Any teachers about? Can you tell me about assessment data

[SholaMola]

If there are any primary teachers about please can you tell me the following:

How are children assessed?
Are there government targets for how much progress a child should make in a year?
What happens to schools if these targets are not met?
Where does this data go? Lea? Department of education?
How is this data QAd? Is it by an external body or by a colleague?
If a child starts a new year with falsely inflated levels, how does that impact on the next teacher?

Teachers are generally not dumb. Autocorrect on the other hand...

"Ofsted found our leadership Outstanding" yes they found the (one) teacher inflating the figures outstanding too and gave his leadership a special mention in the final report.

Really sorry to hear about your experience TheMadGardener sadly it seems to be one heard in too many schools.

Well, this has been eye opening. I feel very sorry for teachers who have to make every child progress to avoid getting a hard time. Given DD has dyslexia then she is an example of a child who at some point would crash and burn as far ss progress is concerned. TBH, I suspect in this case that poor teaching was the cause of DD's teacher falsifying data. There have been a few looks from her current teacher when the year 4 teacher is mentioned and they aren't really well regarded. Its all irrelevant anyway, as I suspect it had little impact on where we are now. Dd had signs of dyslexia for years which I now know were possibly ignored due to cost. I disagree with the teachers here saying a diagnoses doesn't make much difference as strategies can just be incorporated into class. Yhat did not happen to dd.

I disagree with the teachers here saying a diagnoses doesn't make much difference as strategies can just be incorporated into class. Yhat did not happen to dd.

The problem is that some schools are brilliant ar this and some are not. To be frank I've seen some schools fail to put he suggested strategies in place even for children with an official diagnosis. I'm glad things are in place for your child now.

Thank you to you all for your advice.

It's perfectly reasonable to expect all children to make progress- that's why we teach them. Of course rates of progress vary from child to child and according to how good the teaching is.

KS1 results are generally a good predictor of later attainment. At my school we intervene if children don't look as if they are going to maintain their level by the end of year 6. That doesn't mean all will pass their SATS - if a child is "expected" in a subject (ie at age related standards - quite a broad range) at y2 they are certainly expected to be there at y6. If they were " just below" teachers would be working hard throughout KS2 to get them to "expected".

However a child who struggled to achieve in year 2 could well be "just below" in y6 and there is no way to adjust the final attainment . They have to pass the test on the day, unlike in y2 where teachers can exercise their judgement. That means every year some of our possible "expecteds" don't pass their SATS but usually these are children who didn't get them in year 2.

As for progress - this isn't what SATS measure. That's attainment. You can have very good progress but still not attain the expected standard. You could be "well below" in y2 but only "just below" in y6 and that would be better than expected progress.

OP your real concern is not whether you daughter passes SATS but what support she can get to make the progress she is capable of. Long term it's about the qualifications she can get at 16 and beyond. SATS are just an indicator of that , they don't actually impact on it directly.

Definitely don't complain but do push for the right support.

Surely though by alevels you would need a diagnosis for extra time etc? And degree level?
At some point money would have to be spent.
It is very sad that teachers are spending so much time gathering data going to meetings etc. And yet some i know are rarely reading with the kids, so actually the data they are providing is crap. Whilst relying on the parents/ta to do basically all the reading practice.
The other reason all this data is rubbish is the parental input. For eg in yr r i did reading chest with dc, we progressed well and i will claim the result as due to my efforts. Same in yr 1. However now ive switched to maths as i only have so much time.
I think it's a pity yr 2 sats will be scrapped as it is independent data rather than opinion. You cannot hope to accurately assess just turned 4yo lololll.

"I think it's a pity yr 2 sats will be scrapped as it is independent data rather than opinion." Unlike KS2 SATs in Y2 tests are marked by the class teacher and aren't externally reported only the teacher's assessment.

Surely though by alevels you would need a diagnosis for extra time etc?

No, there are standardised tests which can be administered by an assessor at the school. If the pupil gets a score well below average in an area of speed of reading, writing or processing and the school collects evidence that they would be substantially disadvantaged by not having extra time (evidence from internal exams) and it’s shown to be their normal way of working then they get extra time. The standardised tests don’t give a diagnosis.

What do you hope to achieve from a formal diagnosis?

The teachers really are not given a hard time SholaMola if a few children don’t make the progress we would like. They would leave if we did! We learn about why the progress was not what we would have liked or expected, and then learn from it! It’s what any decent organisation would do. Schools are no different. Teachers can still meet their performance management targets and get pay progression. Children differ. They don’t all progress evenly. It would be suicude to give teachers a hard time because of a blip!

That may be the case in your school BubblesBuddy but in many schools teachers are given a hard time and are under a great deal of pressure to ensure every child makes x amount of progress. This leads to data inflated by fear but nice graphs and charts.