Reading in the national tests: how can we rise to the challenge?

By RS Assessment from Hodder EducationNo Comments

Thanks to Deputy Headteacher Michael Tidd for this article. 

It seems that the 2016 reading test may well go down as one of those test papers that we all talk about for years. Like the traumas of “Caves and Caving in Davely Dale” or that wretched ‘fried-egg’ Venn diagram of a few years ago, there are some papers that take on an almost legendary quality. Jemmy the Giraffe is sure to have such fame. The challenge in the key stage 1 test was similarly daunting.

There is almost universal agreement that the texts were more difficult than those we’d seen in the sample test papers. But we need to be careful not to dismiss it as a one-off, pinning our hopes on easier tasks next year. The direction of travel has been clear for a while, and we need to do the best we can to prepare our pupils for challenging texts. While the 2016 paper may have been a particularly difficult paper, the thresholds have clearly shown that the DfE intends for the test to be hard. So, what can be done?

It’s clear from the new tests – and indeed the samples – that more challenging texts will be chosen for reading test papers at both key stages. Perhaps this is a reflection of the government’s intention that children read earlier, more frequently and more widely throughout primary schooling. Certainly this seems a likely outcome of the changes. Schools would do well to look at how they can broaden their children’s reading experience. It’s worth remembering that the National Curriculum clearly sets out that children should be exposed to books and stories which are beyond their reading level. 

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Key stage 2 national tests and the shared mission

By RS Assessment from Hodder EducationNo Comments

Thanks to Michael Tidd for this article. 

There’s something of a murmuring among Year 6 teachers that when it comes to SATs, if things go well then the credit is shared across the school, but when things go wrong, it’s the Year 6 team who get the blame. Of course, those who work in other year groups would probably just as soon argue that it’s the reverse that’s true.

The truth is, of course, that Year 6 results are inevitably a representation of the work done by all of the teachers who come into contact with children during their time with us. That’s never been truer than today, as we emerge from analysing the results of the first of the new style tests.

For the past couple of years we have been working blind, only able to draw on our own experience of the curriculum to estimate what might crop up and how best we can prepare our pupils. Now we’ve seen the tests and frameworks for real, we can start to make some more informed changes to how we work – and not only in Year 6.

Naturally thoughts will go first to identifying the gaps that need filling for current Year 6 cohorts. Good assessment in school, linked to our knowledge of the tests can help here. Continue reading →

Primary school accountability in 2016: key updates

By Nellie Perrin Comment Closed

From today, (September 1st 2016) primary schools will be able to access and check their own provisional progress data. The Department for Education has also released further information on progress thresholds, writing assessment points and pupils below the standard of the test, which we’ve summarised below.

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KS2 progress measures: key information and the national picture

By RS Assessment from Hodder EducationNo Comments

Thanks to Deputy Head teacher Michael Tidd for this article.

Head teachers will have been frantically logging on to the DfE website today to find out how their schools have done in the new progress measures following this summer’s new KS2 tests – even though many schools still haven’t started the new term yet! It’s left many of us unprepared, and probably many more scrabbling around for the key login details.

Getting your school’s data

Head teachers will have been sent login details for the Tables Checking website, including a password which was sent out by post last week. For schools whose post is held by the Royal Mail over the holidays, that may now mean an anxious wait. There is a helpline and email address on the Tables Checking site for those who can’t hang on for the postman!

Once logged in, you will be able to complete a data checking exercise, as in previous years, to ensure that data is accurate before it goes into the final version of Raise Online. You’ll also be able to see your school’s progress measures for each of the three key subjects: Reading, Writing and Maths. These scores are all-important for the new floor standard – particularly for the majority of schools who did not reach the 65% attainment thresholds.

These figures are simple numbers, roughly in the range of -10 to 10. A score of 0 in any given subject means that children at your school – on average – made the same progress as others of a similar ability nationally in that subject. Positive scores suggest your children did better than the average nationally, and negative scores suggest that progress was not as good as the national average. Importantly, negative scores do not necessarily mean that your school is in trouble. Continue reading →

Changes to the National Tests and what you need to know – Key Stage 2

By RS Assessment from Hodder EducationNo Comments

Thanks to Deputy Head Michael Tidd for researching and writing this article, which we hope will be a great time-saver for our readers!

