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...