Reports 2015! Our new reports are intended to inform you about how your child is performing against age- related expectations linked with the new national curriculum. They will identify individual strengths and targets for improvement and give early recognition of pupils who are falling behind their peers and those who are excelling against expectation for their year group. We will no longer be reporting Levels since after July this year, they no longer exist! Please note Y6 and Y2 will have levels reported this year. They are the last children to be levelled! (Years 1, 3, 4 & 5 have worked to the new non-levelled curriculum since 2014) The format of our report has therefore changed. We have trialled the new format with a pilot group of parents and taken on board as much feedback as possible. We are very grateful to them for their time and suggestions-one of which was to hold these meetings to explain changes!

Instead of reporting levels, you should read about your child meeting, not yet meeting or exceeding age-related expectations. These phrases will appear in all English, Maths and P.E. comments and may appear in other subject boxes. R.E.will be reported using the Liverpool Diocesan curriculum and the ‘I can’ statements contained within it. Please Note: Some parental feedback raised concerns about their child reading that they may not be meeting age related expectations. It is statutory that we report in these terms to ensure that parents clearly understand if their child is experiencing difficulties in the core subjects of Maths and English. However, it is your choice, as parents, how you read or share this with your child.

So What’s Changed? You will find the front page of report different to last year. It begins with the class teacher’s comments. This will allow you to keep your whole child, their conduct and their achievements within school in mind as you read on about the specific areas of the curriculum. Next is an opportunity for your child to comment on their year in terms of what they have enjoyed, areas of strength and something they want to improve next year. This comment will appear as your child has written it. (Spellings will be corrected!) The rest of the first page is similar to last year. The Head Teacher will comment and there is an opportunity for you as parents to make a comment related to the report.

Page 2 begins reporting on specific areas of the curriculum. The core subjects are reported first. These are English and Maths. We have divided English into reading and writing and there may be a separate comment on spelling or phonics. For Maths, we have divided the comments into number and then other aspects of Maths (measurement, geometry, data-statistics etc.) Near the bottom of each box, there is a space for targets and a score. Targets will be taken from ‘age-related expectations’ in the national curriculum, but may be reworded for ease of understanding. We will try to avoid teacher/target speak as much as possible and ensure targets are realistic and in many cases, tangible or practical, that can be worked on with parental support and help.

Standardised Scoring The score reported will be a ‘Standardised Score’ (SS) which is found from converting the actual score of tests done during school terms and age at time of testing. Standardised scores are more useful measures than raw scores (the number of questions answered correctly). Standardised scores from most educational tests cover the same range from 70 to 140. Tests are standardised so that the average, nationally standardised score automatically comes out as 100, irrespective of the difficulty of the test, and so it is easy to see whether a test-taker is above or below the national average for that age. Children scoring over 125 SS should be considered as exceeding most age-related expectations. Children scoring below 85 will not be meeting many age-related expectations and require additional support.

Page 3 of the report begins the foundation subjects. These will be reported in a similar way, referring to age-related expectations, but will not have a SS score or specific targets. We intend and hope that the our new format gives you, as parents, an honest and positive report and one which accurately reflects all your child’s abilities and progress no matter how many age-related expectations they are meeting or not. To help you read and understand exactly what your child is meeting, not yet meeting or exceeding in, we will include a list of all age –related expectations on our website and these will be available to you as paper copies, if required. We will also add ‘Guide for Parents in New National Curriculum’ on to our website to assist you further. You will still receive your child’s report in an envelope. We are exploring the complexities of electronic reporting during the coming academic year and will keep you informed!