The Rochford Review

The Review of statutory assessment arrangements for pupils working below the standard of national curriculum tests is an independent review chaired by Diane Rochford. The review was established by the Minister for Schools in July 2015 to consider the best way to ensure that pupils who have not completed the relevant key stage programme of study, and are therefore working below the standard of statutory testing arrangements, have the opportunity to demonstrate attainment and progress at primary school.

This has been particularly relevant as we move towards new assessments of pupils achieving an 'expected' standard and how we measure the progress of those pupils who are not likely or able to achieve this. Many of these pupils may be SEN or have significant disadvantage or challenges in their personal circumstances. 

A summary follows and for the full report, head to: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/the-rochford-review

The government is keen that all these pupils have an opportunity to demonstrate what they have achieved at school and that their parents receive meaningful information about how well their children are doing compared to their peers and how much progress they are making over time. It is also important that schools are held to account for ensuring these pupils make progress so that schools receive credit for the good work they do and support can be put in place where improvement is required.

The review felt strongly about the importance of using appropriate and positive language when referring to pupils working below the standard of national curriculum tests. This was an important consideration in the naming of the additional standards, which will be referred to as Interim Pre-Key Stage Standards.

Each standard within the interim pre-key stage standards is named individually in a similar way to the standards in the published interim teacher assessment frameworks. The standards shown in italics below are the published interim teacher assessment framework standards. The standards in bold are the new, interim pre-key stage standards.

Interim Pre-KS1 standards for English reading, English writing and mathematics

 Working at greater depth at the expected standard

 Working at the expected standard

 Working towards the expected standard

 Foundations for the expected standard

Interim Pre-KS2 standards English reading, writing and mathematics

 Working at greater depth at the expected standard (writing only)

 Working at the expected standard

 Working towards the expected standard (writing only)

 Growing development of the expected standard

 Early development of the expected standard

 Foundations for the expected standard

IDACI: Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index

This is interesting data compiled by the local authority but freely available. The following information explains what it all means. You'll need to zoom in quite a bit to find us!

IDACI is the ‘Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index’, a subset of the Index of Multiple Deprivation. The index itself represents the proportion of children under the age of 16 within an LSOA that live in low-income households. A higher raw score is therefore an indicator that an LSOA is more deprived.

IDACI provides a raw score and a national ranking (within England) of each Lower-layer Super Output Area (LSOA). We have divided this data into quintiles (5 groups of 20%) and used it as a source for thematic mapping of the deprivation index in five ‘bands’. This overlays a base map of Southampton along with the relevant school, and a map object (‘point’) representing each postcode in which there is a pupil on roll at your school.

You can look up IDACI values (by postcode) yourself here: http://www.education.gov.uk/cgi-bin/inyourarea/idaci.pl 

Ideas for Maths Reflection Questions...

1. Starter questions
These take the form of open-ended questions which focus the children's thinking in a general direction and give them a starting point. Examples:

• How could you sort these.......?
• How many ways can you find to ....... ?
• What happens when we ......... ?
• What can be made from....?
• How many different ....... can be found?

2. Questions to stimulate mathematical thinking
These questions assist children to focus on particular strategies and help them to see patterns and relationships. This aids the formation of a strong conceptual network. The questions can serve as a prompt when children become 'stuck'. (Teachers are often tempted to turn these questions into instructions, which is far less likely to stimulate thinking and removes responsibility for the investigation from the child).
Examples:

• What is the same?
• What is different?
• Can you group these ....... in some way?
• Can you see a pattern?
• How can this pattern help you find an answer?
• What do think comes next? Why?
• Is there a way to record what you've found that might help us see more patterns?
• What would happen if....?

3. Assessment questions
Questions such as these ask children to explain what they are doing or how they arrived at a solution. They allow the teacher to see how the children are thinking, what they understand and what level they are operating at. Obviously they are best asked after the children have had time to make progress with the problem, to record some findings and perhaps achieved at least one solution.
Examples:

• What have you discovered?
• How did you find that out?
• Why do you think that?
• What made you decide to do it that way?

