Dear Colleague
I am writing to you at this early stage to draw your attention to any special arrangements that may be needed for the 2003 Key Stage 1 assessments. If you have any children of Year 2 age who need special arrangements, or disapplication, please read the QCA Assessment and Reporting Arrangements booklet, particularly the flow charts on page 44, well before the assessment period starts.
General principles and information about special arrangements for children who may need them are given in the 2003 Assessment and Reporting Arrangements booklet from QCA (pages 23-26). More specific advice will be given in the Teachers’ handbooks for English and Maths which will arrive in school as part of the tasks packs in December. Further guidance will be given in the Teachers’ guides to the tests (for children working at Level 2 and above in reading, spelling and maths) which will arrive in April 2003.
The tasks and tests have been designed to allow as many children as possible to have access to them. You may, however, have one or more children in school who will be unable to take part in some or all of the assessment arrangements, even allowing for the full range of adaptations that can be made. The key factor to consider is whether the assessment is accessible to the child (e.g. it is very rarely necessary to disapply the reading task at the end of Key Stage 1 as it only requires the child to share a picture book with an adult).
The QCA guidance on criteria and procedures for disapplication is given in the Assessment and Reporting Arrangements booklet for 2003 (pages 42-48).
Please note that a long term disapplication from some or all of the assessment procedures should be written into the child’s statement or statement review before
the main assessment period in May 2003.
If you are making a temporary disapplication you might find the attached proforma
useful to use as a checklist or as the disapplication itself. If a child of Year 2 age
is working in a class of younger children and is not moving on to Key Stage 2 in September 2003, he/she should be assessed next year (i.e. in 2004) before moving
into a Year 3 class. You should not make a disapplication.
If you are considering disapplying a child from some or all of the assessment
procedures, please contact John Sweet on 01603 433276 to discuss.
Yours sincerely,
Fred Corbett
Assistant Director of Education
Chief Adviser/Head of Service