Tell me about grading/banding/assessing in English Primary system, pls?

[DopeyDawg]

Hello.
I'm in Scotland.
Want to move to England.
Partly because Scottish system has fuzzy 3 year 'bands' for children to achieve and little grading/assessing. It makes it very easy for a child to slip behind unnoticed.

I understood, last year, that England was almost the other extreme.
Grading/banding/assessing mad!

Has it changed since then, please?

In England there are National Curriculum tests at the end of Year 2 and Year 6 (any testing in other year group is individual schools choice).

It's changing - the current year 5s will be assessed differently and basically, the formal 'levels' will be abolished and replaced with whatever the school choose to use as their assessment criteria. I think most are going with a number (which relates to their chronological year) and then either a plus or minus to indicate above or below, or an equals to show they are average. Their starting point for the new year is their end point for the previous. I'm not sure it's much different in practice though, other than in the year the child can't go past their number - they have to enrich the skills they've got, and considering the lack of independent ability that can be seen at ks4 I can only imagine this is a good thing.

I'd look on the TES website and forums for more information, they're very knowledgeable.

"The HOW" isn't changing ... children will continue to be tested in Year 2 and Year 6 (but will be given a score rather than a level as levels have been scrapped as a measure).There will be no national tests in other year groups ... so no change there either.

Thanks.

I have a child who is nearly 2 years behind for some things - dyslexia type issues but also math issues.

Because the 'bands' of achievement are, eg:

Learning of times tables: it is expected that, for most children this will be achieved by age 12, but earlier or later for some

there is no way of pinning down when a child begins to slip through the net, under the current curriculum in Scotland. HT's are FAR less accountable too so if you get a poor school with a woolly curriculum, you get kids who sink, if additional learning needs are not identified. This 'sinking' can go on right through primary so they can arrive at secondary completely ill equipped to cope.

I had hoped it would be better in England.

Sorry, not expressing this very well...

In England it is expected that most children will know all their tables (to 12X) by Year 4 (age 9)

thanks, mrz - my ds is 10.5 and still learning his 3 times table.
they only teach up to the 10x here anyway but he is waaaaay behind.
Under the Scottish Curriculum for excrement Excellence they can say: 'ah, but a 3 year 'band' for achievement of X skill, and 'earlier or later for some'. It is complete rubbish!

I had hoped there would be more frequent and rigorous testing in England and that those children 'slipping' would be caught and supported.

I know it depends very much on each school still but my feeling was that the system in England is much more formalised and accountable.

I was worried it was suddenly changing, just prior to my moving?

At my daughter's school the children are monitored (she is in year 3) the curriculum aims for some subjects are year specific but for others it is two year specific. (I've forgotten already even though we talked about it at my daughter's review meeting this week!). But the teacher has very clear aims - and I know that every child is monitored against expectations all the time. (My H is a governor so gets to seethe stats).

IHAVE schools in England have to continually assess pupils and demonstrate progress ... In every year group