Primary Assessment changes… again!

First of all, let me say that I’m pleased that primary assessment is changing again, because it’s been a disaster in so many ways. So here is a summary of the changes at each key stage – with my thoughts about each.

Early Years Foundation Stage Profile

• The EYFS Profile will stay, but will be updated to bring it into line with the new national curriculum and take account of current knowledge & research. I’ve never been a huge fan of the profile, but I know most EY practitioners have been, so that seems a sensible move.
• A proposed change to reduce the number of reported Early Learning Goals to focus on prime areas and Literacy/Maths
• The ’emerging’ band may be divided to offer greater clarity of information particularly for lower-attaining pupils.
• An advisory panel will be set up to advise on changes to the profile and ELGs. Membership of that could be contentious

Reception Baseline

• New Reception baseline to be introduced from 2020 (with proper trialling beforehand this time, one presumes!) to take place in the first 6 weeks of school.
• Won’t be a ‘test’, but also won’t be observational over time. Suspect something more like the current CEM model, perhaps?
• Will focus on literacy & numeracy, and potentially a ‘self-regulation’ element, as good predictors for attainment in KS2
• Data won’t be used for any judgements about Reception, but will be used at cohort level to judge progress by the end of KS2.
• The intention is for the assessment to provide some narrative formative information about children’s next steps.

Key Stage 1

• The KS1 Grammar, Punctuation & Spelling test will remain optional.
• Statutory Assessment will remain until at least 2023 (to allow for a year of overlap with the first cohort to be assessed using Reception baseline).
• A new framework for Teacher Assessment of Writing has been published for this year only. Exemplification will follow this term.
• DfE will continue to make assessments available (perhaps through an assessment bank if that ever gets off the ground!) after 2023, to help schools to benchmark attainment.
• After 2023, tests and statutory teacher assessment will become optional for through primary schools.
• There is more work to be done to find a system which works well for infant/junior and first/middle schools. This will be done with those in the sectors.

Key Stage 2

• A multiplication check will be introduced at the end of Year 4. (Although, of course, whether the end means July or May remains to be seen).
• School-level data on the multiplication check won’t be published.
• This will be the last year that teachers have to make Teacher Assessment judgements for Reading and Maths
• A new framework for Teacher Assessment of Writing has been published for this year only. Exemplification will follow this term.
• DfE will continue to evaluate other options for the future, but not really committing to anything yet.
• Small trials of peer-to-peer moderation will take place this summer.
• Science Teacher Assessment frameworks will be updated next year.
• The Reading test will not be timetabled for Monday of SATs week any more (hurrah!)
• The DfE aims to link the reading content of the tests more closely to the curriculum to ensure children are drawing on their knowledge.

My thoughts

Overall, I’m pleased. Most of these changes are to be welcomed. The Reception baseline is a sensible idea (just a shame it was so badly implemented the first time round), as is scrapping KS1 assessments. The Early Years changes seem reasonable given the popularity of the current setup. The improvements to the KS2 Reading test are positive, as is the removal of pointless Teacher Assessment judgements.

On Writing, I fear we haven’t gone far enough. The current system is a joke, and it seems like the interim solution we’ll have to replace the old interim solution will just aim to make it less awful without really fixing the problem. It’s a shame that there is no obvious answer on the horizon. Perhaps the department has had its fingers burnt by rushing into quick fixes in the past and is prepared to bide its time.

In the interim, the updated expectations for Writing seem more manageable both in terms of achieving and assessing them. Of course, the devil is in the detail. If we get another exemplification book that breaks down single statements into several tick-boxes then we may be back at square one. Equally, of course, we can expect proportions of pupils meeting the expected standard to rise again substantially this year. Surely we have to be honest now and say that we really cannot use this data for accountability purposes? Mind you, perhaps it won’t matter – if we’re all getting 90% in Writing, it’ll only be the tested subjects that will make a difference to the accountability!

There are some other changes I would have liked to have seen. I really don’t think the “expected standard” label is helpful, particularly in subjects where scaled scores are used; it’s a shame we’ve not seen the back of that.

We’re not out of the woods yet. But we’re heading in the right direction, and credit is due to those at the department for listening. Let’s just hope they keep listening until we all get it right.