of the shapes.

24. Working at the expected standard (Expected)
• The pupil can partition two-digit numbers into different combinations of tens and ones. This may include using apparatus (e.g. 23 is the same as 2 tens and 3 ones which is the same as 1 ten and 13 ones). • The pupil can add 2 two-digit numbers within 100 (e.g ) and can demonstrate their method using concrete apparatus or pictorial representations. • The pupil can use estimation to check that their answers to a calculation are reasonable (e.g. knowing that will be less than 100). • The pupil can subtract mentally a two-digit number from another two-digit number when there is no regrouping required (e.g. 74 − 33). • The pupil can recognise the inverse relationships between addition and subtraction and use this to check calculations and work out missing number problems (e.g. ∆ − 14 = 28). • The pupil can recall and use multiplication and division facts for the 2, 5 and 10 multiplication tables to solve simple problems, demonstrating an understanding of commutativity as necessary (e.g. knowing they can make 7 groups of 5 from 35 blocks and writing 35 ÷ 5 = 7;
sharing 40 cherries between 10 people and writing 40 ÷ 10 = 4; stating the total value of six 5p coins). • The pupil can identify 1/3, ¼, ½ , 2/4, 3/4 and knows that all parts must be equal parts of the whole.
Read time to the nearest 15 minutes

25. Working at greater depth within the expected standard (Exceeding)
• The pupil can reason about addition (e.g. pupil can reason that the sum of 3 odd numbers will always be odd). • The pupil can use multiplication facts to make deductions outside known multiplication facts (e.g. a pupil knows that multiples of 5 have one digit of 0 or 5 and uses this to reason that 18 × 5 cannot be 92 as it is not a multiple of 5). • The pupil can work out mental calculations where regrouping is required (e.g. 52 − 27; 91 – 73). • The pupil can solve more complex missing number problems (e.g – 3 = 17; 14 + ∆ = ). • The pupil can determine remainders given known facts (e.g. given 15 ÷ 5 = 3 and has a remainder of 0, pupil recognises that 16 ÷ 5 will have a remainder of 1; knowing that 2 × 7 = 14 and 2 × 8 = 16, pupil explains that making pairs of socks from 15 identical socks will give 7 pairs and one sock will be left). • The pupil can solve word problems that involve more than one step (e.g. which has the most biscuits, 4 packets of biscuits with 5 in each packet or 3 packets of biscuits with 10 in each packet?). • The pupil can recognise the relationships between addition and subtraction and can rewrite addition statements as simplified multiplication statements (e.g = 3 × × 5 = 4 × 10). • The pupil can find and compare fractions of amounts (e.g. ¼ of £20 = £5 and ½ of £8 = £4 so ¼ of £20 is greater than ½ of £8).• The pupil can read the time on the clock to the nearest 5 minutes. • The pupil can read scales in divisions of ones, twos, fives and tens in a practical situation where not all numbers on the scale are given. • The pupil can describe similarities and differences of shape properties (e.g. finds 2 different 2-D shapes that only have one line of symmetry.

26. Working at the expected standard (Expected)
Interim teacher assessment framework at the end of key stage 1 - science
Working at the expected standard (Expected)
The first statements relate to working scientifically, which must be taught through, and clearly related to, the teaching of substantive science content in the programme of study. The pupil can: • ask their own questions about what they notice • use different types of scientific enquiry to gather and record data, using simple equipment where appropriate, to answer questions including: • observing changes over time • noticing similarities, differences and patterns • grouping and classifying things • carrying out simple comparative tests • finding things out using secondary sources of information • use appropriate scientific language from the national curriculum to communicate their ideas in a variety of ways, what they do and what they find out.
Science content. The pupil can: • name and locate parts of the human body, including those related to the senses, and describe the importance of exercise, balanced diet and hygiene for humans • describe the basic needs of animals for survival and the main changes as young animals, including humans, grow into adults • describe basic needs of plants for survival and the impact of changing these and the main changes as seeds and bulbs grow into mature plants • identify whether things are alive, dead or have never lived • describe and compare the observable features of animals from a range of groups • group animals according to what they eat, describe how animals get their food from other animals and/or from plants, and use simple food chains to describe these relationships • describe seasonal changes • name different plants and animals and describe how they are suited to different habitats • use their knowledge and understanding of the properties of materials, identify and group everyday materials.

27. Currently…
The shift in expectations is seen most markedly in upper KS2.
Age related expectations have shifted by about 18 months.
End of year expectations for Y4 are now very close to what was age related for Y6.
We are already reporting to you against assessment criteria statements so that you can see clearly what the next steps are for your child and what they do well.

28. How to help at home
First and foremost, support and reassure your child that there is nothing to worry about and they should always just try their best. Praise and encourage!
Ensure your child has the best possible attendance at school.
Support your child with any homework tasks.
Reading, spelling and arithmetic (e.g. times tables) are always good to practise.
Talk to your child about what they have learnt at school and what book(s) they are reading (the character, the plot, their opinion).
Make sure your child has a good sleep and healthy breakfast every morning!

29. See what is coming!
Thank you for coming – please browse the sample test papers at the back of the room
Please take home the spelling words for Years 1 and 2
Please see me if you have any questions.
Mrs Crascall (Assistant Headteacher)