Assessment without Levels 2015

Some key dates… Education Reform Act established the framework for the National Curriculum, 1988 The National Curriculum was introduced into primary schools, 1989 The first run of Key Stage testing, 1991 The Literacy Strategy was introduced in 1997 The Numeracy strategy was introduced in 1999

September 2014 New National Curriculum The National Curriculum levels have been removed This year is the year of transition

The Year of Transition This year, schools have been able to choose how to track children’s progress and attainment using existing levels or an alternative. It is up to individual schools to decide what the alternative to levels is.

Assessment without Levels From September 2015, schools cannot continue to use levels to track children’s progress and attainment.

The levels were removed because: They were too broad and not detailed enough They were not informative enough – they gave a generic statement about a child rather than give information about the learning APP relied on “best fit” which did not necessarily mean that a child had a full grasp of that level They conveyed the wrong idea of ability

The levels were removed because: APS levels showed no consistency of expected progress over the curriculum. E.g. KS1 & KS2 children’s progress expectations are different. KS1 progress is a matter of opinion 4APS? Or 6APS?

The levels were removed because: They encouraged teaching and learning to race through the levels going higher and higher. The levels did not encourage or reward depth of learning.

Opening the door to deeper understanding Tim Oates Group Director of Assessment Research and Development at Cambridge Assessment Explains why levels were not so good

The new National Curriculum delivers “fewer things in greater depth”. Nick Gibb, Education Minister

Depth & Mastery Before moving on, children should be able to apply their learning in different and new contexts – deepening their learning. Mastery – a child’s ability to apply their learning How much I’ve learned How much I can apply my learning

September 2015 “Schools will be free to design their approaches to assessment to support pupil attainment and progression” New tests for Y2 and Y6 Baseline for Reception (not yet compulsory but we will use it) Y1 Phonics Check will continue

The Challenges for Holly Park What will we do to track children’s learning? How will we moderate with other schools if we are all using different systems? The DfE tells us not to replace levels with another system of levels with another name – so what will we do?

What are we already doing? We are still using levels but beginning to move away from them We have the new curriculum embedded with our new Learning Journeys We are moderating with other schools We are moderating in school using end of year expectations rather than levels

What are we already doing? We have attended courses about assessment without levels e.g. Dame Alison Peacock from The Wroxham School We have heard about what other schools are doing Explore the possibility of using “Tracker Points” on the Online Pupil Tracker that we use

One option… EmergingMetExceedingMastery

But most importantly… Teachers must fully embed Assessment for Learning within their daily teaching – tracking needs to be something that happens in the background.