Life after levels

A new National Curriculum was introduced from September 2014 for Years 1, 3, 4 and 6.  From September 2015, children in all year groups will be assessed against the new National Curriculum.

The previous system of assessment levels has been removed and not replaced by the Government.  The Government have left it up to schools to design their own assessment framework. Waddington Redwood Primary School is using a system based on the ‘STAT Sheffield’ assessment approach.
This year, children in year groups 1 to 6 will be assessed using steps which describe their attainment against the National Curriculum statements for each year group. At the end of the year, they will be assessed against a scale as follows: 

Assessment at Waddington Redwood Primary School

• Teachers at Waddington Redwood assess children all the time, constantly considering how well they have understood their learning and what the next steps are.
• Teachers record this information onto electronic assessment grids for reading, writing, maths and GPAS (grammar, punctuation and spelling).
• Teachers talk to children about their next steps (in an age appropriate way) so that they know the things they need to do to get better. 
• All children have targets for improvement in maths and English.  These targets are on cards so that they can be used in other subjects. 
• Teachers will only teach the national curriculum objectives for the child’s year group.  However, teachers may use objectives from previous years to ensure that knowledge and understanding is secure.
• Teachers gather evidence to support their judgements and this informs them about the breadth and depth of knowledge that a child displays.
• Children’s attainment and progress will be shared with parents and carers at parents’ evenings in the autumn and spring terms, and with a written report in the summer term.
• If you have any further questions, then please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher.

Early Years Foundation Stage

Assessment in Foundation Stage has not changed.

Key Stage 1 Year 1

The phonics screening check will continue for all children in year one and children in year two who did not pass the check in the previous year.

Key Stage 1 – End of Year 2 tests

Teacher assessment in mathematics and reading will be informed by externally set tests, which are internally marked. There will also be an externally set test in grammar, punctuation and spelling which will help to inform the teacher assessment of writing. The tests will be updated to reflect the new national curriculum and results will be expressed as a scaled score.

Key Stage 2 – End of Year 6 tests

National tests will continue at the end of key stage 2 in: mathematics; reading; grammar, punctuation and spelling; and a teacher assessment of writing, and science.  The results of the tests in reading, mathematics and grammar, punctuation and spelling will be reported to pupils and parents as scaled scores.  Writing will continue to be assessed internally against the performance descriptors.