Is there a way to assess DS at home?

[souperb]

DS is in Y1 and I am just trying to work out how he is doing at school.

We moved school (and area) last half term. We haven't had a report this year as new school said he hadn't been there long enough. His new teacher said she couldn't really say how he was doing academically as they hadn't done much work as it was all mostly winding down and fun events and she was more focussed on him settling in ready for next year. Last school hasn't given us (or new school) any indication of how DS is/was doing. His teacher was off sick a lot and cover was patchy. We had one parents' evening in which she talked mistakenly about another child and didn't realise until she showed us an example in one of the child's workbooks and we pointed out that it wasn't our DS. By then the slot was over and she just said he was doing fine. We knew at this point that the move was on the cards, so didn't push it at the time.

He was on the same book band (white) from start of reception until February in Yr1, but I think he was only moved up because they ran out of books. At the new school they have put him back on white. I'm not anxious for him to storm through the levels or anything, but it seems odd to stuck on one bookband for so long. Obviously I am pleased and grateful that he can read, but find it disquieting that he seems to have made no progress. He can talk about what he has read, but is there a proper way to gauge comprehension? I also have concerns about Maths - I'm not sure I can see any new knowledge or skills since he started school, but I'm not entirely sure what to look for. Is there a muppets guide to what they are expected be able to do at this age?

I'd like to find out where he is against age-related expectations in English and Maths. If possible I'd like to find out over the summer in some easy and informal way (games online? apps?). If I have to wait until a few months of Y2 then so be it, but I'd really feel better getting a grip on it now. He was very unhappy at school before we moved, and I'm concerned that he might be struggling in some way, but that it was overlooked either because he could read well enough to compensate to some degree, or he was simply not the biggest issue in the class given that he could read already. I just feel that 2 years have been written off already and I don't want to leave it another 6 months.

Thanks

Not quite statutory yet but look here:
www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/curriculum/nationalcurriculum2014/nationalcurriculum/a00210036/sosletter

If he is quite able then You could download the sats papers for year 2 and see if he can do any of the questions. Unfortunately they don't have any year 1 papers, but the year 2 papers include levels for 1c and upwards so he might be able to do some of the questions and give you an idea- the marking schemes are also available to download free.

That is not quite right Runningchick123. A couple of questions (usually the prep ones) are from work that is within level 1, but the questions are not defined as "this is a level 1c question, this is a level 1b question, etc." Key Stage 1 SATs papers only assess at level 2 or 3; separate papers for each level. If a child is working at level 1 they don't sit maths or comprehension papers. For maths there is a set of tasks to do with the teacher for their assessment. Reading is assessed via a reading task.

newnamefornewterm I have just had a look and you are right, but the threshold on the mark scheme does give a level one for a certain number of correct questions and a level zero for not enough correct questions.
The OP should not be asking her son to "sit the papers" but could be looking at the questions herself and gauging what he would know and therefore getting an idea of what level he is working at.
I take it that you are a teacher and therefore obviously have a much better idea than me and can advise the OP a lot better.
Out of sheer curiosity though - if a child working at level one doesn't sit the test then why does the mark scheme include thresholds for level one and no level achieved - surely it's a bit cruel to have those levels as only a child who does much worse than expected would get those levels IYSWIM.

Been a year 2 teacher for too many years to count (for my sins)! Not sure to the answer to your question. Someone will come and quote the assessment handbook, hopefully, but is states children working at level 1 don't take the level 2 tests. I assume the grade on the L2 test paper means they didn't meet the level 2 requirements, but were fairly close. I will not award the L1 for getting however many it is on a level 2 test as it means the child has got just a few questions from a very narrow range of questions topic areas (and it may have been a lucky guess for one or two). Instead we still require solid evidence against the APP criteria at level 1 to award it. So, OP, it may be worth looking at the APP sheets. We don't use it, but my child's school uses this:
www.wiganschoolsonline.net/curriculum/maths/blockassess.shtm
as a back up test, but they find it gives a higher grade than APP.

Final thought - the government are doing away with levels one the new curriculum is introduced (see draft in my previous link), so not sure how the it will all work out then. I assume children will be assessed against the criteria listed for each year group, but it is all rather vague at the moment.

newnamefornewterm I hope the plans to do away with these levels goes through as it must be very demoralising for the children who struggle academically to find out that their levels are in the bottom range amongst the class. I also wish the govt would scrap SATS altogether so that schools can concentrate on a broader curriculum, instead of concentrating on the material needed for SATS, which is what some schools seem to do for several months of the year.
In year three my son had to take his SATS in the school hall under exam conditions, despite year 3 SATS not being compulsory for schools. The other issue is that the brightest children in that particular school are given the same test as the rest if the class so can only get a certain level (which may not represent their true ability).
Apologies for going totally off the OP topic, but the whole SATS talk has got me thinking about how wrong it is to be testing these children with generic material that doesn't account for individual ability regardless of where the child sits on the academic scale.

