KS1 Sats

[IdkickJilliansAss]

This is my first experience of these, what do the schools do with the results?

[sittingatmydeskagain]

They have to report the data, so that the government can draw up pretty, but pointless bar charts, called The Dashboard.

They use the data to track progress between key stages 1 and 2, and input the data on to a thing called Raiseonline. The government then draw up more bar charts, and other graphs with green, amber and red all over them.

Ofsted read them, and come in with a big stick if you have the wrong colours on your chart.

Governors spend hours trying to understand the bloody things. The head and leadership team also spend hours trying to break it down even further.

You will get told your child's level.

[mrz]

The school reports TA to the LEA/Gov and parents. Tests and tasks are used to inform teacher assessment

[ipadquietly]

The teachers use the results to help them make their assessments. They report their own assessments at the end of the year based on level criteria. The teacher will have been tracking levels and progress throughout the year.

Parents rarely (if ever) see the results of the tests. Many schools have tested already without parents even knowing about it. It's no big deal.

[IdkickJilliansAss]

Thanks so much all, I feel a lot better now

[proudmama72]

I believe the school uses the data to determine where the student should be at the end of the next key stage.

[ipadquietly]

The data from the tests is never used (except by teachers to help their own assessments). The teacher's assessment at the end of KS1 is used to determine where the student should be at the end of the next key stage.

[MotleyCroup]

What happens if your dc has recently moved schools?

How does the teacher assess the new pupil?

[proudmama72]

so the test results are meant to be uploaded to a national database and they will make it into the common transfer file that holds data about a student as they move from school to school.

Isn't up to the individual school if they use the data?

[mrz]

Information is sent from the old school and depending when the child moves the new school will make their own assessments based on classwork (supported by test results)

[mrz]

No the teacher assessment is uploaded

[proudmama72]

Schools will use the data to check their progress. They expect a certain percentage of students who got a higher score to also get a higher score at the end of the next key stage. They will have some explaining to do to Offsted of a level 3's only get a level 4 at the end of year 6.

[sittingatmydeskagain]

I guess the school will assess when the child starts, but if the child had a key stage 1 level, I think they carry that with them for tracking purposes.

Certainly, we have problems with children who joined from private schools, or abroad, and had no key stage 1 data. We couldn't include their progress.

[Feenie]

Yes, data comes with them.

[proudmama72]

I should say I'm not sure how often schools use the test score vs. TA

[MotleyCroup]

Thanks. Ds moved about three weeks ago, he's Y2 and I did wonder how his new school would assess him if they didn't know his current levels. As it's mostly (I presume) based on teacher assessment though his current teacher may well come to a different level.

[Feenie]

The assessment will have to be from his new school - they have plenty of time to do this.

[Feenie]

And you're right, they can use info fro his old school or not, it's up to them.

[MotleyCroup]

I suppose using the levels from his old school gives them a guide?

[ipadquietly]

Raise online uses reported levels from the old school to track progress if the child joins after summer half term in Y2. That can be a bit of a bummer if the child has been overassessed by the old school and will be staying until the end of KS2. We have had children over the past couple of years who will need to make nearly 3 levels progress in KS2 based on reported assessment.

Early assessment in the new school is vital, in order to stave off awkward questions from Ofsted.

[MotleyCroup]

So it's an advantage to the new school (as in ds case) to start the new school before the KS1 stats? Then there isn't as much pressure if the old school have assessed liberally?

Surely though YR and Y1 assessments would still need to be taken into consideration?

Sorry I've hijacked OP, I suppose I should have started a new thread about this.

[MotleyCroup]

Meaning into consideration as far as Ofsted is concerned?

[Feenie]

No, they wouldn't. Y2 assessment is thorough assessment of the day to day work plus tests, which form a small part.

[ipadquietly]

TBH it's easier for a new school if children start before the summer half term.

It's fairly easy to assess using a combination of children's workbooks from their old school, past teacher's reports and assessments carried out in the first few days of joining the new school.

This ensures that the assessment is based on the monitoring criteria of the new school. (Believe me, even though we all use the same level criteria, interpretation seems to differ greatly - particularly in infant schools...)

[MotleyCroup]

Thanks ipad. It's a bit clearer now as to how it works when a child changes school mid term.

[PastSellByDate]

Just quoting:

ipadquietly Mon 31-Mar-14 20:58:26
The teachers use the results to help them make their assessments. They report their own assessments at the end of the year based on level criteria. The teacher will have been tracking levels and progress throughout the year.

Parents rarely (if ever) see the results of the tests. Many schools have tested already without parents even knowing about it. It's no big deal.

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By law schools MUST give parents their child's KS1 SATs results (as reported to the LEA) - www.education.gov.uk/sta/keystage1/a00222273/ks1-templates

The timing for reporting this data gathered on your child at taxpayer's expense is flexible - but basically has to occur by the time of the end of year report.

ipadquietly is correct - schools can have children sit KS1 SATs papaers at any point (I believe results are entirely teacher assessed - so not externally marked, although they may be moderated by the LEA, and can also take into account child's overall performance not just the formal sit down test).

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More generally the point of KS1 SATs is at present this is the first formal assessment of your child's ability and these results and is used as a predictor of expected performance at end KS2 (Y6).

Schools are expected to make two full NC Levels improvement on the score in KS1 SATs. So scoring NC L2 (expected progress) at end KS1 would have your child expected to achieve NC L4 at end of KS2 SATs exams. A school who supports a child to make more than expected progress over KS2 would mean the child would have to achieve NC L5 at KS2 SATs.

For the uninitiated: MN has a discussion of what NC Levels mean here: www.mumsnet.com/learning/assessment/what-national-curriculum-levels-mean and how your child should progress through NC Levels here: www.mumsnet.com/learning/assessment/progress-through-national-curriculum-levels

However NC Levels are soon to be abandoned (one of Gove's new initiatives) and how schools assess progress will be devolved down to individual schools. So be prepared for your child is 3 unicorns + a golden starburst dear parent - you should be very pleased! ... with absolutely no indication of what that might mean against National curriculum targets.

I suspect NC Levels weren't meaningless - the issue was the parents were finally getting the hang of them. However, it is interesting to track KS2 SATs performance over time (www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/sep/19/sats-results-key-stage-two - see tables at the bottom and look at increase % of L5 results over time) - there clearly is a sharp increase in NC L5 performance - yet I can assure you Universities are finding pupils less prepared for rigours of academic writing/ research.

HTH