curious, how do year 2ish and above teachers assess childrens ability at the start of the year?

[redwhiteandblueeyedsusan]

what balance of written assessments passed on, activities to find out what they have learnt/forgotten over the holidays and chat with previous teacher seems to work?

It is a long time since I taught and never really y2 or above

Hi susan >>waves

Me 2 as it appears

1st day yesterday

dd bottom table on literacy,
tells me shes gone up to reading levels so ended on level 3 and starting on level 5 but pushy competative mum who brought the entire oxford reading tree and did over summer her dd gone from levvl 2 to level 6.

we did some bits in summer.

we did reading,
writing

lots of numeracy as thats her weak point.
Also i guess school report was forumlated amonth or to before end of term when was given out.

I think yr2 is when they start doing the big write every week.

DS started this from the very first week he was back...

Cannot help you any more than that sorry, hopefully you will have a parents eve very early on to discuss NC levels/assessments etc...

Susan - has your DS started reception yet?? How is he getting on?

I talk to the previous teacher. We also pass on pastoral/academic notes to avoid anything being forgotten. All our assessment data (reading/spelling/standardised tests) is on our school server for easy access. There are IEPs and IBPs in a special folder for those kids who have them.

Then we let them settle in and then do new spelling and reading tests after a few weeks to ensure they are in the right groups for guided reading etc.

Well it was day 2 yesterday and this time numeracy tables een set and my dd appears to be at bottom again:(

Today we were told we getting letters with year 2 nc and subjects.
Never had taht in year 1-so maybe they trying to improve or aybe they extra stressy as its sats year.

Some parents also cornered the teacher and one mum has notified me shes ensures her childs on the right reading level and the teacher agrees so shes climbed 3reading levels since last term.

I dont fin teachers have time in morning.
in afternoon she wasent even there was supply teacher.

so booked an appointment with head for next week eeek.

Have given her quite a lot of support in summer and was hopeful thats given her a boost. I alsi researched year 2 and know already what topics she maybe doing.

I was told by year 3 parent they get writing homework too this year.

from what i seen so far its what year 1 teacher must have said and the school report.Im hoping theres some movement throughout year as last year tehy were too slow with reading levels she was bringing home books she could read with ease.

"Today we were told we getting letters with year 2 nc and subjects.
Never had taht in year 1-so maybe they trying to improve or m they extra stressy as its sats year."

It's a new requirement - all schools now have to provide this info (and a lot of other stuff) on a website, and give parents a hard copy if requested; they probably find it easier to send it out to all parents at the beginning of the year so they know they've all had it.

Over the last two days we've done spelling ages, reading ages, RWI assessments and have started benchmarking to check reading levels. Early next week we'll do a numeracy assessment and will do a writing assessment at the end of next week after a week of literacy.

Today we were told we getting letters with year 2 nc and subjects.

I'm sorry but I haven't got a clue what this means ...

Its called a

term 1-2curriculum map-year 2

divided into subjects

so huge section on literacy divided into sub topics
narrative, non fiction, poetry and spelling

numeracy

number,shape , data handling and measures

french-yes thats a new one

ict-we are detectives project

sciience changing materials-im sure they did thsi in year 1, mentions no other science topics,

humanities

geography-life of child in india compared to uk

historu-transport b4 out grandparents

famous people grace darling., amy johnson.

PSHE-have no idea what this is?

new beginnings
getting on and falling out
firework safety and safery in the home

art and designe/technology

sketching and painting. making puppets.

re all about teh insighsts of the old testament, building on knowledege of god as creater and starts to develop a veiw of godnwishing to protect and care for his universe. highlights how god works through people to exercise his care and protection-note this could be school specific as its rc school.

music-to be taught by specialist teacher.-This is new.

Ohh pe interesting one

we its outdoor sports,
but thur its being taught by a specialist sports coach.

asked dd about that how fun it was.

They were taught my an quite an old teacher who subsclasses whenteachers having admin afternoons so sports coach not stated yet but looks good on paper.

We have aletter outlining all teh hoemwork and to try read with our child daily.
show and tell dates

newsletter frok head telling parents not to be alarmed about satisfactory ofsted, that 2012 is much better and they committed to ebsuring child progress , enclosed ks2 results and trend of last 5years.

This shows maths has improved rreading levels have dropped 3%points in last 5years with 88%acheiving level 4+ and 50%level 5.

Dd came home with small book saying level 3.
confused as said she was on level 5
its diffrent series to the level 3 she finished with at end of year 3 as one she read was last in that series.

I know i need to have chat with teacher just other parentts hassling herw ill try and catch her next week to clarify.

I don't 'assess' children this early in the term. I am currently getting a feel for them. After two days, I thought I had them sussed until I spoke to the teacher who has inherited my old class and realised how wrong he is about them! It made me realise that two days is nowhere near long enough to get a true idea.

I plan on spending a few weeks without grouping, and differentiating by outcome (ie how much the child can do). Then I will base it on my judgement, with last year's results to help.

I was quite proud of the fact that my last class didn't realise they were in ability groups. I never referred to them in 'order' and it seems they hadn't realised they had different work! Incidentally, the work WAS different!

I continually assess my class. Of course they will be different in a few weeks time to how they are at the beginning of term, but "assessment" informs what I need to teach. It has nothing to do with ability grouping IMHO.

How do I assess? In lots of different ways. Observing how they tackle work independently, the actual work produced, how much adult support they required, formal 1-1 assessment of phonics, listening to readers, attitude to work, effort ...

From September this year all schools must publish on a website several specific pieces of information, including
Contact details
Admission arrangements or where they may be found (community and voluntary controlled schools only)
Link to Ofsted Report
Most recent key stage 2 results
Most recent key stage 4 results
Link to school performance tables on www.education.gov.uk
School curriculum information for each year group by subject, including phonics/reading schemes and key stage 4 courses/qualifications as appropriate
Behaviour policy
Pupil Premium allocation, use and impact on attainment
SEN policy
Charging and remissions policy
School?s ethos and values

The information about the curriculum is specified as:

(a)in relation to each academic year, the content of the curriculum followed by the school for each subject and details as to how additional information relating to the curriculum may be obtained;

(b)in relation to key stage 1, the names of any phonics or reading schemes in operation; and

(c)in relation to key stage 4?

(i)a list of the courses provided which lead to a GCSE qualification,

(ii)a list of other courses offered at key stage 4 and the qualifications that may be acquired.

Schools also have to provide a hard copy of this info to parents on request (though they no longer have to produce a printed prospectus), so I assume that mam29's school have decided it's easiest to just send it to all parents anyway.

RustyBear: who says the school has to publish things on a website? DD's school doesn't have one so it would be interesting to have the link. Thanks

RustyBear: I Googled and found it - thanks anyway for the heads up

Link here, the required information is listed in Schedule 4.

The school doesn't have to have the info on it's own website, but if it doesn't, it must make the information available on a third party website and give the details of that website to parents.