A question on report marking Y2

[Bonsoir]

I am interested in what report marking scheme schools in England use and how they link it to NC levels as reported after KS2 SATS.

What does a child need to achieve in order to get an A (or whatever the highest mark is)?

Nature abhors a vacuum.....

You only need to look at the new teaching standards......

That's what they were saying at the NASUWT annual conference. It's a stupid idea anyway- how could he stop schools from using sub-levels? How could we track progress (on paper)? Our deputy spends most of his time focussing on numbers and statistics- he'd have nothing to do!

I think they also suggested he'd introduce formal testing at the end of year 4.

He wanted to have 2 separate KS2s with testing at one point

"Our deputy spends most of his time focussing on numbers and statistics- he'd have nothing to do!"

Surely a senior teacher's time would be better spent teaching? Or training teachers?

true

Education Secretary Michael Gove also announced today that the current system of levels and level descriptors ? which is confusing for parents and bureaucratic for teachers ? will be removed and not replaced.

www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a00210127/newnatcurric

So how are Ofsted etc, who use levels very extensively when evaluating progress within schools, be able to tell whether children are making good progress? There isn't time within a normal inspection for the kind of 'go back to the books' analysis that would be required to establish this progress from first principles?

Is it just likely to be replaced by a 'tick list' of what a child 'should' know at a certain age - ie a measure of what a child knows rather than the skills they have acquired and can apply??

"What will replace levels?
As set out in the Secretary of State?s letter to Tim Oates, we are removing the current system of levels and level descriptors as recommended by the Expert Panel. Instead, the focus in the new draft curriculum Programmes of Study for English, mathematics and science is on describing content that makes clear both what should be taught and what pupils should know and be able to do as a result. We will not be replacing the system of levels, but will consult further on how attainment should be graded as part of the statutory assessment arrangements."

and
"I have considered carefully the panel's suggestion that, in primary schools, all pupils should be expected to have grasped core content before the class moves on. The international evidence which you provided on this issue is indeed both interesting and important."

So my whole class (inclusing children working at the expected level for Year 6) should wait until the child working at the level expected in Reception to have grasped 'core content' before moving on???

Has he ever been in a normal state school classroom???

It seems that's his plan (someone should stop him eating cheese before bed then he won't come up with these crazy plans)

That seems absolute madness to make a whole class wait before moving on if there are a couple of pupils who have not grasped whatever is being taught.

He cannot mean this surely???

Maybe he plans on holding children back, or advancing them through the years like the American school system?

And Mrz, it's been proven cheese before bed doesn't disrupt your sleep. The research was carried out by the British Cheese Board though...

The idea of everyone having to understand a concept before moving on is how schools in China work.
They get around the problem of faster/gifted children being bored by giving them piles of practice extension sheets.
They get around the problem of slower paced learners holding the class back by living in a culture that expects hours of after-school private lessons.

I think, as usual, when they say 'the whole class' they mean 'the whole class besides kids with SEN'

I'm fairly sure there was something about SEN kids in the long doc that was published a few months ago........

I don't mind getting rid of levels and level descriptors and replacing them with what a child can actually do - the teachers at my DDs' schools provide this information anyway, in addition to levels, so that parents know exactly what they are working on, what their strengths and weakness are etc. No problems with that.

But holding back a whole class until everyone has grasped core content? How is getting rid of in-class differentiation going to encourage the most able children to excel (which is another thing Gove wants, since he seems to think that at present they are all 'coasting'). How is getting rid of in-class differentiation going to allow for targeting extra support at those children who really need it? How is it going to give children a sense of achievement that will keep them engaged with learning?

He really is an idiot .

Didn't you know SEN no longer exists Indigo (except in very limited circumstances)

There are no kids with SEN in DS's yr2 class but the divide between top and bottom sets/tables is MASSIVE I cannot see how this would work apart from having the top set just sitting there doing work books

Surely what will happen (in bigger schools at least) is streaming from a horribly young age?

I might be being really thick but if NC levels go then how are they going to be assessed to say they are where they are supposed to be???

They are thinking on that

I just think that in DS's class there are kids who still find reading/writing in English hard (without SEN) so why throw in another language at 7???

Madness!!!

DS is yr2 btw.

I work with 4 SEN children mrz -do they no longer exist?

Upthealdi - they stream from foundation onwards in my dcs school.

I remember being in a discussion a while back about the proposal to get rid of in class differentiation. Unless they are going to allow 'grade skips' for the more able & hold back (or have extra or special classes or similar,) for kids who are struggling, how could it work!?!

Op - my dc1s teacher doesn't describe in terms of abc he uses %. So a 2b is 2 1/3 and equates to the child knowing 33% of the level 2 curriculum. 66% would be an A & 100% they move up to the next level.

Did you not know we have all been guilty of fake-SEN registering most kids and will be henceforth Forbidden To Do So except in the most severe circumstances, Collision?