Returning to the original topic; I hope the OP has found your information useful and can get an idea of her child's levels, it certainly is useful to have a teachers perspective.

Hello all and thanks for the input!

runningchick Please do hijack thread for interesting discussions! It's all useful and I do agree about overtesting of small children in rigid fields. I'm just trying to work out where/if our problem lies with regard to age expected work. If DS is struggling, then it has not been brought to our attention for whatever reason, and I would like to know so.

newnamefornewterm I've printed off the wigan year one block 3 test and will give it a go with DS. He's used to doing a quick something after breakfast (usually 5 minutes scissor practise or a postcard to grandparents), so a few questions a day over a few weeks would be feasible and not much of demand on his important holiday lego time. It's useful to see the sort of thing they cover at this age, I (no doubt cluelessly) assumed they would be doing more straight arithmetic but the Wigan thing looks like more number skills and mathematical language which I hadn't realised they would cover.
Where can I find the APP grid and does it cover English as well?

I'd obviously much prefer to have a teacher's perspective, but since one has not been forthcoming, I'd like to try to work out how he is doing in the meantime. DS does seem to find school a bit an ordeal, and while he seems to be a competent reader, that does not make him an all round genius.

He has struggled with the physical task of writing and using scissors, his writing is pretty illegible, punctuation and capital letters do not happen without constant nagging, he doesn't write much at school - just the minimum he can get away with, and as a result his sentences are short and uninteresting - no connectives, adjectives etc., and do not reflect his fairly articulate speech at home. His spelling seems consistently accurate though.

I know he's only 6, but he hates school (particularly the last one, but not too keen on new one either tbh although he is voluntarily walking into the building). I want to get to the bottom of how he is doing in a massive effort to make the school experience less of a trauma for him (and us).

Here is the link to Reading, Writing, Speaking & Listening, Maths and Science:
webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110809101133/nsonline.org.uk/node/20683
I suggest you look at the level 1 and 2 ones.

Also, here are the Standards Files - examples of what the levels look like in real life:
<a class="break-all" href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110809101133/nsonline.org.uk/search/primary/results/nav:45920" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110809101133/nsonline.org.uk/search/primary/results/nav:45920

Thank you so much - that is really helpful.

I assume that anything I think he can do at home will be higher than teacher would observe in class?

Also is an erratic achievement in terms of the sub-sections normal? Looking briefly at the maths pages, there are areas in which I think DS would score highly and some in which I'm not at all sure he would reach the bottom level?

Sorry to pester with questions and demands... It just gives me something to look at before he starts back in September and will help me approach new Y2 teacher once she has got to know him.

You could try downloading the pitch and expectations documents. They give examples of sats questions aimed at the different sub levels.

Also is an erratic achievement in terms of the sub-sections normal? Looking briefly at the maths pages, there are areas in which I think DS would score highly and some in which I'm not at all sure he would reach the bottom level?

Yes, very normal in maths. Many children who are confident with number struggle with shape and vice versa. My lower ability group can't do multiplication but can spot lines of symmetry with ease, while one of my dazzling human calculators really, really struggles with symmetry. One pupil who thinks he cannot add three digit numbers and is afraid of decimals will quite happily do complex work with money.

This is one reason why assessing levels is so tricky without lots of practice. You can't just give a test and work out a score.

I found this a useful document when introducing pitching work and levelling to new teachers

webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110809101133/nsonline.org.uk/node/304907

It has Securing Level 1, 2, 3 etc.

ReadytoOrderSir Thanks - that does make sense as I suppose that maths is lots of different things lumped together under one umbrella. I'm not so much trying to work out an exact level as just ascertain whether he is struggling with school work. Maybe he hates school so much because it is hard for some reason? And this has either gone undetected because he is ok at reading and can wing it a bit, or patchy cover this year for frequently absent teacher or some other reason.

NewNameForNewTerm That "What I can do in Mathematics" is absolutely what I've been looking for. A simple list of skills, easily presented that I can use to work out if he can do what is expected of him. Is there one for English?

Thank you so much to everyone - I just want DS to have a happy school experience and am just grasping at straws generally at the moment.