4. Final discussion questions
These questions draw together the efforts of the class and prompt sharing and comparison of strategies and solutions. This is a vital phase in the mathematical thinking processes. It provides further opportunity for reflection and realisation of mathematical ideas and relationships. It encourages children to evaluate their work.
Examples:

• Who has the same answer/ pattern/ grouping as this?
• Who has a different solution?
• Are everybody's results the same?
• Why/why not?
• Have we found all the possibilities?
• How do we know?
• Have you thought of another way this could be done?
• Do you think we have found the best solution?

Poker Chips...?

We think you might enjoy this clip about strategies for improving children's behaviour. 

Assessment Arrangements for KS1 in 2016

Following our update on KS2, children are also tested (SATs) in year 2 at the end of KS1. A new National Curriculum was introduced in 2014 and as a result, the Standards and Testing Agency (STA) is changing the tests so that they assess the new curriculum. Pupils will take the new tests for the first time in May 2016. We do not currently know how the results of these assessments will be reported to parents. The tests will be as follows:

Reading:
Paper 1 consists of a selection of texts with questions interspersed
Paper 2 comprises a reading booklet of a selection of passages and children will write their answers in a separate booklet.

English grammar, punctuation and spelling:
Paper 1: a grammar and punctuation written task, taking approximately 20 minutes, and worth 15 marks. Children will be provided with a prompt and stimulus for a short piece of writing, with a clear text type, audience and purpose. Handwriting will be worth four per cent of the marks.
Paper 2: a grammar, punctuation and vocabulary test, in two sections of around 10 minutes each (with a break between, if necessary), worth 20 marks. This will involve a mixture of selecting the right answers e.g. through multiple choice, and writing short answers.
Paper 3: a 20-word spelling test taking approximately 15 minutes and worth 10 marks.

Maths:
Paper 1: Arithmetic, worth 25 marks and taking around 15 minutes.
Paper 2: Mathematical fluency, problem-solving and reasoning, worth 35 marks and taking 35 minutes, with a break if necessary. There will be a variety of question types: multiple choice, matching, true/false, constrained (e.g. completing a chart or table; drawing a shape) and less constrained (e.g. where children have to show or explain their method). Children will not be able to use any tools such as calculators or number lines.

As with KS2, please note that we measure all pupil progress and attainment by using the National Curriculum expectations for each year group. We use forms of ongoing teacher assessment to help us when we are planning the next steps for your children. These also tell us whether children are working at, above or below national expectations for their age. We also regularly give opportunities to review how well your children are doing.

KS2 Assessment Arrangements for 2016

From 2016 onwards, KS2 assessments will be reported as 'Scaled Scores' based on test results for Reading and Maths.
Teacher Assessment for Writing will be reported as 1 of 5 performance descriptors:

• Mastery Standard
• Above National Standard
• National Standard
• Working towards National Standard
• Below National Standard

The tests will be as follows:

The Reading Test

• 60 minutes reading and answer booklet

The Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation Test

• 20 word spelling test
• grammar, punctuation and vocabulary test 20 mins

The Maths Test

• 2 mathematical reasoning papers of 40 mins each
• 1 mental arithmetic paper of 30 mins

Science will be teacher assessed.

The timetable for the tests will be:
Monday 9 May:
English reading test
Tuesday 10 May:
English grammar, punctuation and spelling
Paper 1: spelling; English grammar, punctuation and spelling
Paper 2: questions
Wednesday 11 May:
Mathematics
Paper 1: arithmetic
Mathematics Paper 2: reasoning
Thursday 12 May:
Mathematics Paper 3: reasoning

More details will follow as they become available! We will also be talking to you about your child’s progress at key times throughout the year. We measure all pupil progress and attainment by using the National Curriculum expectations for each year group. We use forms of ongoing teacher assessment to help us when we are planning the next steps for your children. These also tell us whether children are working at, above or below national expectations for their age.

Primary Progress Calculation

An attempt to explain the new primary progress measure and calculation...

