ASSESSMENT
Assessment without levels
Following the introduction of a new National Curriculum framework from September 2014, the government
has also decided to remove level descriptors. The government’s policy of removing level descriptors from
the National Curriculum is set out in terms of freeing schools from an imposed measure of pupil progress.
The Department for Education has said that levels are not very good with respect to helping parents to
understand how far their child is improving. In their place, from September 2014, “it will be for schools to
decide how they assess pupils’ progress”.
With levels removed and the focus now on raising the achievement of every pupil, Torre’s governors, leaders
and teachers have chosen a new way to measure pupil attainment and progress.
During the academic year 2014-15, the school is in a period of transition from old levels to new assessment
descriptors:
 Nursery and Reception assessments are not changing in school or nationally.
 Year groups 1, 3, 4 and 5 are being assessed against new descriptors, see below.
 Year groups 2 and 6 will continue to be assessed using levels and sub-levels, in-line with national
testing arrangements for 2015.
National Curriculum: Tim Oates on assessment
Tim Oates from Cambridge Assessment talks about the purpose of changes to assessment in the new
curriculum and rationale behind moving away from levels. There is a video clip of this talk available on
YouTube.
Our new assessment system
The old and new curriculum have different content. Many of the objectives in the old curriculum have
shifted to lower year groups in the new, more rigorous curriculum, this means it is not possible to have an
exact correlation between a level that was the outcome of the old National Curriculum assessment and the
requirements new National Curriculum, this means a shift in thinking and in the way we assess out children’s
outcomes.
The school has welcomed the changes in the National Curriculum and saw it as an exciting opportunity to
review our assessment and reporting systems to create a more holistic approach that makes sense to
parents. We were very clear that whatever assessment tool we used, it needed to be robust and track
pupils’ progress across the school and not just at the end of a Key Stage.
We are now assessing children against the new framework, one for which they may have not been taught
the previous years’ objectives and content, so we are in a time of transition between old and new sets of
data. During this transition time children and teachers have completed baseline assessments to find out
their starting points for the new national curriculum.
The principles that underpin our new assessment system are:
 Every child can achieve: teachers at Torre C of E Academy have the mindset, ‘What do I need to do
next to enable a child in my class to achieve?’
 The new National Curriculum objectives will be used as the expectations for all children.
 Children will make age appropriate progress – 12 months in 12 months.
 Teachers are experts at assessment - assessment will be effectively used to ensure the correct
scaffolding is built into lessons to ensure all children achieve.
In order to be ‘secondary ready’ children need to meet the required end of Key Stage 2 expectations; this is
broken down into key outcomes for each curriculum year. We use the National Curriculum objectives to
assess outcomes for children at the end of each curriculum year – for example:
 A child that has achieved all the objectives set out for Year 3 for English (and no further) would be
said to be working at the end of Year 3 expectation for English.
 A child achieving half or so of the mathematics objectives for Year 5 would be classed as working at
the mid-Year 5 expectation for maths.
 A child achieving only a few reading objectives for Year 1 would be classed as working at the
beginning of Year 1 expectation.
Our assessment and reporting system includes:
 Ongoing assessment by the class teacher throughout each lesson, through questioning, observation
and dialogue.
 Children knowing what they are being asked to learn and more importantly, why.
 Pupils are encouraged to self-assess against a success criteria when producing written work.
 Three-way feedback, pupil, peer, teacher with clearly identified next steps – this can be written or
verbal feedback.
 Regular DIRT marking in maths ‘Dedicated Improvement and Reflection Time’.
 Regular pupils’ work scrutiny, teachers’ planning scrutiny, learning walks and lesson observations.
 Termly tests produced by ‘Rising Stars’.
 An age standardised reading test in the spring term.
Teachers will complete a class profile at the end of each term and this, in addition to all of the above will
feed into our termly pupil progress meetings.
Tracking progress over time
We will use Golden Codes to track pupils' progress over time, against age-related expectations in each
subject area:
 Emerging
 Developing
 Secure, reflecting that age-related objectives have been achieved
 Mastering, showing that age-related objectives have been achieved and the child is working at a
deeper level of understanding and application
The Golden Codes and tracking scheme are the back-bone to track progress across the school. These will be
recorded on School Pupil Tracker (SPTO) as the year group followed by the code, for example: Yr3E (Year 3
Emerging), Yr4S (Year 4 Secure).
We will be replacing Average Point Scores (APS) with Tracking Points. Tracking Points can be used to examine
progress and attainment numerically (as an average).
The Tracking Point scale starts at Tracking Point 1, which is the first term in the first year in Nursery. This can
then be counted up to Tracking Point 15 (the end of Year 2) and Tracking Point 27 (the end of Year 6). All
year groups move on 3 tracking points in a year, one for each of the Golden Codes. The expectation is that
children make 12 months progress in 12 months.
