January 2016 briefing paper – Statutory Assessment
EYFS
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Moderation arrangements will stay the same this year. A minimum of 25% of schools and settings
will be visited; all others are required to attend a training and moderation session.
There are plans to joint moderate schools within academy chains where ever possible this year.
Practitioners should complete the EYFS profile by 1st July for each pupil who will be 5 years old on
or before 31st August 2016 – the expectation is that pupils will move with their peers so they will
only be assessed once. In exceptional circumstances, after discussion and in agreement with
parents, a pupil might remain in EYFS provision beyond the end of the academic year in which
they reach they age of 5. This should be discussed with the LA EYFS profile moderation manager
who is Karen Musgrove.
Schools will need to submit their EYFS profile data to the LA by Monday 20th June.
Quality assurance of EYFS data with lead moderators will be on Wednesday 6th July in
Wellingtonia 2.
Headteachers are responsible for the reliability of their EYFS profile outcomes. They must use
quality assurance processes to ensure that the data accurately reflects the attainment of the
current cohort of pupils. They must arrange for practitioners who are involved in completing the
EYFS profiles to take part in LA moderation activities at least once a year.
Phonic screening check
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Phonic screening checks should be carried out during the week beginning 13th June.
Data should be submitted to the LA by Friday 24th June.
As in previous years schools will be asked to notify the LA of when they are undertaking the check
so that spot check visits can be scheduled. 10% of schools will be visited as part of this process.
Materials will be sent to schools based on the year 1 autumn census data. Headteachers must
keep their check materials secure and treat them as confidential from the point the school receives
them until 24th June. A breach of the security of the check materials could lead to a
maladministration investigation at the school.
Phonic screening check threshold will be published on Monday 27th June on GOV.UK.
Key Stage 1
New tests this year consisting of:
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English reading Paper 1: combined reading prompt and answer booklet
English reading Paper 2: reading booklet and reading answer booklet
English grammar, punctuation and spelling Paper 1: spelling
English grammar, punctuation and spelling Paper 2: questions
mathematics Paper 1: arithmetic
mathematics Paper 2: reasoning
There won’t be any test based assessment of writing as part of the KS1 tests as this will be done through
teacher assessment
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Schools do not need to place a test order for standard versions of the tests as these will be sent to
schools based on their autumn census.
A full set of sample tests and materials has been published to help teachers prepare for the tests.
Schools must administer the tests during May 2016. Some schools will be asked to administer the
tests in April to inform the standard setting for the tests. These schools should not do all the other
tests in May. Participation is statutory if a school is selected to administer one of the tests in April.
KS1 English reading test
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The new reading test has a greater emphasis on the comprehension elements of the new
curriculum. There are 2 reading papers, one with the texts and questions combined and one with
more challenging texts with the questions in a separate booklet. Both papers must be administered
to all pupils.
Each paper will have a selection of unrelated texts of increasing difficulty. There will be a mixture
of text genres.
Paper 1 consists of a combined reading prompt and answer booklet. It is expected that the test will
take approximately 30 minutes to complete but it is not strictly timed. The paper includes a list of
useful words and some practice questions for teachers to use to introduce the contexts and
question types to pupils.
Paper 2 consists of a reading answer booklet and a separate reading booklet. It is expected that
the test will take approximately 40 minutes to complete but it is not strictly timed. There are no
practice questions on this paper.
KS1 English grammar, punctuation and spelling test
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The new grammar, punctuation and spelling test has an emphasis on technical aspects of
grammar. There are 2 papers, Paper 1: spelling and Paper 2: questions. The written task has been
removed and writing will instead be assessed through teacher assessment.
Paper 1: spelling consists of an answer booklet for pupils to complete and a test transcript to be
read by the test administrator. Pupils will have approximately 15 minutes to complete the test but it
is not strictly timed, writing the 20 missing words in the answer booklet.
Paper 2: questions consist of a single test paper focusing on pupils’ knowledge of grammar,
punctuation and vocabulary. Pupils will have approximately 20 minutes to complete the questions
in the test paper but it is not strictly timed. There will be no contextualised questions in the test (as
there were in the initial sample questions).
KS1 mathematics test
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In mathematics at KS1, an arithmetic test has been introduced. There are two papers, Paper 1:
arithmetic and Paper 2: reasoning.
Paper 1: arithmetic assesses pupils’ confidence and mathematical fluency with whole numbers,
place-value and counting. The test consists of a single test paper. It is expected that the test will
take approximately 20 minutes to complete but it is not strictly timed.