Interim Assessment Framework...

Please find below a link to the new video published by STA (Standards and Testing Agency) on the new Interim Assessment Frameworks for primary school assessments in 2016. Little new information to impart but we may still find the video useful...

Making Good Lessons Great!

A conversation with an Ofsted inspector about strategies for making learning even better...

• —“Simply judge teaching on whether children are engaged, focused, learning, and making progress ... and in the best lessons (are) being inspired”.
• —Too many teachers were attempting to break lessons into bite-sized chunks instead of allowing pupils time to complete extended tasks.
• —The secret lies in a teacher’s planning, self-reflection, perceptiveness and resilience.
• —Think about what is going to fully engage your pupils. What is the curiosity that you provoke, the responsibilities you delegate or the surprise that you reveal. 
• —There are thousands of outstanding teachers who are branded "good" because the level of risk they, for good reason, refuse to take big risks in observed lessons. 
• —Work scrutiny is a huge source of evidence.

Good to Great!

We've been spending time as a staff reviewing our progress using the theme 'Good to Great!' This has been a useful way of exploring what we do well and what we need to do to get even better.

Themed learning experiences...

Part of our INSET day last half term was reviewing the opportunities we provide for pupils and staff to work in a more collaborative way across the phases. Working with colleagues and peers we hope to create many more cross curricular opportunities and more compelling learning experiences that will provide a stimulus for pupils and opportunities for inspiration.

Imagine the future...

Last term, a group of our pupils participated in the 'Imagine the Future' workshops. We all enjoyed the day and we're pleased to be able to find out some of the findings from the day- here are some pictures illustrating the main points taken from the event. The information gathered will be used to inform polices and strategies developed by the Southampton Partnerships and Southampton City Council which will help shape the future of Southampton.

Teacher Assessment - National Comparative Data?

The table above is taken from a document produced by EES for schools which, in the absence of any national comparative data, takes the sample of pupils from Target Tracker and analyses their performance. According to EES, this analysis document is based on anonymised data taken from schools using Target Tracker and only pupils who have been assessed against the ‘steps’ assessment scale have been included. As Target Tracker is used in 22% of English Primary schools and the nationwide pupil database contains approximately one million pupils, it is statistically relevant. This is the first indicator that might assist us in comparing ourselves to other schools in a meaningful way.

Judging Progress in the New Curriculum

What will progress look like in the new curriculum, life beyond levels? We've been attempting to use our assessment tools to define what good progress and attainment will look like. Having worked through the new curriculum for almost a complete academic year, we are very much in a position to begin the next one knowing exactly what our issues are. Our pupils have all been placed on a 'step' or within a band in the new curriculum and we know what our strengths and weaknesses are as a school. So now, with the floor target of 85% in mind, it's on with the job...! It's not going to be easy but it will be exciting!

Our KS1 & KS2 National Assessment Results 2015

We are really pleased with our results this year and proud of what the children have achieved. Further analysis will follow but the summaries for KS1 and 2 are below.

These tables below show the percentage of Year 6 pupils at Bitterne Manor Primary School achieving each level, compared to national end of Key Stage 2 teacher assessment levels and test results. The shaded sections of the tables represent 2014 national teacher assessment and test result data.

Figures may not total 100 per cent because of rounding.

This table below shows the percentage of eligible children at Bitterne Manor Primary School achieving each level, compared to national end of Key Stage 1 teacher assessment levels. The shaded sections of the table represent 2014 national teacher assessment data for core subjects.

Figures may not total 100 per cent because of rounding.

When Children Want to Learn... They Will!

Our staff training day last week was spent pondering 'life beyond levels' and what this meant for our pupils' progress and attainment. Many questions still remain in our minds about how the DfE will define a National standard but we are confident that we have the skills to show how well our children are doing. One of the key lessons learnt from our work on steps and bands so far is that securing an accurate judgement of where the children are is fundamentally important in determining what this attainment and progress will look like. We have realised that there are limits on equating what a pupil has covered in the curriculum with what they have mastered and that these can mean two different things. In other words, covering a lot of stuff quickly doesn't make a good learner. As teachers, we need to get our pupils to show what they can do by providing them with much deeper and broader opportunities through our curriculum.

