Deanshanger Primary School ‘Assessment Without Levels’ Changes to assessment A guide for parents and carers

The main aim of this presentation is to explain some of the changes which have been made and help you to help us support your child on their learning journey to be the best they can be.

Greater Freedom “ As part of our reforms to the national curriculum, the current system of ‘levels’ used to report children’s attainment and progress have been removed from September 2014 and will not be replaced. By removing levels we will allow teachers greater flexibility in the way that they plan and assess pupils’ learning. The programmes of study within the new National Curriculum (NC) 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.” National curriculum and assessment from September 2014: information for schools

Until September 2014, we had worked with levels in schools for over 15 years. The levels of attainment were expected bench marks for each year group. We tracked each child throughout their school life through levels. Year 1Year 2Year 3Year 4Year 5Year 6 Average Level 1a2b2a/3c3b3a/4c4b

How will this change the assessment and reporting of how well my child’s doing at Deanshanger Primary School?

With levels now gone, all schools have been given the freedom to select an assessment procedure that works in their school. As a school we must report back on whether a pupil is achieving the expectations for the end of each key stage.

It is important to note - The new curriculum is very challenging. The bar has been raised for every year group. To achieve an ‘Expected’ grade in Year 6, researchers and educationalists have compared it to an old level 4A/5C. Previously, a child only had to reach the level 4B to reach national averages at the end of Key Stage 2.

What will this new assessment system look like ?

ASSESSMENT FORMATIVE Day to day, ongoing assessment SUMMATIVE Snap shot. Sums up what children can learn at a particular point in time. Clear learning objectives. Meaningful green, pink and purple marking and feedback. Success criteria WAGOLLS (What a good one looks like). Half termly tests. Statutory assessments in Foundation Stage, Y2 and Y6.

All children at the start of each year begin at Emerging. As they begin to achieve the objectives for that year, they move towards meeting expectations - EXPECTED. This is the desired grade for the end of each academic year, to be ready/prepared for the following year. For each year group, there are a set of ‘Exceeding Expectations’ for children who have met almost all the Year Group expectations, To achieve these ‘Exceeding Expectations’ a child must show that: They make no mistakes They work at a rapid pace They can consistently apply that objective in a range of situations They can apply what they know to other subjects Meeting Expectations – ‘EXPECTED’ is the aim for children to achieve by the end of each academic year. For children working below year group expectations, they will be working towards year group expectations. Additional support will be put in place to support these children.

So for a Year 3 child, who is doing well and meeting expectations, may well make the following academic progress over 4 years: 2015Meeting Y3 expectations 2016Meeting Y4 expectations 2017Meeting Y5 expectations 2018Meeting Y6 expectations This means they have made good progress.

How will teachers assess achievement ? By using the year group expectations which you will find in the front of your child’s exercise books for English and maths. These will be used to provide ‘ongoing’ teacher assessment of reading, writing and maths. Additionally, children will have sat interim tests in maths and reading. At the end of the academic year children will sit tests in maths and reading. Teachers will also use green, pink and purple marking to inform their judgements about pupil achievement. There will be termly moderation meetings across the school and cluster schools to ensure that teacher judgements are ‘in line’ with each other and national standards.

Transcription Date 1Date 2Date 3 I can use further prefixes and suffixes and understand how to add them (English Appendix 1). I can spell further homophones. I can spell words that are often misspelt (English Appendix 1). I can use the first two or three letters of a word to check its spelling in a dictionary. Handwriting I am increasingly able to use the diagonal and horizontal strokes that are needed to join letters and understand which letters, when adjacent to one another, are best left unjoined. I am increasingly able to ensure the legibility, consistency and quality of their handwriting [for example, by ensuring that the down strokes of letters are parallel and equidistant; that lines of writing are spaced sufficiently so that the ascenders and descenders of letters do not touch]. Composition I can plan my writing by discussing writing similar to that which they I’m planning to write in order to understand and learn from its structure, vocabulary and grammar. I can draft and write by composing and rehearsing sentences orally (including dialogue), progressively building a varied and rich vocabulary and an increasing range of sentence structures (English Appendix 2). I can increasingly organise paragraphs, in my writing, around a theme. In narratives I am increasingly able to create settings, characters and plot. In non-narrative writing I can use simple organisational devices (for example, headings and sub-headings). I am increasingly able to proof-read my work for spelling and punctuation mistakes. I can read aloud my own writing, to a group or the whole class, using appropriate intonation and controlling the tone and volume so that the meaning is clear. Year 3 Writing

Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation I can use a range of conjunctions, including when, if, because, although… I can use the present perfect form of verbs in contrast to the past tense. I can use conjunctions, adverbs and prepositions to express time and cause. I can use the forms ‘a’ or ‘an’ according to whether the next word begins with a consonant or vowel eg a rock, and open box. I can use and punctuate direct speech. I can use and understand the grammatical terminology in English Appendix 2 accurately and appropriately when discussing my writing and reading. adverb, preposition, conjunction, word family, prefix, clause, subordinate clause, direct speech, consonant, consonant letter, vowel, vowel letter, inverted commas(or ‘speech marks’). Year 6 Assess and Progress Grid.

How will we report back to parents? In July you will receive your child’s end of year report For ALL YEAR GROUPS every pupil has a set of ‘End of Year Expectations’ to achieve by the end of this academic year in reading, writing and maths. In your child’s end of year report, you will be given information on whether your child is : Not Yet Meeting ( also known as Emerging) the end of year expectations. Meeting the end of year expectations. Exceeding the end of year expectations. The ultimate aim by the end of Year 6, is for every pupil to be ready for secondary school, by at least achieving the Year 6 expectations. In November and March you will be invited to attend our bi-annual Parents’ Evenings You will be given information about how your child is progressing. This will relate to how they are getting on socially and emotionally as well as in reading, writing and maths. Your child’s teacher should be able to tell you whether your child is ‘on track’ to achieve the end of year expectations or not. Areas to work on should also be given. If your child is not on track to achieve the expected standard, you should be shown a ‘flight path’. This should give information about strategies to be used to help your child. WE NEED YOU TO SUPPORT US!

For Foundation Stage, Years 2 and 6 additional information will also be given. Foundation Stage parents will receive information about how their child has performed at the end of Foundation Stage. (Emerging, Expected and Exceeded). Parents of Year 2 and 6 pupils will receive: a raw score (number of raw marks awarded). a scaled score. confirmation of whether or not they attained the national standard. This will be in reading, maths and SPAG (Spelling, punctuation and grammar). Writing assessment details will provide information about whether children have achieved the national standard or not. NAHT slide shown to clarify scaled score.

Examples of questions from Y2 and Y6 SATS papers.

Future actions There will be Y6 and Y2 evenings about the new style SATS in greater detail. There will be a Y1 phonics information sessions for parents. There will be English and maths parents sessions about the new curriculum expectations. This presentation and leaflet will be placed on the school website for information. We will be asking for your feedback on the new assessment system via our annual parent questionnaire. We will be using this feedback to further improve our assessment system. It is really important that we have your support to help your children so any feedback you have to give is important.

Any questions? Thank you for attending this session. Your continued support is much appreciated.