After a year, working with the new ‘no levels’ regime, are you developing your own assessment policy?
Most schools have spent the past year, trying to get to grips with the new Primary assessment system.
It hasn’t been easy and the numerous changes imposed by the Government haven’t helped.
Perhaps the biggest problem for schools has been grasping the idea that there are almost no rules. After years when the government prescribed in detail how schools must assess their pupils, it’s been quite a wrench to realise that how you assess is largely up to you.
For instance, you can import your own curriculum. If you want to use the National Curriculum Programme of Study statements, you can edit them, deleting some and re-wording others. You can give statements different weightings or set some as KPIs or non-negotiables.
With no levels to rely on, you can work out your own set of assessment grades, allowing less able pupils to show progress while letting the ablest shine.
You may want the flexibility to assess pupils at either Statement or Subject level; enter assessments at any time but set your own reporting dates.
You will most likely want to be able to filter results by groups such as boys/girls, pupil premium, SEN, first language, ethnicity or create your own groups and filter results by these.
Now that you realise how much flexibility you can have under the new regime, won’t you need a tracking system which is equally flexible and will fully support your assessment policy?
Our Online Primary Progress toolkit, we believe, can support almost any assessment policy.
We have designed it with one simple aim – to create a tracker which is easy to use but can be customised to a school’s precise needs.
So, if you aren´t 100% satisfied with your current tracker, why not check out our Online Primary Progress toolkit (www.primaryprogresstoolkit.
If you need more information, or would like to discuss your specific needs, email me at statsed@gmail.com or ring me on 01279 652183.
We can also give you free access to a demo site where you can try out the toolkit for yourself.
Roger Watson
Statistics for Education, 5 Bridge Street, Bishop’s Stortford, Herts, CM23 2JU
Tel: 01279 652183; Email: statsed@gmail.com