Assessment Information

EveningMonday 7th December 2015

Objectives• National background on assessment• St Nic’s approach to assessment• Learning conversation• Year 6 SATs and teacher assessment

Background• New national curriculum• Commission on Assessment without Levels• New materials for statutory assessment• A strongly shifting landscape!

Why get rid of levels?• Originally levels were intended to be used to assess pupils

against the whole programme of study, but have come to be used as a measure of overall attainment

• “Progress became synonymous with moving on to the next level.”

• Progress should be about developing deeper or wider understanding, not just moving on to work of greater difficult.

• Levels were a ‘best fit’ model, which meant that children could have serious gaps in their knowledge and understanding, but still be placed within a level.

• Levels were open to interpretation and different teachers could make different judgements: unreliable and unhelpful

Why get rid of levels?• Levels dominated lesson planning: encouraged teachers to

design and use only classroom assessments that would report a level outcome

• Levels became the main focus of conversations with pupils and their parents

• Pupils compared themselves to others and often labelled themselves according to the level they were at.

Why get rid of levels?• Assessment can be based on more secure, deeper learning• Schools can develop their own approaches to assessment that

focus on teaching and learning• Teachers can give more focus to providing pupils with

feedback which clarifies those areas where there are gaps• It can help to improve pupils’ mind-sets about their own

ability

What are the Principles of our Assessment?

• Why are pupils being assessed?• What things is the assessment intended to measure?• What do we want the assessment to achieve?• How will we use the assessment information?

• Three types of assessment:o Day to day formative assessmento In school summative assessmento Nationally standardised summative assessment

How are we achieving this?• Reading: • Formative assessment:

o Guided reading target cardso Notes in reading recordso Questioning during guided reading/other sessionso Journal marking• Summative Assessment:

• Half termly tests which provide information on progress and which can be used to identify key areas for development

• End of year reports

How are we achieving this?• Writing:• Formative Assessment:

o Questioningo Marking and purple pen development feedbacko Oral feedback/peer marking/self editingo Targets in bookso Weekly spellingso Grammar hammer checks

• Summative Assessment:o Half termly independent writing assessment, assessed against individual statements;

targets created from this.o Half termly grammar, punctuation and spelling tests: diagnostic

How are we achieving this?• Maths• Formative Assessment:

o Questioningo Marking and feedback, including purple peno Oral feedbacko LSAs supporting with misconceptions

• Summative Assessment:o Weekly skills checks, showing improvement/developmento Half termly tests of whole curriculum, which provide diagnostic areas for targeting

Learning Conversations• Individual targeting• Getting to know children better• Discussion of academic achievement• Discussion of behaviour for learning aspects• Targets set for Reading, Writing and Maths• Documented in files for parents to see

Good Practice Example“The Commission has seen good practice in a primary school that is developing an assessment system that uses short tests in key subjects. For example, comprehension questions in literacy, spelling and times tables tests and end-of-unit tests in maths. The marks, which will be used in place of levels, will be recorded by teachers in mark books (or spreadsheets); but not entered on a central data management system. The results will be used diagnostically as a starting point for discussions with parents, as well as in discussions with the leadership team to identify pupils who may need further support.

For pupils who may need further intervention, teachers will also complete an assessment form for review meetings to consider what additional support or intervention might be appropriate. Intervention will be woven into the system to ensure those who are falling behind receive targeted support in reading and number. It may include, for example short daily one-to-one keep up sessions.”

Good Practice Example“Learning Review meetings are held between pupils, parents and teachers on a termly basis, in which pupils are given the opportunity to assess their own learning, provide exemplar work and discuss their progress. Pupils are helped to develop a good understanding of their goals and next steps. They are also encouraged to identify their own strengths and challenges and discuss these with their teachers as part of the yearly reporting process.”

What about SEN Pupils?• “Assessment arrangements should build in the ‘graduated

approach’ for pupils with SEN (Assess, Plan, Do, Review)”• “Assessment should be designed to offer the next steps on each

child’s learning pathway and ensure a focus on long term outcomes.”

• “High expectations should apply equally to pupils with SEN as to all other pupils. For many pupils with SEN effort applied to learning is significant and assessment should recognise this alongside outcomes achieved whilst maintaining high aspirations and expectations. For pupils working below national expected levels of attainment assessment arrangements must consider progress relative to starting points and take this into account, alongside the nature of pupils’ learning difficulties.”

Year 2• All children will take tests in Year 2: Reading, Grammar,

punctuation and spelling and Maths.• 2 reading papers• Calculation and reasoning paper in maths

• Year 2 teachers will use test results and children’s work to make a teacher assessment for each child for reading, writing, maths and science

• Teacher assessment will either be that child is below, working towards expected standards, meeting expecting standards or working at greater depth within expected standards.

Year 6• Reading: Test (similar to previous years but based on new

curriculum)• Reading: Teacher assessment: working at the expected

standard• Maths: Test: 1 calculation test (30 mins for 36 questions); 2

reasoning tests (45 mins each)• Maths: Teacher assessment: working at the expected

standard• Science: Teacher assessment: working at the expected

standard• Science: some schools chosen for science sampling tests

Writing• 2 Key aspects to writing:

o Grammar, punctuation and spelling test: significant increase in difficultyo Teacher assessment:

• 3 teacher assessment standards• Teachers need to have evidence that a pupil demonstrates attainment of all of the

statements within that standard and all in the preceding standardso Working towards the expected standardo Working at the expected standardo Working at greater depth within the expected standard

What information will be given to parents?

• This is not yet certain, but we believe that what we will provide to parents will be:

• a raw score (the number of marks awarded)• a scaled score• and confirmation of whether or not they attained the

expected standard

• Information on each of the teacher assessment areas about whether the expected standard has been met

Which children will sit tests?• The tests are designed to be used with all pupils who are

working at the standard of the national curriculum. There will be some pupils who will be working below the ‘expected standard’ of the test, who will not achieve a scaled score of 100, but who should still take the tests. Teachers should use their knowledge of each pupil to decide whether to administer the tests to them.

Will there still be access arrangements?Schools are responsible for making arrangements to determine whether a pupil is working at the standard of the tests but is unable to access them. Access arrangements are adjustments that schools must consider before the tests. They should be based primarily on normal classroom practice for pupils with particular needs. Access arrangements must never provide an unfair advantage. The support given must not change the test questions and the answers must be the pupil’s own.Access arrangements may be appropriate for pupils:• with a statement of SEN or an Education Health and Care Plan as described in the SEN Code

of Practice at www.gov.uk/government/publications/special-educational-needssen-code-of-practice or a local equivalent

• for whom provision is being made in school using the SEN Support system and whose learning difficulty or disability significantly affects their ability to access the tests

• who requires alternative access arrangements because of a disability (which may or may not give rise to a special educational need)

• who is unable to sit and work for a long period because of a disability or because of social, emotional or mental health difficulties

• with EAL and who has limited fluency in English

Schools must make sure they have documentation to show that a pupil is eligible for access arrangements. This must include evidence that resources are routinely committed to providing this support in the classroom. Schools must be able to show the documentation if they have a monitoring visit. If schools use access arrangements for a pupil inappropriately, the pupil’s results may be annulled.

Access Arrangements• Reader• Scribe• Extra time• Breaks

How can parents help to prepare children?

• School homework: o Daily readingo Weekly English and Maths homeworko Weekly spellings homeworko Journal homework

• Practice tests are available from bookshops: remember to look for new curriculum

• Please do not use the sample tests which are online, as we will be using these as part of our mock tests