More able children
For children who have securely met the end of year objectives they will be assessed as exceeding or
mastering objectives for their age group. Rather than moving onto the next year’s curriculum these children
will work on ‘mastering’ their knowledge through the application of skills in different contexts – they will be
deepening their learning.
The depth and application of a child’s learning is an important marker of their achievement and progress.
Early Years - Nursery & Reception
Children in Nursery and Reception will continue to be assessed against the Prime and Specific areas of
Learning in the EYFS profile.
Assessments will be based on observation of daily activities and events. At the end of Reception for each
Early Learning Goal, teachers will judge whether a child is meeting the level of development expected at the
end of the Reception year:
 Emerging, not yet reached the expected level of development
 Expected
 Exceeding, beyond the expected level of development for their age
Progress will be tracked using Tracking Points (see above).
Year 2 & 6 (2014-15 only)
Children in Year 2 and Year 6 continue to be taught the old National Curriculum. They will be tested against
the old National Curriculum in 2015. We will continue to assess these children using existing Assessing Pupil
Progress (APP) techniques and track progress using levels, sub-levels and Average Point Scores (APS).
Discussions at parent, teacher, consultation meetings in the Autumn and Spring terms will be based on the
assessment system in place for each age group. We will produce a new style individual annual report at the
end of the Summer term.
Beyond 2015
End of key-stage 2 tests are changing in 2016. We intend introducing standardised tests at KS2 to support
our judgements as soon as a reliable standardised test becomes available. In the meantime, we will use the
‘Rising Stars’ end of year optional tests in years 3, 4 and 5.
Pictorial Explanation of Tracking and Progress Measures – Torre C of E Academy
Asssessment follows the following cycle:
Plan – Plan learning effectively
Assess – Making judgements in the classroom
Record – Record judgements and set targets
Analyse – Identify patterns and trends
The DfE and Ofsted will measure progress formally at the end of KS1 and the end of KS2 against the
performance descriptors. This will be reported as a scaled score. This will also be used as a progress
measure for children from the end of KS1 to the end of KS2.
Examples:
A child with a scaled score of 100 at the end of KS1 will be expected to achieve a scaled score of 100 at
the end of KS2 to have made expected progress.
A child with a scaled score of 105 at the end of KS1 will be expected to achieve a scaled score of 105 at
the end of KS2 to have made expected progress.
A child with a scaled score of 97 at the end of KS1 will be expected to achieve a scaled score of 97 at the
end of KS2 to have made expected progress.
Tracking points (TPs)
Nursery 1
E
D
1
2
Year 1
E
D
10 11
S
3
S
12
Nursery 2
E
D
4
5
Year 2
E
D
13 14
S
15
S
6
Year 3
E
D
16 17
Reception
E
D
7
8
S
18
S
9
Year 4
E
D
19 20
S
21
Year 5
E
D
22 23
S
24
Year 6
E
D
25 26
S
27
Example:
A child at the end of year 3 is expected to be working at tracking point 18.
3 tracking points always equals 1 year or 12 months – so 3 TP progress is always the annual minimum
expected progress.
If a child with SEN is in Year 3, but only working at Year 1 secure, that is what is reported.
Before children are moved onto the next golden code, they are expected to be able to apply their
learning in new and exciting contexts – deepening their learning.
A child with a better depth of learning will perform better in a test than a child who just knows the facts.
Mastery (beyond secure) in not just knowing a fact, it is using that fact in increasingly more difficult
situations.
Hash tags are used to show depth of learning within each band:
Depth of Learning - Hash tag
#1
#2
#3
#4
What is means
Knowing the facts, but not applying them
Applying the facts in complex, alternative and
unique concepts
When saving a Golden Code, teachers must add the overall hash tag rating to explain the child’s depth
of learning.
According to SPTO a child’s hash tag rating rarely changes within a year and even from year to year.
However, as a school, we expect children to be developing as learners, therefore over time, a child’s
ability to reason and apply their learning should improve. This will not be a rapid process and we would
not expect a child to move from hash tag to hash tag from term to term.
Illustrative examples:
Golden Code and Explanation
#
Y2S#1
Y2 child who has achieved all the Y2
objectives but cannot apply them – they
only know the facts
Y2S#2
Y2 child who has achieved all the Y2
objectives, and can apply them as
expected of their age
Y2S#3
Y2 child who has achieved all the Y2
objectives, and can apply them in more
difficult situations
Y2S#4
Y2 child who has achieved all the Y2
objectives, and can apply them in unique
and challenging contexts
Scaled score equivalent in end of KS
tests
98
100
105
109
Expected progress from end of KS1 to end of KS2 takes the depth of learning into account
Example:
End of KS1
Y2S#3
Y2S#3
Y2S#3
End of KS2
Y6S#3
Y6S#2
Y6S#4
Progress
Expected
Below expected
Above expected
Please note that we are not currently using the hash tags, but these will be in place by the end of the
autumn term 2015/16. (June 2015)