National Curriculum levels removed and not replaced

[mrz]

"As part of our reforms to the national curriculum , the current system of ?levels? used to report children?s attainment and progress will be removed. It will not be replaced."

www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/curriculum/nationalcurriculum2014/a00225864/assessing-without-levels

As part of our reforms to the national curriculum , the current system of ?levels? used to report children?s attainment and progress will be removed. It will not be replaced.

Do I understand that right, that schools will now create their own levels? How would that work with national reporting and comparing of schools? Guess it stops comparative parenting.

'The new programmes of study set out what should be taught by the end of each key stage'

But their drafts set out a detailed curriculum about what should be taught in each year, and didn't exactly suggest that there would be 'freedom to develop a curriculum which is relevant to their pupils and enables them to meet these expectations'.
?????

So if we have a curriculum which sets out, for each subject, what should be taught in each year, then the next step will be to test each subject at the end of each year. Perhaps tests you pass or fail since we won't have levels. And what happens if you don't "pass" a year? Hmm,

? well that will be interesting then. nice for teachers as children move between classes and schools too.

how are ofsted going to measure then if they currently look for a certain level of improvement per child?

The current driving test, in particular the theory part, is difficult for people to understand too, especially for non drivers. So the government has decided to do away with that too and now individual drivers will be able to choose what aspects of road safety they wish to focus on.

But schools will stick to levels in reality, won't they? We've spent years trying to implement ways of tracking data between ks1 and ks2 as it was picked up on in our last ofsted. I can't imagine we'll just chuck the assessment folders out of the windows (although I would really like to. Might be a health and safety concern, actually).

Maybe they will level a child using their year group if the curriculum is based on objectives a child should reach by the end of that year. So a year 3 child would get a 3 for reading, writing and maths if the were at the expected levels. An average year 4 child would have 4s across the board. A bright year 4 might get 5s across the board if they are wishing at objectives from the year above.

Just a thought.

*working at objectives

not wishing

I can't get my head around this. What if you have a year for who is currently a 5b in maths? Effectively working at a high year 6 level? Will they just measure by year?

Will children be assessed nationally at year 6/ year 2 (I know year 2 is a teacher assessment but papers are still sat.) If you have a national exam based assessment then you have to have a national scoring system. If you don't have a national assessment what is the solution at year 6 to help with streaming in the secondary education that follows. Also how do you compare performance between primary schools at exit level, what has the school added to its intake.

Steady on, there wasn't enough room on the back of the fag packet he scribbled it on to fit in that level of detail.

I predict new tests in Y2, Y4 & Y6 based on the curriculum content with every child expected to be at the same point at the same time

I predict most schools clinging to levels anyway!

That is similar to EYFS in England Euphemia

I can't square 'freedom within the curriculum' with the new drafts.
Unless the aim is that every school will be an academy by then and the draft curriculum will be scrapped.

You are right - makes v little sense atm. From previous changes, I get the impression that no one at the DfE really knows either.

I just don't understand how this will work. I don't understand how you can assess or monitor pupil progress effectively without those yardsticks.

Euphemia I thought the Scottish assessments could be done at any time as a summative assessment of an individual child's attainment? Or has it changed?

I'm not sure Mr Gove understands it either.
My head said he'd been told we were moving to assessing in a similar way to foundation with either meeting, not meeting or exceeding goals.
Glad we've spent so much time learning how to level and setting upba tracking system based on this.
It seems that the government would like all our little automatons children to achieve exactly the same at the same time, no better, no worse.