Management Information Sheet
Statutory Assessment in Primary Schools 2011 / 2012
There are a number of important changes this year. The “Assessment and Reporting Arrangements†(ARA) documents are due to be published later in November and will provide full details of the statutory requirements. The ARAs and other important communications around statutory requirements will come from the DfE’s Standards and Testing Agency (STA), which has taken over many of the functions of the QCDA.
We are conscious that a number of issues around the various statutory assessments and moderations are now 'stacked up' waiting for key decisions from the DfE and hoped it might be helpful to have a brief review of where things are. An STA [QCDA] official recently described "policy" as "still evolving…"…. so we are trying to keep a close eye on it!
EYFS
Arrangements this year are fundamentally exactly the same as last year. Schools will be informed of their moderation dates in the next few weeks. Full requirements appear in the Assessment and Reporting Arrangements (ARA) available through the link below:
http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/assessment/a00200086/early-years-foundation-stage-profile-assessment-in-2012
Y1 Phonics Screening
This will take place in the week of 18th - 22nd June 2012. You are not able to order these materials on the Test Orders website and the test will have its own ARA giving full details, to be published in January. There will be LA moderation of 10% of schools, to be chosen by the DfE. The full evaluation report of the recent DfE pilot of the test can be found here:
http://www.naae.org.uk/naae/files/phonicsevaluation.pdf
Statutory KS1 Moderation and Teacher Assessment
Requirements remain the same as 2011 - tests or tasks must be administered, but the results will not be reported separately but used only to inform teacher assessment. The tests/tasks can be used at any time during the year up to the TA submission date.
Arrangements for Statutory KS1 moderation will follow the same pattern of subject-based individual meetings as the previous three years and we will notify the schools to be moderated as early as possible in the New Year. We regret the delay in this, caused by the new requirement to moderate Y6 writing and the consequent current uncertainty about time scales for submission of data.
Additional materials for exemplification of levels in mathematics have now been published by the DfE and can be found here:
http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/assessment/keystage1/a00198702/key-stage-1-assessment-in-2012
The KS1 ARA contains full details and is now available on the link above.
KS2 Tests
Testing of reading and mathematics will follow the same procedures as previous years as will the sampling tests for science. The schools selected for the science sample will be notified in the New Year.
This year for the first time Level 6 tests are also available on a voluntary basis. If used, they must be ordered through the Test Orders website by 30th November; they will be administered on 21st/22nd May and will be externally marked.
The original information given to schools about the writing tests other than those above has now been clarified by the DfE:
It is a statutory requirement for schools to administer an English writing test. A small sample of schools will be required to administer an externally marked writing test, which will be used to monitor national standards. If a school is not in the sample, the test can be administered at a time of a school's choosing and then marked internally; alternatively schools may prefer a test to take place in test week and be externally marked. In either case, the test result will not be reported to the DfE or LA but used to inform teacher assessment.
The results of the writing sample tests will also not be reported individually. Please note that the advisory note currently on the DfE website (information for schools 3) implies that all schools are asked to undertake the sampling. This is NOT the case – if you are part of the Norfolk sample you will have been already notified individually.
Schools must place orders for English test materials as normal, and should indicate no later than 30th November 2011 if they wish to have the writing test externally marked.
Please note that the default choice setting of the Test Orders site is for the internally marked test to be administered during the spring term; you must change this if you wish to have the test externally marked. All orders must be completed by 30th November.
Y6 Writing – moderation
The LA has been commissioned by the DfE to carry out moderation of teacher assessed writing results in approximately 25% of schools. We expect this to follow a pattern similar to KS1 moderation but are awaiting further details. Moderators will be trained and assessed using national materials provided by STA. Full details will follow as soon as possible.
Communication
In this period of rapid change is essential to ensure that you are receiving the latest information quickly and we thought it helpful to draw your attention to the following message from the DfE/STA:
‘Emails from NCA tools
We are aware that some users have been experiencing difficulties receiving system-generated emails from the NCA tools website, including the emails that allow users to create a new password.
To make sure you receive emails from the NCA tools website, please ensure your ICT department accepts all email addresses ending in 'education.gov.uk'. If your system cannot be amended to accept all emails from STA, please ensure that assessments@education.gov.uk is added to your organisation's safe senders email list. Including these email address on the safe senders email list will allow emails to be sent straight through to recipients and not blocked by spam filters.’
The DfE currently sends out alerts only by twitter or facebook and you may find it useful to monitor the assessment site regularly at http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/assessment
Norfolk assessment services will continue to support you with information and other opportunities through these complexities. We will maintain information through MI sheets and any enquiries can be addressed to: assessment@norfolk.gov.uk.