Some items in the arithmetic test have grids in the answer spaces or working out spaces. The
grids are there for questions where the pupils may benefit from using more formal methods for
calculations.
Paper 2: reasoning assesses pupils’ mathematical fluency, problem solving and reasoning skills.
This test consists of a single test paper. It is expected that the reasoning paper will take
approximately 35 minutes to complete but it is not strictly timed. The paper includes a practice
question and 5 aural questions. After the aural questions, the time for the remainder of the paper
should be approximately 30 minutes.
Particpating pupils
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Headteacher can make final decisions about participation in the tests. ARA gives clear guidance
on pupils that must take the tests and pupils that shouldn’t take the tests.
If a headteacher decides a pupil shouldn’t take on or more of the tests they should explain this
decision to the parents. They should also write a report and sent a copy of the report to the pupil’s
parents, chair of the governing body and the LA.
Teacher assessment
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The statutory Interim Teacher Assessment Framework for key stage 1 is to be used only to make a
teacher assessment judgement at the end of the key stage following the completion of the key
stage 1 curriculum. It is not intended to be used to track progress throughout the key stage.
Each of the three standards (for reading, writing and mathematics) within the interim framework
contains a number of ‘pupil can’ statements. To demonstrate that pupils have met a standard
within this interim framework, teachers will need to have evidence that a pupil demonstrates
attainment of all of the statements within that standard and all the statements in the preceding
standard(s).
The most significant change is that the performance descriptors are not to be used in a best fit
way.
The standards for reading, writing and mathematics is broken down into working towards the
expected standard, working at the expected standard, working at greater depth within the expected
standard. Pupils will be grouped into 4 categories for accountability; the 3 categories above plus an
additional category for those pupils that do not meet the ‘working towards’ standard.
KS1 Teacher assessment moderation: school requirements
Guidance was published in December 2015 and gives the essential requirement for schools for KS1
moderation and is broken down into different sections:
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School requirements for teacher assessment
o The headteacher is responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the teacher assessment (TA)
judgements in their school
o Schools must have a clear internal moderation process
Suitable evidence for moderation
o LA external moderators must be satisfied as to the independent status of the evidence. The
school must ensure that the evidence clearly identifies the amount of support a pupil has
received.
School responsibilities during the external moderation visit
Data submission
o Key Stage 1 data submission deadline is Monday 13th June 2016 to the Local Authority
o The headteacher must ensure that all submitted TA data is accurate and submitted as per
the national deadline so that external moderation can take place. If a school cannot meet
this deadline they must have discussed this with the LA and or STA. Failure to do so could
result in the matter being reported to the STA maladministration team.
o The headteacher must be fully aware of the statutory requirements regarding the process
of submission of KS1 TA data and the legal requirement for the accuracy of submitted pupil
data
o The school must not re-submit TA data after the deadline without authorisation from STA or
the LA
Appeals
KS1 Teacher assessment moderation: local authority requirements
Guidance was published in December 2015 and gives the essential requirement for LAs for KS1
moderation and is broken down into different sections:
 Moderation plan
 Recruitment and quality assurance of the LA external moderation team
 Moderation visits
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LAs must moderate 25% of schools. STA will select a number of schools for moderation
which must be included in the LA moderation arrangements.
o Details of schools to be moderated that have been selected by STA will be sent in the final
week of the spring term
o LAs must also include schools for moderation based on their own local intelligence to
ensure that they externally moderate 25% of their schools
o Schools must not be notified that they will receive a moderation visit until after the key
stage 1 data submission deadline has passed
Preparing for moderation visits
Selecting the sample of pupils for moderation
o LAs must notify schools of the chosen pupils on the day of the visit or at the earliest the day
before
o The exact number of pupils discussed will vary, depending on the school’s size and
circumstance.
o The LA external moderator must select a minimum sample of 10% across the cohort, or in
the case of single class schools 3 pupils, across the full range of attainment. Different
pupils must be selected for each subject.
