A guide to national curriculum levels

[learnandsay]

www.stjohn.bucks.sch.uk/Newsletters/Newsletters/A%20guide%20to%20national%20curriculum%20levels%202009.pdf

oh dear!!

?

the content of the link

Remember when SATS were brought in to assess the school not the child?

also untrue Julia

Hi mrz & learnandsay

Could you expand on 'oh dear!!' or '?'

I get that this means you disagree with that document - but it closely matches what we're being told at our school, so I would really like to know what is technically wrong with it. I think that could be incredibly useful information for a parent.

thanks.

mrz 'also untrue' - why?

The national curriculum tests are a test of the child. The results are used to set future targets for the child. They are used to assess what the child knows at that point so as to inform teachers what they need to teach.

It is a much repeated "fact" that the tests are testing the school but repeating something doesn't make it a fact.

PastSellByDate the examples of the average child and the above average child

whereas in fact they are expected levels for most children and if most children are expected to achieve that level by definition it isn't average

Also I thought the levels were set regardless of KS1 or KS2 whereas that document linked to suggests a level 3 in KS2 is different and harder to KS1?

mrz - they were introduced to produce league tables of schools

No they weren't Julia that is another non fact ...the league tables are only linked to end of KS2/Y6 assessment.

The guide for assessing performance stresses the use of individual teacher's opinions in the assessing sub-levels. Page 6.

<a class="break-all" href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110202093118/nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/node/160703" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110202093118/nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/node/160703

in reality these are internally moderated and in some year groups externally moderated as well.

Very interesting mrz - so are you saying a level 4 in Y6 is what most children should achieve at minimum.

Because that was how I first read it and when I outright asked is this was a minima - the Head absolutely refused to answer my question one way or the other.

So can I ask you - as a professional - do you see NC Level 4 at Y6 SATs as the minimum level a child should achieve if the school is doing their job well?

Thanks

Past &mrz 'if the school is doing their job well' yes, that's what Sats is meant to assess. Hence 'added value'

mrz 'League tables on Sats results at Y6' - so they are based on Sats results

No PastSellByDate I am saying that the government says quote

By the age of 11, most children are expected to achieve level 4.

www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/Schoolslearninganddevelopment/ExamsTestsAndTheCurriculum/DG_10013041

Julia league tables are based on Y6 National Curriculum assessment they are meant to inform parents and are an additional product resulting from the individual data that schools must report about every child. They are not the prime purpose of any assessment which is to match teaching to learning.

mrz - fair enough I'll take your quote of the government (but I would have liked to know your opinion as a professional).

So I suppose my next question is if a school's policy is only to aim for NC L4 on Y6 SATs - are they coasting?

Thanks

i think 4 levels progress over 6 years is good progress so if a child starts in Y1 considerably below level 1 then expecting a level 4 is high expectations. If a child starts Y1 already working at level 1 then a level 4 is a low expectation.

Every child is different and every school is working under different circumstances so level 4 could be coasting for one school and could mean staff working like Trojans in another. For most schools level 4 is hard work at age 11. Lot's of the requirements to attain a level 4 I didn't encounter until my second or third year at Grammar school and some colleagues say they didn't meet until GCSEs

"So I suppose my next question is if a school's policy is only to aim for NC L4 on Y6 SATs - are they coasting? "

Depends on the intake, and on the individual children within that intake.

For my children's school - very 'middle class' area, low FSM, EAL and SEN, well-educated parents, very stable cohort, great pre-school education accessed by virtually all the children - to aim for NC L4 in Year 6 would be coasting, in fact it would be holding many children back.

For schools like the one I teach in - deprived area, exceptionally high FSM, SEN and parental illiteracy, very high mobility, about a quarter of the children arrive with no early years education at all and in many cases pre-verbal - to aim for NC L4 in Year 6 is exceptionally stretching and requires many children to make way above expected progress in every single year of their education.

Even within those schools, you have to look at individual children - my children's school does have some individual children with SEN who will not make Level 4, and my school has some children who will achieve Level 5 or 6. A 'blanket' statement for the whole school is not a sensible way forward.

Hi mrz I'm going to be persistent here.

School is clearly only working to L4 for all pupils. All documentation to parents clearly states that they are working to L4. That's the target. They're pleased if a child gets L5 - but they're not teaching work at that level or supporting it - those children spend their day supporting other children working at a lower level in Y6.

Now in our case I doubt it matters about curriculum taught at L5 (for DD1 at least) - too early to predict for DD2. But it does concern me that bright children are having to be forcibly dragged to school because they're so bored and fed up helping 'the dummies'.

Yes or No. Is this school coasting?

many thanks.

It sounds as if they aren't challenging all pupils but as to coasting it is difficult to say without knowing the school well ... levels at entry progress made over a child's time in the school, catchment, parental view, etc, etc. I would be unhappy with the lack of challenge.

If it is not to test the school and the teachers then why is my ds's teacher putting a lot of pressure on my son to get HER a 100% in Maths? She keeps telling them that if they don't get the best results she will be in trouble!! She is not even hiding it. My ds is bored with the repetition and can't take it anymore :(