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.

What do we want them to learn?Planning for each pupil to

progress.

Delivery / TeachingAssessment- What do they know

now?

The new NC has changed significantly what pupils need to learn and as a result has changed how assessment needs to be managed.

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 Expected Secure Mastery

Evidence few of the ARE being demonstrated.

Evidence many of the ARE being demonstrated.

Evidence most of the ARE being demonstrated.

Evidence all, or almost all, of the ARE are being demonstrated (and most likely showing ‘glimmers’ of the next year’s criteria).

For example:

“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?

To solve problems involving proportion, using knowledge of fractions and multiples.

56

7

8

123

1

32

321

321

This relates to the year

group of the age related

expectation.

This is the grading for

the age related

expectation.

These numbers fine line the

descriptors into more detail.

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 MathsScience

History GeographyDesign & Technology Art & Design Personal, Social, Health & Citizenship EducationMusicICT- is now computingPhysical EducationModern Foreign Language- now statutory at KS2Religious 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.

Progress

The expectation for progress this year is that a pupil will move 12 points a year.

Attainment

The expectation is that a pupil’s attainment will be at age-related i.e. working within the band of expected for his/her actual year group.

6E1 (66)6E2 (65)6E3 (64)6D1 (63)6D2 (62)6D3 (61)5M1 (60)5M2 (59)5M3 (58)5S1 (57)5S2 (56)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:

• 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?