Suitable evidence for moderation
o LA external moderators must be satisfied as to the independent status of the evidence
Validating teacher assessment judgements
o There is no expectation that school staff will need to be released for the visit. However the
moderator may wish to speak to the school staff regarding any aspect of the evidence
presented. The focus of the visit is primarily to scrutinise and validate the evidence
presented.
o The moderator must scrutinise the evidence for each pupil against each of the pupil can
statements
o If the moderator is unable to validate judgements due to a systematic lack of evidence, they
must refer the school to the STA maladministration team
Agreed sign off of the external moderation visit
Data submission
o LAs are required to have a process to analyse submitted TA data to check that it matches
external moderation decisions and that all schools have submitted accurate TA data by the
national TA submission date
o LAs must have a defined data validation process utilising local intelligence to investigate
any unexpected pattern of attainment for any school
Appeals
Key Stage 2
New tests this year consisting of:
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English reading: reading booklet and associated answer booklet
English grammar, punctuation and spelling Paper 1: short answer questions
English grammar, punctuation and spelling Paper 2: spelling
mathematics Paper 1: arithmetic
mathematics Paper 2: reasoning
mathematics Paper 3: reasoning
There won’t be any test based assessment of writing as part of the KS2 tests as this will be done through
teacher assessment.
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Test materials will be sent to schools based on the autumn census data and pupil registration.
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There will only be 1 set of tests for each subject. The tests will include a small number of questions
designed to assess the most able pupils so separate tests, such as the previous level 6 tests, are
no longer required.
A full set of sample tests and materials has been published to help teachers prepare for the 2016
KS2 national curriculum tests.
Tests should be administered during the week commencing 9th May in accordance with the
timetable published in the Assessment and Reporting Arrangements. 10% of schools will be spot
checked as part of the LA monitoring process.
KS2 national curriculum test outcomes will be reported using scaled scores. For the KS2 tests a
scaled score of 100 will always represent the ‘expected standard’. A pupil’s scaled score will be
based on their raw score. The raw score is the total number of marks a pupil receives in a test. The
pupil’s raw score will be translated into a scaled score using a conversion table.
For the 2016 KS2 tests STA will publish test results on the NCA tools website on 5 July 2016.
Each pupil registered for the tests will receive a raw score (the number of raw marks awarded), a
scaled score and confirmation of whether or not they attained the expected standard
Conversion tables for the 2016 tests will also be published on GOV.UK on 5th July so schools can
understand how pupils’ scaled scores are derived from their raw scores.
KS2 English reading test
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The English reading test will have a greater focus on fictional texts. There is also a greater
emphasis on the comprehension elements of the new curriculum.
The test consists of a reading booklet and a separate answer booklet.
Pupils will have a total of 1 hour to read the 3 texts in the reading booklet and complete the
questions at their own pace. There will be a mixture of genres of text. The least-demanding text will
come first with the following texts increasing in level of difficulty.
Pupils can approach the test as they choose: eg working through one text and answering the
questions before moving on to the next. The questions are worth a total of 50 marks.
KS2 English grammar, punctuation and spelling test
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The new grammar, punctuation and spelling test has a greater focus on knowing and applying
grammatical terminology with the full range of punctuation tested.
The new national curriculum sets out clearly which technical terms in grammar are to be learnt by
pupils and these are explicitly included in the test and detailed in the new test framework. It also
defines precise spelling patterns and methodologies to be taught, and these are the basis of
spellings in the test. There will be no contextual items in the test.
As in previous years, there are two papers, Paper 1: questions and Paper 2: spelling.
Paper 1: questions consist of a single test paper. Pupils will have 45 minutes to complete the test,
answering the questions in the test paper. The questions are worth 50 marks in total.
Paper 2: spelling consists of an answer booklet for pupils to complete and a test transcript to be
read by the test administrator. Pupils will have approximately 15 minutes to complete the test, but it
is not strictly timed, by writing the 20 missing words in the answer booklet. The questions are worth
20 marks in total.
KS2 mathematics test
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There are 3 papers; Paper 1: arithmetic; Paper 2: reasoning; and Paper 3: reasoning.
Paper 1: arithmetic replaces the mental mathematics test. The arithmetic test assesses basic
mathematical calculations.
The test consists of a single test paper. Pupils will have 30 minutes to complete the test, answering
the questions in the test paper. The paper consists of 36 questions which are worth a total of 40
marks.
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The questions will cover straightforward addition and subtraction and more complex calculations
with fractions worth 1 mark each, and long divisions and long multiplications worth 2 marks each.
Papers 2 and 3 each consist of a single test paper. Pupils will have 40 minutes to complete each
test, answering the questions in the test paper. Each paper will have questions worth a total of 35
marks.
In some answer spaces, where pupils need to show their method, square grids are provided for the
questions on the arithmetic paper and some of the questions on Paper 2.