‘Children need teachers who understand they are individuals, each with his or her own unique brilliance within. Education is about bringing out that person…not achieving statistical success according to a strict narrow criteria.’

Michael Morpurgo

A Step Forward for Assessment...

As a school, we have been subscribing to the Target Tracker system for tracking our pupil progress. In a recent circulation, the company have released a set of documents - freely available - called 'Steps'. Developed in partnership with EES Education Consultants, Steps has been designed to address the removal of levels in the 2014 and support teachers in making judgements about pupil progress and achievement in the new National Curriculum and, of course,  for use with the Target Tracker Assessment software. Steps breaks the new curriculum into easy-to-understand statements providing a manageable set of tools to enable teachers to carry out formative pupil assessment effectively. Forgive the pun but we think this is a useful step forward...

Class Identities...?

The school is trying something a little different for next year's class names. Having the conundrum of what to call our two new reception classes has allowed us to think of providing each class with a little bit of an identity. After much deliberation and consultation with the staff and children we've arrived at the following ideas:

Reception: Puffins & Kingfishers

Year 1: Robins & Finches

Year 2: Swifts & Swallows

Year 3: Nightingales & Skylarks 

Year 4: Rooks & Jackdaws

Year 5: Owls & Woodpeckers

Year 6: Kestrels & Merlins

This will be both a celebration of the natural world, a link to our school badge and give each class a symbol or mascot to represent them. We would also like to source a mascot for each of the birds - so if anyone has any ideas...?

Illustrations in search of a story...

Thought this was a very good link: The Book Trust's annual Children's Book Week is running from 6th to 12th July with the simple aim of celebrating reading and sharing the joy of books. The Book Trust are also offering you the chance to download some Illustrations in search of a story from the new children's laureate Chris Riddell.

Our Marking Code

We have been trying to ensure consistency across the school in the symbols and codes we use in children's books and even getting the children to use them themselves! When you look at a pupil's book, their work will be in a dark pen or pencil while Teachers use a green pen to give feedback. Pupils will then, in turn, use a pink to respond.

The Planning Process

Our development of the new curriculum continues this term with some key areas for us to focus on. Over the last term, we have realised that our new curriculum may be at risk of becoming too content driven rather than skills based. We need to ensure that exciting learning opportunities are matched to the skills and expectations, and that these also feature in our medium term plans. To that end, we have tried to visualise the planning process, starting with English, to ensure that these expectations are met and that these in turn impact on the day to day learning. We are also reviewing our use of learning intentions and success criteria and making these much more focussed - separating the skill from the context.

Kathakali

Kathakali are a Southampton based classical Indian dance company we have had a long association with and who visit us regularly. They provide workshops involving storytelling and theatre bringing the Kathakali and culture of South India to children in schools. We have put a link below if you'd like to learn more.

"KATHAKALI is the male classical dance drama of Kerala, originated in the temples in the 17th century to bring the Hindu epic stories to the local people through storytelling. A company of world-class artists from south India, actors, drummers, singers and make-up artists, will highlight the rich heritage created and nurtured by the remarkable people of Kerala. The artists are world famous, equivalent to the Royal Ballet Company, and speak a south Indian language called Malayalam. Several of the artists do not speak English. The greeting in Malayalam is hands together and the word Namaskaram [Na – ma – skar – ram]"

Living History

Another link to follow... looks very exciting! We're hoping to arrange a visit linked to one of our historical topics in the Autumn term - Romans, Vikings or Saxons, perhaps? In the meantime, if you are looking for more information follow this link.

The 'Key Jar' Resource

This is a fantastic resource for parents and staff we were given by our school nurse. We can't print all of it here but the link is here if you want to find out more.

