1. Assessing without levels Tuesday 23 rd February

2. Why?  To help primary schools as they move away from the ‘vague and imprecise’ system of levels for assessment - School Reform Minister Nick Gibb (25 February 2015).  Assessment using levels - where pupils are grouped into broad bands from 1 to 8 - was misleading to parents and failed to ensure children acquired a good grasp of the basics.  The government wants to reduce central prescription and believes teachers should have the freedom to develop formative assessment systems that best fit the needs of their pupils. This approach will bring England in line with the top-performing countries and regions in the world, including Singapore and Hong Kong.

3. Why?  The government is keen that all these pupils have an opportunity to demonstrate what they have achieved at school and that their parents receive meaningful information about how well their children are doing compared to their peers and how much progress they are making over time. It is also important that schools are held to account for ensuring these pupils make progress so that schools receive credit for the good work they do and support can be put in place where improvement is required.

4. What does this mean at Stewart Fleming?  We continue our ongoing formative assessment which informs teaching and learning  We will continue to complete new summative assessments (Rising Stars) to evaluate learning  We will continue to look at data for individual pupils and groups each half term  We will continue to hold three parents evenings per academic year  We will continue to have an open door policy

5. What will change?  How we report to you  Assessments completed at the end of key stage

6. End of Key Stage Assessments  The new national curriculum tests assess the range of ability that the majority of pupils at the end of key stages 1 and 2 are expected to demonstrate. The easiest questions in the tests remain the same standard of difficulty as the easiest questions in the old national curriculum tests. There are, however, some harder questions at the end of the tests to challenge more able pupils and replace the previous level 6 tests.  The outcomes of the new tests will be provided in the form of scaled scores, where a score of 100 represents the standard expected at the end of each key stage.

7. Key Stage One assessments The new tests consist of:  English reading Paper 1: combined reading prompt and answer booklet  English reading Paper 2: reading booklet and reading answer booklet  English grammar, punctuation and spelling Paper 1: spelling  English grammar, punctuation and spelling Paper 2: questions  Mathematics Paper 1: arithmetic  Mathematics Paper 2: reasoning

8. Standards at the end of Key Stage One Interim Pre-KS1 standards for English reading, English writing and mathematics  Working at greater depth at the expected standard  Working at the expected standard  Working towards the expected standard  Foundations for the expected standard

9. Key Stage Two assessments  The KS2 tests consist of:  English reading: reading booklet and associated answer booklet  English grammar, punctuation and spelling Paper 1: short answer questions  English grammar, punctuation and spelling Paper 2: spelling  Mathematics Paper 1: arithmetic  Mathematics Paper 2: reasoning  Mathematics Paper 3: reasoning

10. Standards at the end of Key Stage Two Interim Pre-KS2 standards English reading, writing and mathematics  Working at greater depth at the expected standard (writing only)  Working at the expected standard  Working towards the expected standard (writing only)  Growing development of the expected standard  Early development of the expected standard  Foundations for the expected standard