Participating pupils
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The tests are designed to be used with all pupils who are working at the standard of the national
curriculum. There will be some pupils who will be working below the ‘expected standard’ of the
test, who will not achieve a scaled score of 100, but who should still take the tests. Teachers
should use their knowledge of each pupil to decide whether to administer the tests to them. They
may use the sample materials to inform these decisions.
Some parents may ask a headteacher not to enter their child for the tests. Parents may also ask a
headteacher to enter their child for a test when the school has decided this is not appropriate. In all
instances the headteacher’s decision regarding participation is final. Headteachers should explain
the school’s decision to parents.
Headteachers don’t need permission when making decisions about pupil participation in the tests.
As for KS1 the guidance is the same and a report must go to the pupil’s parents, chair of governors
and the LA.
Headteachers must ensure all pupils are registered for the tests on the ‘Pupil registration’ section
of NCA tools at https://ncatools.education.gov.uk by Friday 18 March and that each pupil’s details
are complete and accurate and register pupils for the tests if they arrive after Friday 18 March
Teacher assessment
 The statutory Interim Teacher Assessment Framework for key stage 2 is to be used only to make a
teacher assessment judgement at the end of the key stage following the completion of the key
stage 2 curriculum. It is not intended to be used to track progress throughout the key stage.
 The standards for writing have been broken down into working towards the expected standard,
working at the expected standard and working at greater depth within the expected standard.
Pupils will be grouped into 4 categories for accountability; the 3 categories above plus an
additional category for those pupils that do not meet the ‘working towards’ standard.
 The standard for reading, mathematics and science are only ‘working at the expected standard’.
Pupils will be grouped into 2 categories for accountability; the category above plus an additional
category for those pupils that do not meet the ‘working towards’ standard.
KS2 Teacher assessment moderation: school requirements
Guidance was published in December 2015 and gives the essential requirement for schools for KS2
moderation and is broken down into different sections:
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School requirements for teacher assessment
Suitable evidence for moderation
o LA external moderators must be satisfied as to the independent status of the evidence. The
school must ensure that the evidence clearly identifies the amount of support a pupil has
received.
School responsibilities during the external moderation visit
Data submission
o Key Stage 2 data submission deadline is Friday 27th May 2016 via NCA tools
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The headteacher must ensure that all submitted TA data is accurate and submitted as per
the national deadline so that external moderation can take place. If a school cannot meet
this deadline they must have discussed this with the LA and or STA. Failure to do so could
result in the matter being reported to the STA maladministration team.
o The school must not re-submit TA data after the deadline without authorisation from STA or
the LA
Appeals
KS2 Teacher assessment moderation: local authority requirements
Guidance was published in December 2015 gives the essential requirement for LAs for KS2 moderation
and is broken down into different sections:
 Moderation plan
 Recruitment and quality assurance of the LA external moderation team
 Moderation visits
o LAs must moderate 25% of schools. STA will select a number of schools for moderation
which must be included in the LA moderation arrangements.
o Details of schools to be moderated that have been selected by STA will be sent in the final
week of the spring term
o LAs must also include schools for moderation based on their own local intelligence to
ensure that they externally moderate 25% of their schools
o Schools must not be notified that they will receive a moderation visit until after the key
stage 2 data submission deadline has passed
 Preparing for moderation visits
 Selecting the sample of pupils for moderation
o LAs must notify schools of the chosen pupils on the day of the visit or at the earliest the day
before
o The exact number of pupils discussed will vary, depending on the school’s size and
circumstance.
o The LA external moderator must select a minimum sample of 15% across the cohort, or in
the case of a single class school 5 pupils, across the full range of attainment
 Suitable evidence for moderation
o LA external moderators must be satisfied as to the independent status of the evidence
 Validating teacher assessment judgements
o There is no expectation that school staff will need to be released for the visit. However the
moderator may wish to speak to the school staff regarding any aspect of the evidence
presented. The focus of the visit is primarily to scrutinise and validate the evidence
presented.
o The moderator must scrutinise the evidence for each pupil against each of the pupil can
statements
o If the moderator is unable to validate judgements due to a systematic lack of evidence, they
must refer the school to the STA maladministration team
 Agreed sign off of the external moderation visit
 Data submission
o LAs are required to have a process to analyse submitted TA data to check that it matches
external moderation decisions and that all schools have submitted accurate TA data by the
national TA submission date
o LAs must have a defined data validation process utilising local intelligence to investigate
any unexpected pattern of attainment for any school
 Appeals
Rochford Review (published December 2015)
The Review of statutory assessment arrangements for pupils working below the standard of national
curriculum tests is an independent review chaired by Diane Rochford. The review was established by the
Minister for Schools in July 2015 to consider the best way to ensure that pupils who have not completed
the relevant key stage programme of study, and are therefore working below the standard of statutory
testing arrangements, have the opportunity to demonstrate attainment and progress at primary school.