We quote: 'Unlock the hearts of your little ones using these keys to a great family conversation. Cut out the label below, affix it to a jar, and fill the jar with the question strips on pages 3-5. Simply pull a question from the jar during a family meal and listen to the magic unfold!'

Here are some examples: 
Who in your class is lonely?

Who in your class is a leader?

When is it hard being a friend?

Who is somebody you’d like to be friends with who isn’t yet your friend?

Advanced SEN Training Opportunities

Here is a great link to some advanced training materials for professionals working with pupils with autism; dyslexia; speech, language and communication; emotional, social and behavioural difficulties; moderate learning difficulties. The resources are online and were produced to support classroom teachers / TAs and build on the work of the old primary inclusion development programmes. The aim of the materials are to improve outcomes for more pupils with these needs, the longer-term aim of the 'Lamb Inquiry' (2009) is for there to be at least one teacher with advanced level training in each of these areas in every mainstream school. Follow this link for more details.

Ideas for Numeracy 'Working Walls'

Some notes from our meeting on using 'working walls in Maths:

· NUMBER LINE: Display a large number line either horizontally or vertically. This could be either numbered (all numbers displayed) or partly numbered (e.g. intervals of 10, intervals of 0.1). There should be a progression in the lines used throughout the school. The line should be at a level that can be reached by the children (so they are able to draw on the jumps). You could encourage the children to refer to the line regularly by displaying an activity next to it (e.g. Fibonacci the frog likes jumping along the line. Which number is he resting on? He started on number 20 and jumped to number 40. Each jump was exactly the same size. What size could his jumps have been? Fibonacci and his friend are each sitting on a number. What is the same about their two numbers?).

· NUMBER SQUARE: Display a large number square (e.g. 1 to 100 counting in ones, 0.01 to 1.0 counting in hundredths). Again it is useful if the children can reach the square. Encourage the children to become familiar with the square by displaying regularly changing questions next to it (e.g. Which numbers are covered up? Can you explain the pattern of green numbers? If you had to colour a pattern on the square, which numbers would you choose to colour? Numbers 7 and 12 are in the number sequence. What could it be?).

· NUMBER FACTS: Display facts that the children are working on. It is important that these are not on the wall too long as children can quickly become reliant on looking at them. Encourage children to interact with the display by posing different questions (e.g. Can you find pairs of numbers totalling 20? Can you sort the equations into ‘fact families’? If you know this fact, what else do you know? Can you draw a picture to model this number fact?). You could also have a ‘fact of the week’ for children to focus and comment on.

· VOCABULARY: Vocabulary should relate to the unit of work being covered. Again it is important that words are changed regularly and do not just become ‘wallpaper’. You could provide children with a ‘challenge’ at the end of the unit to focus them on the vocabulary (e.g. How many words do you know to describe ‘length’? How many different ways can you read ‘13+7=20’? Choose 3 words from the vocab board and give a definition of them to your partner.)

· CHALLENGE BOARD: Display a number or shape. The children write facts or questions about the number or shape on post-it notes and add these to the board over the week. The challenge board could also be a problem that the children have to try to solve.

· TARGETS: Class and group targets should be displayed, maybe with questions, prompts, resources and examples of work.

· PROMPT POSTERS: These should support children with the current unit of work. They could include ‘points to remember’, helpful diagrams, sentence starters, a problem solving flow chart or advice on what to do if you are stuck on a problem.

· CHILDREN’S WORK: This should include jottings as well as neat, finished work. Ensure there are displays of all maths strands over time as well as examples of maths across the curriculum. Displays could also include photos of children engaged in mathematical activities.

A General Election...?

Most adults cannot avoid the fact, no matter how hard we might try, that there is a general election almost upon us. But just how aware are our children and what do they really need to know? It's very important to instil a good sense of citizenship and community in our children and the UK Parliament have some great resources on their website that put across the idea of what parliament, elections and government are all about. Head here: parliament.uk/education/ for more details and resources.

History is just around the corner...

