In 2014, a new National Curriculum was published by the government and schools have worked to implement the fundamental aims set by the National Curriculum in raising standards. Expectations of what children should achieve year on year are now much higher than they were before.
The DFE has published a set of core assessment principles for tracking pupil progress against the National Curriculum. The document reminds schools that there will be no national system for doing this, but that schools will be expected to demonstrate (with evidence) their assessment of pupils’ progress so that they can keep parents informed, enable governors to make judgments about the school’s effectiveness and to inform inspections by Ofsted. The document states that ‘effective assessment systems’ should:
1. Give reliable information to parents about how their child, and their child’s school, is performing
2. Help drive improvement for pupils and teachers, and
3. Make sure the school is keeping up with external best practice and innovation.
At Wormholt Park, we have developed a system that builds on best practice nationally. Using a combination of exemplars, portfolios, pupil interviews and regular observations, our teachers carefully assess the needs of each child on a continuous basis.
The school curriculum, and expectations set in teaching and learning are focussed around Age-Related Expectations (ARE). These are the skills, knowledge and understanding children are expected to have at the end of each year group. They assess how children demonstrate, contextualise, and link these skills and understanding.
In years 1-6 assessments focus on the attainment of children against ARE. By the end of each academic year children will be assessed as ‘working towards’ or ‘expected’ for their year group. Children working above ARE are ‘greater depth’.
Ongoing assessments throughout the year track individual children’s attainment in relation to the ARE for their year group and to plan the next steps in their learning.
ARE follow on from assessment in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) where children’s attainment is described in relation to the 17 early learning goals (ELGs).
Children with SEND: Through school interventions, SEND children should be enabled to meet their personalised objectives and targets.
Phonics Screening: In Year 1, all children undergo ‘Phonics Screening’ to check that their phonics knowledge and skill is at, or above, a nationally expected standard. The outcomes of this screening are communicated with parents of children in Year 1. If a child fails to meet the nationally expected phonics standard, they undergo the screening again in Year 2 where there is an expectation that children will meet the standard.
MTC: In Y4, all children are undergo multiplication checks (MTC). The national curriculum specifies that pupils should be taught to recall the multiplication tables up to and including 12 × 12 by the end of year 4. The purpose of the MTC is to determine whether pupils can recall their times tables fluently, which is essential for future success in mathematics. It will help schools to identify pupils who have not yet mastered their times tables, so that additional support can be provided.
Key Stage 2 SATs: In Year 6, children will be tested in Reading, Mathematics and Spelling Grammar and Punctuation (SPAG). Writing is teacher assessed and teachers have to submit that children are either working at the ARE in Writing, or that they are working above or below ARE. This also applies for Science. End of Year 6 testing takes place for all children nationally in a set week in May. End of key stage 2 outcomes are published using Scaled Scores. Scaled scores involve a national standard of 100. A child’s raw test score is converted into a scaled score and a child who achieves a scaled score of 100 will have met the expected national standard. Parents will be informed of their child’s results at the end of the year.
School performance will be based on the percentage of children reaching the nationally expected standards, and the progress made from their starting points, as well as the average scaled score.