1. Assessment St Werburgh’s and St Columba’s Catholic Primary School

2. INTRODUCTION  From September 2014 all maintained schools were required to move to a new curriculum (the National Curriculum 2014 – NC2014)  At the same time, the DfE decided that the old National Curriculum levels would be discontinued, with the exception of last years Year 6 and 2 (2014-15) who continued with this until the old curriculum until July 2015  Commencing September 2015 all year groups are to be assessed in a way that the school deems suitable  This must be robust, easy for parent/governors to understand and be able to measure both attainment and progress  The DfE have stated that there is no ‘one-way’ or right way to do this

3.  The new national curriculum, which was introduced in September 2014, sets high expectations for what teachers should teach, and gives them the freedom to decide how to teach. We trust teachers to use their professional judgement in deciding which approaches work best for their pupils. We’re taking the same approach to assessment; we will set high standards for what pupils should be able to achieve at the end of key stages, but between these points it is for schools to decide how to assess pupils against their curriculum Ofsted will continue to examine schools’ assessment of pupil performance. Inspectors will look at how well the school understands each pupil’s progress and needs – and how clearly they communicate that to pupils, parents and Governors. As Sir Michael Wilshaw has said, what matters is that schools can show what their pupils know, understand and can do. He wrote to all schools in July 2014, highlighting changes to inspection following the removal of levels.

4.  New Content – Previously regarded as the province of ‘secondary maths’. This includes long division at year 6, and an increasingly complex understanding of fractions and decimals. Some content has moved ‘down’ by one or two years, meaning children will be expected to master some things earlier than they have before.  Practice is key! The aims state that it is imperative to keep key maths fundamentals, such as times tables and number facts, "on the boil" through varied and repeated practice in order that children can solve progressively complex problems.  There is a renewed emphasis on calculating and problem solving with fractions and decimals and less on data handling (now called statistics). KEY CHANGES TO MATHEMATICS

5. CHANGES TO LITERACY  Phonics fast and first -  Focus on the fundamentals There’s a much deeper focus on learning grammar explicitly. The new curriculum contains a long list of often complex grammatical concepts, punctuation and spelling rules that children will have to identify and label as well as use.  Reading for pleasure -The new curriculum's clearly stated intention that children should read widely and voraciously for pleasure and for meaning.  Recitation and debate -There is more emphasis on structure and convention: the new curriculum seems to go in stronger on children being able to organise their thoughts and ideas for the purposes of debate, discussion, explanation and narration.

6. CHANGES  Levels e.g. Level 3a, Level 4b etc. no longer exist  To avoid confusion with old ‘Levels’ we use the terms Band and Step BAND –are year group corresponding to the level currently being taught to a child. STEP – this will indicate how independent a child is within a specific area, they will move steps across the year as they become more confident and progress

7. ASSESSING EACH CHILD  Since September 2015 we have assessed every child from Year 1 upwards using the new assessment criteria. (Bands and Steps). Year 3 pupils have only started the new curriculum in September 2015 and were assessed in Year 2 on the old curriculum.  These assessments CANNOT be compared to their results (Levels) from the end of last year as the curriculum content is different.  When assessing the level of competency of a child in a specific statement there will be 6 options to choose from, according to the level of competency of that child.  Children MUST achieve the specific element at least 3 times before it can be assessed as consistent.  These will be called STEPS and are sub-divided as follows:

8. Expectations Year 1Band 1 Year 2Band 2 Year 3Band 3 Year 4Band 4 Year 5Band 5 Year 6Band 6 REMEMBER –Children are not all the same and some children may be working in a different band than there year group. A child in Year 3 may still be working within BAND 2 or BAND 1

9. ASSESSING EACH CHILD  These will be called STEPS and are sub-divided as follows: Target tracker bands Beginning step Beginning + step Working step Working + step Secure step Secure + step BeginningWorking withinSecure Pupils learning is chiefly focussed on the criteria of the band. There may be minimal elements of the previous band in which they are still to gain complete confidence. Up to 40% of objectives achieved Pupil learning is fully focussed on the criteria for the band. Up to 70% of the statement s are confidently achieved. 40-70% of objectives achieved. There may be pupil learning still focussed on gaining thorough confidence in some minimal elements but the broad expectations have been met. Secure + indicates that there is confidence in all of the criteria for the band as ‘secure’ with ‘understanding’. 70-100 % of objectives achieved.

