Life After Levels
Parent Workshop
March 2016
Aims of the evening:
• New National Curriculum- Sept 2015 where are we now?
• Expectations of the new curriculum.
• Progress reports- How they will change this year.
• External tests- How will the Government assess pupils from 2016?
What will be involved in end of key stage assessments and end of year
tests?
• What will our new assessment system looks like?
Why did we need a new National Curriculum?
The short answer- the government decided that we needed one.
Before 1988 there was no National Curriculum.
The new National Curriculum is
about schools developing pupils to
be independent, creative thinkers
with good literacy and numeracy
skills.
Life after levels
• A large part of our curriculum is focussed on developing basic skills:
to be literate, numerate, to tolerate and respect one another, to get on
with each other and develop skills for the future in computing.
• At Marston Vale Middle School we want pupils to have a wide range
of different curriculum experiences, to enjoy learning and ………
Life after levels
• From September 2014 all maintained schools were required to move to a new curriculum
(the National Curriculum 2014 ).
• At the same time the DfE decided that the old National Curriculum levels would be
discontinued with the exception of the current Year 6 who would continue with this until
their SATs tests in July 2015.
• All other year groups are to be assessed in a way that the school deems suitable.
• This must be robust, easy for parents/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
Old National Curriculum
• From 1988 the National Curriculum comprised of a range of knowledge and
skills that were developed throughout each key stage.
• It was then broken down into levels and expectations were set for certain
milestones along this journey.
•
•
•
•
Year 2 expectation = Level 2
Year 6 expectation= Level 4
Year 9 expectation= Level 6
Year 11 expectation= grade C
Most schools adopted an A,B,C approach to
break these levels down into sub levels.
The new NC has changed significantly what pupils need to learn and as
a result has changed how assessment needs to be managed.
What do we want them to learn?
Planning for each pupil to
progress.
Assessment- What do they know
now?
Delivery / Teaching
Changes
• Levels e.g. Level 3, Level 4b etc. no longer exist
• All subject areas have been separated into year groups or in the case
of Key Stage 2, Years 3 & 4 and Years 5 & 6 for reading and writing.
• Each subject has then been sub-divided into specific sections each
with the knowledge that pupils need to have learned during that year.
• It is important to note that these are the minimum requirements for
the pupils and that we will be teaching more content than the areas
that will be assessed.
At Marston Vale Middle School, we have agreed that we will introduce
a system of assessment which will follow the procedure set out below:
Teacher assessments will take place continuously throughout the year
with check-in points half-termly to analyse current progress.
To avoid confusion with old levels we have decided to use the terms
‘age related expectations’ (ARE).
Levels
Age Related
Expectations
(ARE)
Assessing each pupil
These assessments CANNOT be compared to their results (levels) from
the end of last year as the curriculum content is different.
• Age Related Expectations (ARE) have been written in all subjects. ARE
are the core skills that are to be learnt in a subject which means
pupils will be GCSE ready by Year 10.
We have four descriptors:
Developing
Expected
Secure
Mastery
• Developing
Evidence few of
Evidence many
Evidence most of Evidence all, or
• Expected
the ARE being
of the ARE being the ARE being
almost all, of the
demonstrated.
demonstrated.
ARE are being
demonstrated.
• Secure
demonstrated (and
most likely showing
• Mastery
‘glimmers’ of the
next year’s criteria).
For example:
To solve problems involving proportion, using knowledge of
fractions and multiples.
“Has this child demonstrated
they understand how to solve
problems involving
proportion, using knowledge
of fractions and multiples. Are
they developing, expected,
secure or mastery?
This relates to the year
group of the age related
expectation.
5
6
7
8
These numbers fine line the
descriptors into more detail.
3
2
1
3
2
1
3
2
1
3
2
1
This is the grading for
the age related
expectation.
Assessing each pupil – Overall assessment of a subject
Teachers will take an average of all the ARE within that subject and come up with a final grade.
• The assessment will be recorded as follows: e.g.
Section
Grade
Day and night
6D1
Forming new materials
6D1
Gravity
6E2
Planet movement
6E2
Planning
6D1
Recording data
6D1
OVERALL SUBJECT JUDGEMENT
6D1
The new National Curriculum still has all the
subject areas that we had before:
Core Subjects
Foundation Subjects
English
Maths
Science
History
Geography
Design & Technology
Art & Design
Personal, Social, Health & Citizenship Education
Music
ICT- is now computing
Physical Education
Modern Foreign Language- now statutory at KS2
Religious Education
It is important to take levels
out of our minds as the new
curriculum is broken into
‘programmes of study’ for
each year group / phase.
6E1 (66)
6E2 (65)
6E3 (64)
Progress
6D1 (63)
6D2 (62)
6D3 (61)
The expectation
for progress this year is that a pupil will move 12
5M1 (60)
points a year.
5M2 (59)
5M3 (58)
Attainment
5S1 (57)
The expectation
is that a pupil’s attainment will be at age-related i.e.
5S2 (56)
working within
the band of expected for his/her actual year group.
5S3 (55)
5E1 (54)
How does the school set targets?
Year 5 or 6 end of KS2 targets in the core subject area of Reading,
Writing, Mathematics and Science will be set using Fisher Family Trust
(FFT 20) and KS1 data.
Foundation subjects will be set by the teacher, taking into
consideration Fisher Family Trust (FFT 20) Reading, Writing,
Mathematics and Science and KS1 data.
The targets that are set take into account each individual pupil’s
starting point and are designed to ensure that every pupil achieves
expected progress and a very high proportion of children reach or
exceed national expectations.
Targets are not usually changed; however they are reviewed to ensure
they remain challenging.
Assessing each pupil- Tracking Progress and Attainment
• As a school we use a program for tracking our pupil’s progress and
attainment called SIMS.
• The information gathered from SIMS enables the School’s Assessment
Leader to analyse all classes’ recent assessments and consider the
current standards across the whole school.
• This information is then used in Pupil Progress Meetings.
Reporting to parents
At all parents’ evenings parents will continue to receive information from the class teacher about:
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Their child’s current level of attainment.
The progress that has been made since the end of the previous year.
The child’s targets for the forthcoming term
Any support/challenge that the child will be receiving
How parents can support their child at home
Other relevant issues
Their child’s perception of the targets that they have achieved in the term and the next steps they will
be taking
Progress report
Parents will receive a termly report detailing the attainment and progress of their child with other
relevant information.
Any questions?