Orchard Primary SchoolLife without Levels

Presentation to ParentsJuly 2015

New National Curriculum came into force from September 2014.

Expectations are much higher than previously.

Children at the end of Year 4 are now expected to be working at a similar standard to the end of Year 5 under the previous curriculum.

Revised National Curriculum Expectations

Levels are no longer to be reported with the exception of Year 2 and Year 6 in July 2015.

However Year 2 will also receive notification of their children’s attainment under the new curriculum expectations.

Assessment

Children are assessed formally and informally through the course of their lessons and activities each day.

Assessment is used to inform the next stage of learning.

This is called ‘Teacher Assessment’ and tracks the attainment of the children throughout the school year.

Teacher Assessment

From next year, there are new SATS tests for both Year 2 and Year 6 which are significantly higher in their expectation of the children.

We will be using rigorous end of year testing in the non-SATS year groups as well.

Test Assessment

We are reporting your child’s attainment according to ‘Year Group Related Expectations’. Attainment in each of the subjects will be indicated as shown below.

YEAR GROUP EXPECTATIONS

N Working below expectations for the year group.B Beginning to work at the expectations for the year group.D Developing within the expectations for the year group.S Secure in the expectations for the year group.E Exceeding the expectations for the year group.

New Expectations

There is no direct correlation between the old system of levels and the new curriculum.

However in approximate terms children in Year 6 who previously would be expected to be level 4b to be deemed average/secure, will now be expected to perform at an equivalent of an old level 5.

Expectations are higher in every year group.

Old Levels v New Expectations

Vary sentence structure, using different openers. Use adjectival phrases (e.g. biting cold wind). Use appropriate choice of noun or pronoun. Use fronted adverbials. Use apostrophe for plural possession. Use a comma after fronted adverbial (e.g. Later that day,

I heard bad news.). Use commas to mark clauses. Use inverted commas and other punctuation to punctuate

direct speech. Use paragraphs to organised ideas around a theme. Use connecting adverbs to link paragraphs. Write with increasing legibility, consistency and fluency.

Example of higher expectations- Year 4 Writing

Give a personal point of view on a text. Re-explain a text with confidence. Justify inferences with evidence, predicting what might

happen from details stated or implied. Use appropriate voices for characters within a story. Recognise apostrophe of possession (plural) Identify how sentence type can be changed by altering

word order, tenses, adding/deleting words or amending punctuation.

Explain why a writer has used different sentence types or a particular word order and the effect it has created.

Skim & scan to locate information and/or answer a question

Example of higher expectations- Year 4 Reading

Add and subtract numbers with up to 4 digits using the efficient written methods of columnar addition and subtraction where appropriate

Estimate and use inverse operations to check answers to a calculation Solve addition and subtraction two-step problems in contexts, deciding

which operations and methods to use and why Recall multiplication and division facts for multiplication tables up to 12

x 12 Use place value, known and derived facts to multiply and divide

mentally, including: multiplying by 0 and 1; dividing by 1; multiplying three numbers together.

Recognise and use factor pairs and commutativity in mental calculations

Multiply two-digit and three-digit numbers by a one-digit number using formal written layout

Solve problems involving multiplying and adding, including using the distributive law and harder multiplication problems such as which n objects are connected to m objects

Example of higher expectations- Year 4 Maths

Some children are not able to access the curriculum for their year group in one or more subjects.

These are reported as N. Class teachers will be able to inform you as to the curriculum expectations that your child is working at.

N- Working Below

One major change with the disappearance of levels is that when challenging the more able learners, there is an emphasis on breadth of learning and deepening learning by using and applying their knowledge and skills.

The expectation is that these children will develop a deeper and fuller understanding of the curriculum Year Group Expectations.

Exceeding

Thank you for

listening.