There is a small percentage of the pupil population at key stages 1 and 2 who will not have completed the
relevant programme of study when they have reached the appropriate chronological age. As a result,
these pupils will be working below the standard of both the national curriculum tests and the interim
teacher assessment frameworks.
Many of these pupils have special educational needs and those with the most severe and complex needs
have their outcomes reported using the P scales. There is no change to this requirement for 2015 to 2016.
Others may be working below the standard of the national curriculum tests for a range of reasons. They
may be experiencing significant disadvantage or living in challenging circumstances or may be new
arrivals to the country with undeveloped language skills.
The government is keen that all these pupils have an opportunity to demonstrate what they have achieved
at school and that their parents receive meaningful information about how well their children are doing
compared to their peers and how much progress they are making over time. It is also important that
schools are held to account for ensuring these pupils make progress so that schools receive credit for the
good work they do and support can be put in place where improvement is required.
The review was tasked with developing the statutory assessment arrangements for these pupils.
Although P scales were developed to align with the previous national curriculum, schools have been told
that these arrangements will stay in place for 2015 to 2016. The review has therefore not made any
recommendations about the continued use of P scales for this year. However, the review will consider
whether P scales remain fit for purpose in the context of the new national curriculum as part of their
longer-term recommendations.
The interim solution developed by the review follows the same principles as the interim teacher
assessment frameworks. It creates additional pre-key stage standards for the frameworks which each
contain a number of positive ‘pupil can’ statements. These statements reflect the attainment of pupils who
have not yet completed the relevant programme of study but have reached the chronological age that
requires a statutory assessment outcome to be reported.
The interim solution is only to be used to report a statutory assessment outcome for specified pupils at the
end of a key stage. It is not a curriculum and should not be used to guide teaching.
At key stage 1, there is one additional standard and at key stage 2, three additional standards have been
created. This is because the range of attainment for pupils aged 11 who have not completed the key stage
2 programme of study is greater than the range of attainment for pupils aged 7 who have not completed
the key stage 1 programme of study.
At key stage 1, the statements within the additional standards reflect those areas of knowledge and
understanding that the review has identified as core developmental milestones for progression onto the
standards defined by the existing interim frameworks.
At key stage 2, some of the statements in the additional standards are based on those elements of the key
stage 1 curriculum that remain relevant for pupils who have not completed the key stage 2 programme of
study. They sit alongside some additional statements which define expectations appropriate for pupils
working at that standard and reflect the core knowledge and skills that this group of pupils need to
progress.
The review felt strongly about the importance of using appropriate and positive language when referring to
pupils working below the standard of national curriculum tests. This was an important consideration in the
naming of the additional standards, which will be referred to as Interim Pre-Key Stage Standards.
Each standard within the interim pre-key stage standards is named individually in a similar way to the
standards in the published interim teacher assessment frameworks. The standards shown in italics below
are the published interim teacher assessment framework standards.
Interim Pre-KS1 standards for English reading, English writing and mathematics
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Working at greater depth at the expected standard
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Working at the expected standard
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Working towards the expected standard
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Foundations for the expected standard
Interim Pre-KS2 standards English reading, writing and mathematics
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Working at greater depth at the expected standard (writing only)
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Working at the expected standard
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Working towards the expected standard (writing only)
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Growing development of the expected standard
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Early development of the expected standard
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Foundations for the expected standard
Detailed guidance in the report clarifies when pupils should sit national curriculum tests and when the
interim standards should apply.
As with the interim teacher assessment frameworks, to demonstrate that pupil have met this standard,
teachers will need to have evidence that a pupil demonstrates attainment of all of the statements within
the standard.
Introduction of on-screen multiplication tables check
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An on screen multiplication tables check is going to be introduced in 2017. Year 6 pupils can
expect to be asked to give timed responses to a series of multiplication questions from the twelve
times tables.
The new check will be trialled with approximately 3000 pupils from 80 primary schools in June
2016, before it is rolled out nationally in 2017.
Schools selected for the trial will be contacted by the end of April.
Exemplification materials
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Materials are to be published early in the spring term and will support schools to make judgements
against the new standards.