From September, we will once again have all children in our primary schools working on a single National Curriculum. We’ll also be just months away from the first of the new style of National Curriculum Tests for Key Stages 1 and 2. Now the final frameworks and sample tests have been published, there are some minor changes. However, other changes are much more notable. In my last article, I focused on changes in Key Stage 1. Here is a quick ‘need to know’ guide for Key Stage 2.

Key Stage 2

National Curriculum Tests at Key Stage 2 seem to have changed repeatedly in the last few years, so the changes in 2016 will perhaps be not so much a shock as a feeling of ongoing change. Nevertheless, there are some significant areas that are worthy of teachers’ attention in KS2. Of course, the tests also see the final removal of levels, with scores being given as a scaled score for each subject instead; 100 will represent ‘the expected standard’.

In maths, the major change is the introduction of an arithmetic paper in lieu of the old mental mathematics test. The arithmetic paper will have 35–40 questions, most of which will be worth one mark, requiring use of discrete arithmetic skills ranging from basic addition and subtraction to calculations with fractions. The questions are all in the form of calculations – there are no words. At 40 marks, this paper will make up just over one-third of the total available marks, further emphasising the focus on number and calculations in the new curriculum. Continue reading →

2016 School Performance Tables – what can we expect?

By RS Assessment from Hodder EducationNo Comments

Thanks to Nick Hart for this helpful summary.

Key stage 2 SATs are over for another year.  Individual children’s results have been known for a couple of months now thanks to NCA Tools and consequently we know the percentages of our cohorts that met the expected standard for Year 6.  When the DfE publish the school performance tables in December 2016, we’ll know a little more about how we’ve done.

The headline measures of performance remain: attainment, progress and therefore whether or not the floor standard has been met.  In addition to the attainment data that we already know, we’ll see the proportion of children that attained the higher standard, which consists of scaled scores of 110+ in reading and maths and a greater depth judgement in writing.  The much talked about progress measure (comparing individual children’s progress against the average progress made by children nationally with similar starting points) will arrive too.  Our cohort’s average progress will be the overall progress measure for our school.  Then, of course, these measures are used to judge whether or not we have met the floor target.  With just 53% of pupils nationally attaining the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, and national average scaled scores of 103 for reading and maths, many leaders will be waiting on that progress data… Continue reading →

What can we learn from the 2016 KS2 reading test?

By RS Assessment from Hodder EducationNo Comments

Thanks to Shareen for sharing the following five tips for teachers.

Many schools have reported that the KS2 reading paper this year was more difficult than expected, so we asked Shareen Mayers to share her thoughts on what we can learn for next year.

  1. Ditch the old SATs papers!

After visiting many year 6 classrooms this year, I noticed that teachers were still using old reading papers which have a different focus and style to the new test. For example, the new test has an increased emphasis on understanding vocabulary in context. The beginning of the 2016 reading paper was much harder than before, with questions that seemed reminiscent of the old level 4 right from the start of the paper. Though few, there are some practice papers available that are fully in-line with the new-style tests, so it is worth utilising these so that the complexity of the test is not such a surprise next year.

  1. Explicitly teach new vocabulary

One of the starkest changes this year was the emphasis and focus on pupils understanding vocabulary in context. A huge percentage of the questions were focused on this new content domain. This can be achieved through exposing pupils to a wide range of texts, especially texts from our literary heritage. A free download that can support teachers with teaching strategies is the old National Strategies booklet: Teaching Vocabulary Effectively. Page 9 has some great tips to support teachers with ideas and strategies. Continue reading →

2017 interim frameworks for teacher assessment

By Nellie Perrin Comment Closed

Statutory interim frameworks to support teachers in making assessment judgements for each pupil at the end of key stage 1 and key stage 2 in 2017 have been released.

The interim frameworks set out the standard(s) a pupil will be assessed against at the end of each key stage for reading, writing, mathematics and science.

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