Year 6 writing score, do I work it out like this...

[Iamnotminterested]

Is it long piece mark + short piece mark + spelling mark, then divided in half?
And am I right in thinking that more teacher assessment will come into play this year? How will it be weighted against the test marks?

Thanks.

It's out of 50. Long piece + short piece + spelling mark (out of 7) + handwriting out of 3.

Teacher assessment doesn't come into play more in Year 6, it should be the main form of assessment throughout primary school. The formal assessment in Year 6 is really more about judging the schools than individual children TBH.

At the end of Year 6 you will be told both the test level and the teacher assessment level, they're presented equally rather than one being given more weight.

Thanks pozzled; so if there is a discrepancy between the TA score and the test score, for whatever reason, which mark would the secondary school look at more?

Well I'm primary so hard for me to comment on how a secondary teacher would see it. Personally, I'd be more interested in the TA level because it should be a true reflection of what the child can achieve over time. However, if the TA was a lot higher than the test mark I might be a little and wonder if the teacher had been too generous. It shouldn't happen now as there is a strong assessment framework to work with, but you never know.

I think a lot of secondary schools will do their own tests as well, or don't put children in sets until they have done their own assessments.

Secondary schools that set / stream by SATs, usually really stream by teacher assessment, because by the time they get the SATs scores they've already done the streams.

(Clearly if you're told in July what stream your child is going to be in, it is almost certainly been done by teacher assessment)

This year however, there is going to be no writing test - it'll only be a teacher assessment score.

Other secondary school's don't stream by SATs and instead set them at Dec after they've done lots of internal tests.

No writing test AT ALL Indigo; really?

I know there was some hoo-ha after last year's test with a lot of people complaining about it, but didn't think it had been entirely scrapped.

Yes, it's been scrapped.

There's an optional test that schools can do, and they can do it in test week or any other time (after Feb I think)

www.usethekey.org.uk/popular-articles/key-stage-2-sats-how-will-they-change

the current writing test will be replaced with teacher assessment of writing composition. This teacher assessment will make up the larger part of the overall writing judgement

A new test of spelling, grammar, punctuation and vocabulary will be developed for introduction in 2013, after a trial in 2012

Not strictly true. There is still an optional writing test paper that can be taken in SATs week this year which is then sent off for external marking, or a paper that can be sat at any other time which is then marked in school but moderated across a series of schools/areas ( we think, no-one in my authority sweems quite sure how the moderation will take place!) But after all that, this year only the Teacher assessment mark will be recorded!

So perhaps if the test result comes out higher than my teacher assessment I should use the former, and if the test result comes out lower than my teacher assessment I should use the latter!

"The interim arrangements for writing this year will be similar to the approach at the end of Key Stage 1. A pupil's writing result will be a teacher assessment judgement of their work across Year 6.

Teachers' judgements will be informed by and take account of (but not be limited by) the pupil's result on a standard test that will be sent to schools earlier in the spring term.

The test can be administered by schools at a time of their choosing and then marked internally; alternatively, schools may prefer a test to take place in test week (as in previous years) and be externally marked. In either case, the test result will inform a teacher assessment judgement. It is solely the teacher assessment in writing (and not test results) that will be published, that will contribute towards an overall English level and that will be used for accountability purposes."
www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/assessment/keystage2/a00197755/key-stage-2-assessment-in-2012
The writing test isn't optional ... schools must complete the test but they can decide to mark it internally or send it off to be marked as usual (think they have to pay for this) and some schools have been selected to take the test as normal for "quality control".

Yes, that's right - we are one of the lucky ones!