Assessing Without Levels

NC 2014 Curriculum The Highlights

Stronger emphasis on vocabulary development, grammar, punctuation and spelling (for example, the use of commas and apostrophes will be taught in KS1) A greater focus on phonics in FS-YR3 in reading and writing. Handwriting (not currently assessed under the national curriculum) is expected to be fluent, legible and speedy. Spoken English has a greater emphasis, with children to be taught debating, reciting poetry by heart and presenting skills.

Five-year-olds will be expected to learn to count up to 100 and beyond (compared to 20 under the current curriculum) and learn number bonds to 20 (currently up to 10) Simple fractions (1/4, 1/3 and 1/2) will be taught from KS1, and by the end of primary school, children should be able to convert decimal fractions to simple fractions (e.g = 3/8) and be able to multiply and divide them. By the age of nine, children will be expected to know times tables up to 12×12 (currently 10×10 by the end of primary school)

Other Changes Modern foreign language is mandatory in KS2. Children will be expected to master basic grammar and accurate pronunciation and to converse, present, read and write in the language.

BRITISH VALUES Schools should promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs

Foundation subjects (Science, history, geography, ICT) These have been slimmed down considerably and elements removed. A Parents’ Guide is available on the school website.

ASSESSMENT without levels The JC Plan

Assessing without levels ‘As part of our reforms to the national curriculum, the current system of ‘levels’ used to report children’s attainment and progress will be removed from September 2014 and will not be replaced.’ (DfE National curriculum and assessment from September 2014: information for schools)

The programmes of study within the new National Curriculum (NC2014) set out expectations at the end of each key stage, and all maintained schools will be free to develop a curriculum relevant to their pupils that teaches this content. The curriculum must include an assessment system which enables schools to check what pupils have learned and whether they are on track to meet expectations at the end of the key stage, and to report regularly to parents.

The national curriculum tests and teacher assessment at the end of key stages 1 and 2 will be reported in levels for the last time in summer 2015, as pupils in Year 2 and Year 6 that year will not have been taught the new national curriculum. The first new key stage 1 and key stage 2 tests in reading, writing, SPAG and mathematics, based on the new national curriculum, will be sat by pupils for the first time in the summer of 2016.

What have we been told The message we are being given is that we are not helping the children by pushing them to far too quickly, as we need to “Teach wider, not higher” The end of KS1 test will ONLY assess content from the KS1 curriculum and similarly the end of KS2 test will ONLY assess content from the KS2 curriculum as “mastery” of the curriculum is what is required.

We are challenging the staff to extend and deepen the children’s knowledge so they can answer questions in a range of formats and give them the opportunity to reflect, and consolidate instead of rushing them onto to the next thing. We need to ensure the building blocks of learning are on a strong foundations and that they are securely in place!

How are we assessing at John Clifford? This year’s YR2 and YR6 will continue to be assessed using the old ‘levels’ with Level 2B at the end of KS1 and level 4 at the end of KS2 being national expectations. YR 1,3,4 and 5 are now operating under the new NC2014. At parents’ evening you will be told whether your child is below or at age related expectations. Some of the children will be ‘exceeding’ by the end of the year, but until they have been taught the whole of new curriculum (which is considerably more difficult than it was before) we have no evidence they have exceeded in all the curriculum statements. We will be able to judge this more accurately by the end of the year and this will be in their written report.

So what do we use to assess? We use a combination of an online assessment system called School Pupil Tracker that allows day to day inputting of children’s progress against the NC2014 statements. Children’s progress is checked across the school at three points through the year (November, March and June) APP grids (assessing pupil progress) are used to track progress in reading, writing and maths Marking and feedback in the children’s books Big Write books, running reading records and maths checks also inform assessments Phonics check in June (YR1 and some YR2 children) SATs at YR2 and YR6 (May-June) All assessments are moderated across the family of schools and the LEA run checks every 4 years.

Outcomes As teachers assess children against this more rigorous National Curriculum, we may see a slight dip in attainment. This is to be expected as they are now being assessed against a wholly new framework; one for which they have not been taught the previous years' objectives and content, and so there will be a time of transition between the old and the new sets of data.

Any questions…..?