The Historical Association is organising it's annual Local and Community History Month in May. Visit their website to take a look at what's happening nearby. The website also has it's own primary section and links to some great resources and articles. There is also a subscription option to join the HA which might be worth investigating more...

Adopting Our Values

Here is a good example of one of our staff adopting a practical approach to how our learning values can be used and applied by pupils in lessons - in this case, PE & Games.

Valuing Policy Cards...

Following many of our staff professional development opportunities we summarise what we have learnt and would like to take forward in a 'policy card'. Here is an example of one we've put together for our recent work on Learning Values. These also form starting points for further follow up work in the future and form part of our induction for new staff.

'Hands On' Learning

Following our work on 'Challenge' over the last term, we are moving our attention to the next of our learning values. The first day back will have an assembly launch in the morning and classes will be provided with their 'Hands On' badges and stickers.
The value is divided into 3 areas and each class will have a lightly different focus:

Practical - Year 4 & 1
Hands on, using tools for support and resources

Communication - Year R, 2 & 6
Team work, engagement and collaboration

Creating - Years 3 & 5
Making and doing, Building things and working together to an end product.


We would like each class to explore what their learning behaviour might look like in the classroom. We will be discussing with the children why these learning behaviours are important and how they help us to achieve more. These ideas will then form the focus for the term and we will carry out activities to see how we can provide opportunities to promote these values in the classroom. This is where each class sharing an area with another class will consult over their plans and ideas.

Writing in the New Curriculum

Some reflection on our work so far towards moving to the new curriculum. The key areas of the new curriculum can be divided into the following areas: 

· Composition

· Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation

· Spelling

· Handwriting

We have been making our transition to the new curriculum by reviewing our current provision and assessing pupil’s progress in light of the new expectations. Since we have taken away levels and the ‘Assessment Focusses (AFs)’, we have adopted the age expected bands and steps – B,W,S (beginning, working within and secure) – within those bands to monitor our pupils progress. Aspects of the old curriculum are clearly evident in the new bands and there are defined strands which focus more on the writing process rather than outcome. Some of these key themes in the composition element of the new curriculum are picked out below.

In KS1:

Write sentences 

Discuss what they have written 

Read aloud 

Write for different purposes: real events, narratives, poetry 

Develop positive attitudes and stamina 

Consider what he/she is going to write… 

Make simple additions, revisions and corrections... 

In KS2:

Plan his/her writing… 

Draft and write… 

Evaluate and edit… 

Proof read 

Read aloud 

Paragraphs 

Settings, characters and plot 

There is also a noticeable shift in expectations and this appears to be more weighted towards the technical aspects of writing and children’s understanding and use of terminology and features like clauses and pronouns. For example, KS1 children are expected to know about and use noun phrases, past and present tense and compound and KS2 pupils are expected to know and use determiners, subordinate clauses and adverbials.

Strengths:
· Writing opportunities across the curriculum for a range of purposes are good
· Opportunities for sustained writing are frequent
· Children’s writing stamina and enjoyment are clear
· Judgements about writing and next steps are really secure
· Children’s next steps are clearly identified
· Marking and feedback moves children on

Areas for Development:
· Technical aspects are not being clearly picked up in pupils’ writing
· Children need to be reviewing their work and more actively ‘polishing’ their writing
· Less able pupils need more scaffolded tasks to support their progress
· More able pupils need more engaging, challenging and open ended opportunities in their writing

Modelling the Writing Process

One of our recent staff meetings was dedicated to a workshop on modelling strategies for pupils - particularly in writing. Our idea was to work through a series of activities with some of the staff as pupils and some as observers while we 'taught' a lesson. The learning intention was to create a shared understanding of AfL (assessment for learning) and reflect on how the modelling process helps support children as writers. One of the challenges is to have a very clear idea of what you want the children to write but getting them to write it! Children share their ideas on a whiteboard and work either alone or with a partner on ideas with the teacher facilitating, prompting and collating as appropriate - you never know quite what they will contribute. It's important that teachers model these thinking processes and share what's going on in their heads if children are going to understand and make links to what's going on in theirs.