The summer of 2015 saw the end of a 25-year period in primary schools when attainment was assessed and reported in relation to a continuous scale of ‘level descriptions’. Along with levels, the old National Curriculum and its associated assessment and accountability arrangements, are now consigned to history and everyone involved in primary schools – […]
Read moreassessment without levels
The removal of National Curriculum levels provides an opportunity the profession cannot afford to miss. We need to build teachers’ confidence in developing their own approaches to assessment that are focused on the needs of their pupils, tailored to the school’s curriculum and support really effective teaching. While moving away from a system of assessment […]
Read more
Many of the Government’s statements about assessment under the National Curriculum 2014 have stressed that, with the exception of the national, statutory arrangements (e.g. tests and teacher assessment at the end of Key Stages 1 and 2 and the Phonics Screening Check) each school should determine its own assessment policy and practice. Here’s a typical […]
Read moreThe summer of 2015 saw the end of a 25-year period in primary schools when attainment was assessed and reported in relation to a continuous scale of ‘level descriptions’. Along with levels, the old National Curriculum and its associated assessment and accountability arrangements, are now consigned to history and everyone involved in primary schools – […]
Read more
17th September saw the publication of the final assessment information from the DFE. This included the following: The Final Report of the Commission on Assessment without Levels The Government’s Response to the Commission’s Final Report Interim Teacher Assessment Frameworks for end of Key Stage 1 and end of Key Stage 2 In the next two blog posts we will attempt to give you a brief overview of what the information contained and what impact this information will […]
Read more
“Teachers in England have grown used to living in a world of targets. But we need to look at how we got here and what we are now doing – and how the 2014 National Curriculum marks a departure from things we have taken for granted.” In the first of a series of videos available […]
Read more
In May, Year 6 children will be assessed for the first time on the new curriculum in England. To save you time, we have taken a look at the new sample tests and frameworks and given some key pointers below. What’s in the test? The new Key Stage 2 English reading test comprises a reading booklet and a […]
Read more
In May, Year 2 children will be assessed for the first time on the new curriculum in England. To save you time, we have taken a look at the new sample tests and frameworks and given some key pointers below. What’s in the test? The new Key Stage 1 English Reading Test will consist of two papers. Paper […]
Read moreIn May, Year 6 will be tested for the first time on the content of the new curriculum for grammar, punctuation and spelling. We’ve taken a look at the sample tests and test frameworks to see what’s the same, what’s different, and what to watch out for. Paper 1: Grammar and punctuation Like the 2015 paper, children will have […]
Read more
After taking a look at the new performance descriptors for reading and writing, we now turn our attention to mathematics and science. Mathematics At KS1 there are three performance descriptors- ‘working towards the national standard’, ‘working at the national standard’, and ‘working at a greater depth within the national standard’. At KS2, there is just […]
Read more