A New School System
A Guide for Parents and Carers
Provide parents and carers with an overview of;
The requirements of the new National Curriculum.
How the school will be assessing children within the new NationalCurriculum.
The language and terminology being used in relation to theassessment of pupils.
From September 2014
Sets out Programmes of Study in English, Maths and Science
for Year Groups in Key Stage 1
for Years 3 and 4; and Years 5 and 6 in Key Stage 2
Sets out Programmes of Study for other subjects for each Key Stage
Is more challenging and rigorous.
Teachers plan and teach the objectives for their year group.
Those working beyond their Year Group objectives will explore thecurriculum in greater depth.
Teachers will assess children against these Year Group objectives –or Age Related Expectations (ARE).
There is no prescribed style or system for assessment, schools havebeen left to design their own.
Old National Curriculum Levels do not correspond to the ARE andhave no relevance in the new curriculum.
For this academic year only, Year 2 and Year 6 are still beingassessed and taught from the previous National Curriculum inEnglish and mathematics. This will change from September 2015
As part of our reforms to the national curriculum, the currentsystem of levels used to report children’s attainment and progresswill be removed from September 2014. Levels are not beingbanned, but will not be updated to reflect the new nationalcurriculum and will not be used to report the results of nationalcurriculum tests.
Key stage 1 and key stage 2 tests taken in the 2014 to 2015academic year will be against the previous national curriculum,and will continue to use levels for reporting purposes.
Schools will be expected to have in place approaches to formativeassessment that support pupil attainment and progression. Theassessment framework should be built into the school curriculum, sothat schools can check what pupils have learned and whether they areon track to meet expectations at the end of the key stage so that theycan report regularly to parents.
Schools will have the flexibility to use approaches that work for theirpupils and circumstances, without being constrained by a singlenational approach.
Continue to use the Old National Curriculum, levels, and assessmentand report procedures for Year 2 and 6.
Create and implement a new assessment and reporting system forthe new National Curriculum for Years 1,3, 4 and 5.
We need to:
oEnsure that the school’s high standards and expectations continue to be met.
oEnsure accurate and smooth transition from old to new assessment systems– children are placed accurately on the new system.
oKeep parents, Governors and all other stakeholders informed
Give an accurate and reliable judgement of children’s attainment
Shows what children are able to do.
Shows what children need to do to improve.
Enable targets to be set for;
oChildren
oGroups/Classes/Year Groups
oWhole school
Shows the progress individual pupils have made.
Can track pupils and quickly identify those who are causing concern
Speaks to children and parents in a language that is clear andunderstandable.
Can be used by governors to hold Senior Leaders to account and tomonitor the effectiveness of school improvement plans.
Can be used by outside agencies including Ofsted to makejudgements about the effectiveness of the School.
Highlights excellence in both the attainment and progress (forindividuals, groups and whole school) so these can be celebrated.
Against Age Related Expectations
oIn line with the new National Curriculum
Individual children will be either
oEmerging
oDeveloping
oSecure
at their Age Related Expectation
For Example:
A child in Year 3 who has attained all or the vast majority ofthe objectives for their year group will be described as being:
SECURE at Year 3 Expectations
This would be the expectation for the majority of children atthe end of the year.
A child in Year 3 who is not yet able to demonstratethey have attained all objectives for their year groupcould be…
EMERGING at Year 3 Expectations
DEVELOPING at Year 3 Expectations
Over the course of the year we would expect a child to coverall the objectives and go through each of the differentstages from emerging to developing to secure.
Emerging developing secure
Over the course of the year we would expect a child to coverall the objectives and go through each of the differentstages from emerging to developing to secure.
Emerging developing secure
Autumn Spring Summer
In some cases it may be that a child in Year 3 is working on aprevious years set of objectives. This child would then be:
Secure at Year 2 Expectations (or developing at Year 2 or 1)
These children will usually be targeted for early interventionsor more sustained SEN support when they will have anIndividual Education Plan
P Scales remain unchanged for children who are unable toaccess the National curriculum for Years 1 to 6
A child in Year 3 who is exceeding their A.R.E. will be given theopportunity to explore the curriculum in greater depth andbuild on the breadth of their knowledge and skills.
This may involve using and applying the skills they havelearned during the year or exploring the curriculum fromsubsequent Year(s) where appropriate.
Age Related Expectations have been broken down intoindividual statements. For example, here is a selection ofmaths statements…
To count from 0 in multiples of 4, 8, 50 and 100.
To recognise the value of each digit in a 3-digit number.
To understand and can count in tenths, and find the fractionalvalue of a given set.
To add and subtract fractions with a common denominator.
To derive and recall multiplication facts for 3, 4 and 8x tables.
Children will be assessed against each of these and staffwill decide if children are
oEmerging – can complete ‘the statement’ following input and practise.
oDeveloping – can complete the statement independently (with ‘reminding’).
oSecure – use and apply the statement confidently without prompting or‘reminding’.
Staff will take into account the number and significance ofall the judgements and their knowledge of each child toarrive at an overall assessment for the subject.
As well as teacher assessment, using evidence from theirdaily activities and staff knowledge of your child, we will beadministering standardised termly tests.
These termly assessments will give us a standardised scorefor your child (which takes into account their chronologicalage) and will allow us to track small increments of progressand set realistic targets.
These tests will support our overall teacher assessments.
In order to give parents an overview of the objectives whichwill be covered throughout the year we have created ‘AGuide for Parents’.
Please take a booklet for your child’s year group.
These will also be available in school during ParentsEvenings.