We are again providing the small-group APP moderation events (Y1-Y6) which schools have found so valuable in the last three years (see details here) and other activities are planned (such as moderation of your own marking of the optional writing test) to meet your needs as they emerge or you share them with us. Full details will be published in the Advisory Services CPD brochure which will be with schools by the end of term.
We are conscious that a number of issues around the various statutory assessments and moderations are now 'stacked up' waiting for key decisions from the DfE and hoped it might be helpful to have a brief review of where things are. An STA [QCDA] official recently described "policy" as "still evolving…"…. so we are trying to keep a close eye on it!
EYFS
Arrangements this year are fundamentally exactly the same as last year. Schools will be informed of their moderation dates in the next few weeks. Full requirements appear in the Assessment and Reporting Arrangements (ARA) available through the link below:
http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/assessment/a00200086/early-years-foundation-stage-profile-assessment-in-2012
Y1 Phonics Screening
This will take place in the week of 18th - 22nd June 2012. You are not able to order these materials on the Test Orders website and the test will have its own ARA giving full details, to be published in January. There will be LA moderation of 10% of schools, to be chosen by the DfE. The full evaluation report of the recent DfE pilot of the test can be found here:
http://www.naae.org.uk/naae/files/phonicsevaluation.pdf
Statutory KS1 Moderation and Teacher Assessment
Requirements remain the same as 2011 - tests or tasks must be administered, but the results will not be reported separately but used only to inform teacher assessment. The tests/tasks can be used at any time during the year up to the TA submission date.
Arrangements for Statutory KS1 moderation will follow the same pattern of subject-based individual meetings as the previous three years and we will notify the schools to be moderated as early as possible in the New Year. We regret the delay in this, caused by the new requirement to moderate Y6 writing and the consequent current uncertainty about time scales for submission of data.
Additional materials for exemplification of levels in mathematics have now been published by the DfE and can be found here:
http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/assessment/keystage1/a00198702/key-stage-1-assessment-in-2012
The KS1 ARA contains full details and is now available on the link above.
KS2 Tests
Testing of reading and mathematics will follow the same procedures as previous years as will the sampling tests for science. The schools selected for the science sample will be notified in the New Year.
This year for the first time Level 6 tests are also available on a voluntary basis. If used, they must be ordered through the Test Orders website by 30th November; they will be administered on 21st/22nd May and will be externally marked.
The original information given to schools about the writing tests other than those above has now been clarified by the DfE:
It is a statutory requirement for schools to administer an English writing test. A small sample of schools will be required to administer an externally marked writing test, which will be used to monitor national standards. If a school is not in the sample, the test can be administered at a time of a school's choosing and then marked internally; alternatively schools may prefer a test to take place in test week and be externally marked. In either case, the test result will not be reported to the DfE or LA but used to inform teacher assessment.
The results of the writing sample tests will also not be reported individually. Please note that the advisory note currently on the DfE website (information for schools 3) implies that all schools are asked to undertake the sampling. This is NOT the case – if you are part of the Norfolk sample you will have been already notified individually.
Schools must place orders for English test materials as normal, and should indicate no later than 30th November 2011 if they wish to have the writing test externally marked.
Please note that the default choice setting of the Test Orders site is for the internally marked test to be administered during the spring term; you must change this if you wish to have the test externally marked. All orders must be completed by 30th November.
Y6 Writing – moderation
The LA has been commissioned by the DfE to carry out moderation of teacher assessed writing results in approximately 25% of schools. We expect this to follow a pattern similar to KS1 moderation but are awaiting further details. Moderators will be trained and assessed using national materials provided by STA. Full details will follow as soon as possible.
Communication
In this period of rapid change is essential to ensure that you are receiving the latest information quickly and we thought it helpful to draw your attention to the following message from the DfE/STA:
‘Emails from NCA tools
We are aware that some users have been experiencing difficulties receiving system-generated emails from the NCA tools website, including the emails that allow users to create a new password.
To make sure you receive emails from the NCA tools website, please ensure your ICT department accepts all email addresses ending in 'education.gov.uk'. If your system cannot be amended to accept all emails from STA, please ensure that assessments@education.gov.uk is added to your organisation's safe senders email list. Including these email address on the safe senders email list will allow emails to be sent straight through to recipients and not blocked by spam filters.’
The DfE currently sends out alerts only by twitter or facebook and you may find it useful to monitor the assessment site regularly at http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/assessment
Norfolk assessment services will continue to support you with information and other opportunities through these complexities. We will maintain information through MI sheets and any enquiries can be addressed to: assessment@norfolk.gov.uk.
We are again providing the small-group APP moderation events (Y1-Y6) which schools have found so valuable in the last three years (see details here) and other activities are planned (such as moderation of your own marking of the optional writing test) to meet your needs as they emerge or you share them with us. Full details will be published in the Advisory Services CPD brochure which will be with schools by the end of term.