Assessment in the New National Curriculum – ‘Life After Levels’

Information for Parents & Carers

‘Life After Levels’Information for Parents & Carers

Key Questions

Why has this change happened?How have schools responding to the changes?What has replaced levels?How will teachers decide how my child is doing? What information will I receive about how my child

is doing and how can I help at home?What are the important things to remember?

Why has this change happened?

“… the current system of national curriculum levels and level descriptions will be removed and not replaced.”

Department for Education (July 2013)

o There has been a new National Curriculum from September 2014.

o The existing levels don’t work as a way of assessing children’s attainment against the new curriculum as the new curriculum is more challenging.

o The Government has not replaced levels and have left it up to schools to design their own assessment framework.

“Schools need to be conscious that the new curriculum is not in alignment with the old national curriculum levels.”

NAHT Commission on Assessment (February 2014)

How are schools responding to the changes?

oDerbyshire County Council provided very little support to schools on this subject.

oIn the meantime The Sheffield Assessment Project was developed. This was a partnership involving over 50 Sheffield schools, the Local Authority and other organisations.

o It sought to develop an assessment solution, initially for Sheffield, so that schools could continue to work in partnership with each other, having a common approach to assessment and being able to support & moderate with one another.

o The materials the project produced were shared with various national organisations to quality assure them. When the NAHT (National Association of Head Teachers) produced assessment criteria they were designed to work with the STAT materials.

o By September 2014 this approach was being used by hundreds of schools across the country. The materials will continue to be developed using the feedback from all of the schools and organisations that use the materials.

What will replace the levels?

o Attainment Steps will be used to describe children’s attainment in maths, reading, writing and GAPS (grammar, punctuation & spelling). o The steps are organised in the same way that the new curriculum is, so that they provide expectations for each stage of attainment (e.g. a typical Y3 would be at step 24 by the end of the year).o Just as before each class will have children at lots of different steps (e.g. Y4 children will not all be at a Y4 stage of attainment between steps 25-27).o The new curriculum is more challenging so children are likely to have started lower down the scale.

Step Appropriate Curriculum

1-15 Pre-Y1 attainment stages

16Curriculum

Year 1

Entering

17 Developing

18 Secure

19Curriculum

Year 2

Entering

20 Developing

21 Secure

22Curriculum

Year 3

Entering

23 Developing

24 Secure

25Curriculum

Year 4

Entering

26 Developing

27 Secure

28Curriculum

Year 5

Entering

29 Developing

30 Secure

31Curriculum

Year 6

Entering

32 Developing

33 Secure

34 + Post-Y6 attainment stages

oTeachers will use a grid, like this one, as a tool to support them in making the decision about which step a child is on.o The grids do this by identifying the proportion of the appropriate curriculum that a child has mastered.

How will teachers decide how my child is doing?

What information will I receive about how my child is doing?

Step Curriculum Source

1-15 Pre-Y1 attainment stages

16Curriculum

Year 1

Entering

17 Developing

18 Secure

19Curriculum

Year 2

Entering

20 Developing

21 Secure

22Curriculum

Year 3

Entering

23 Developing

24 Secure

25Curriculum

Year 4

Entering

26 Developing

27 Secure

28Curriculum

Year 5

Entering

29 Developing

30 Secure

31Curriculum

Year 6

Entering

32 Developing

33 Secure

34 + Post-Y6 attainment stages

o We will tell parents and carers about children’s attainment as we do now, through meetings and reports, etc. This will now just involve steps not levels.

How can I help at home?

• The grids cannot go on the website or be reproduced as they are protected by copyright.

• So, target sheets have been developed to support children’s learning in school and also provide parents with support in how they can help at home by providing, in child-friendly language, the expectations of the objectives that should be learned by the end of the year.

See also the Information Booklet

o The new curriculum is more challenging so it may be that children are not yet at the stage that corresponds with their chronological age.o It will take time for teacher assessments to be as accurate as they were before, whilst teachers become familiar with the criteria and more materials are developed to help them make consistent judgements.

What are the important things to remember?