10. ASSESSING EACH CHILD – Tracking Progress and Attainment PROGRESS The expectation for progress is that a child will move 5/6 steps over the year. ATTAINMENT  The expectation is that a child’s attainment will be at age-related i.e. working within the Band for his/her actual Year Group 4b4b+4w4w+4s4s+ Start of Year 4 Expected at end of Year 4

11. ASSESSMENT  Teacher Assessments will take place half-termly  Formal tests for Key Stage 2, so that our children remain familiar with the styles of questions that they will have to answer in Year 6 SATs Tests.  All KS2 children will have a target sheet for writing and maths, enabling the children to identify their own progress towards achieving those targets.  These will also be used when teachers undertake Teacher Assessments ensuring consistency across the whole school.  As the new National Curriculum is now year based, it is quite likely that in future children will have different target sheets e.g. a child in Year 3 may be still working at the Year 2 standard in writing whilst another child may be working at a Year 4 standard. The term ‘Band’ eliminates any stigma associated with ‘working below’.

12. ASSESSING EACH CHILD – Tracking Progress and Attainment  As a school, we have used a program for tracking our children’s progress and attainment called Target Tracker.  Given that this is a new system for everyone, there will be some changes made to Target Tracker as it responds to schools’ requests for additional information.  The information gathered from Target Tracker enables the School’s Assessment Leader and the SLT to analyse all classes’ recent assessments and consider the current standards across the whole school.

13. Tracking Progress and Attainment  The class teacher will then complete:  A Gap Analysis of each subject to highlight any areas of strength and any areas of weakness that need addressing.  A Provision Map outlining the intervention and/or challenge activities that are required.  The overall analysis of both progress and attainment of cohorts and groups of children is then fed back to staff and governors so that any necessary changes to the curriculum can be considered and actioned to further improve the quality of learning in our school

14. Changes to SATs In the summer term of 2016, children in Year 2 and Year 6 will be the first to take the new SATs papers.SATs These tests in English and maths will reflect the new national curriculum, and are intended to be more rigorous. There will also be a completely new marking scheme to replace the existing national curriculum levels. Year 6 SATs will not be assessed at a level but a scaled score 100 being the expected.. What level should my child achieve in their SATs? Children are expected to reach the national standard in both Year 2 and Year 6. This is a particular score that reflects where the Department for Education thinks children should be by that stage of their education. The national standard score has not yet been released for 2016, but the government expects 85 per cent of children to reach it. national standard At the end of Year 6, children will sit tests in: Reading Maths Spelling, punctuation and grammar These tests will be both set and marked externally, and the results will be used to measure the school’s performance (for example, through reporting to Ofsted and published league tables). Your child’s marks will be used in conjunction with teacher assessment to give a broader picture of their attainment.

15. Year 6 2016 SATs The reading test will be a single paper with questions based on three passages of text. Children will have one hour, including reading time, to complete the test. The grammar, punctuation and spelling test will consist of two parts: a grammar and punctuation paper requiring short answers, lasting 45 minutes, and an aural spelling test of 20 words, lasting around 15 minutes. Three papers in maths: Paper 1: arithmetic, 30 minutes Papers 2 and 3: reasoning, 40 minutes per paper Paper 1 will consist of fixed response questions, where children have to give the correct answer to calculations, including long multiplication and division. Papers 2 and 3 will involve a number of question types, including: Multiple choice True or false Constrained questions, e.g. giving the answer to a calculation, drawing a shape or completing a table or chart Less constrained questions, where children will have to explain their approach for solving a problem

16. KS1 SATs 2016 Changes to KS1 SATs in 2016: Children starting Year 2 from September 2015 will need to be prepared for the new style KS1 SATs in 2016. In the summer term 2016, children at the end of Key Stage 1 will sit new SATs papers. That means that if your child is in Year 2, they will be among the first pupils to take the new test. At the end of Year 2, children will take SATs in: Reading English grammar, spelling and punctuation Maths These tests will be internally marked and will support teacher assessment.