How children are assessed at school

Including SAT levels, how the National Curriculum works and P scales for children with learning difficulties.

What is the National Curriculum?

The National Curriculum is in place to make sure that all children receive a similar education and standard of teaching, no matter what school they attend. It provides a blueprint for learning and teaching, setting out the most important knowledge and skills that every child has a right to learn.

It provides standards to measure how well children are doing and also defines your child’s progress in broad Key Stages. Schools are free to organise teaching within this framework as they think best. They create their own plans, term by term and year by year.

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

The curriculum framework from birth to five years is called the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). The EYFS looks at the whole child. It covers six areas of learning including a child’s physical, intellectual, social and emotional development.

A child’s development is observed, assessed and recorded by their teacher. The teacher will be able to tell whether or not a child has a particular difficulty in any area and help them decide what the child should be learning next.

A record of development across all six areas provides a picture of the whole child at the end of the EYFS. The observations and information gathered on each child is summed up in their National Foundation Stage Profile.

Children who may not have achieved all their early learning goals by the end of the EYFS can stay on this curriculum during Year 1.

The National Curriculum for five to 16 year olds

This must be taught in all state schools. The National Curriculum (NC) is broken down into four key stages. Children can achieve at any level in any key stage but the table shows the usual bands of achievement:

* GCSE 14-19 programmes, Diplomas, NVQs etc

NC levels measure a child’s attainment and provide a guideline for planning a teaching programme.

In primary schools it is common to see each level broken down into three ‘steps’, which are:

• low – some elements of that level achieved (sometimes known as  c)
• secure – most elements of that level achieved (sometimes known as b)
• High – level achieved and working in some elements of the next level (sometimes known as a)

Using these scales, teachers can know exactly how a child is progressing. Children are usually expected to progress through two ‘steps’ in a school year, for example, from 3a to 3b or 1a to 2b, or through one whole level every two years in Key stage 2 . The government is keen to see two levels of progress per key stage.

Standard Assessment Tests (SATS)

At the end of Key Stages 1 and 2 your child will take national tests called Standard Assessment Tests, or SATs.

The target levels are:

• level 2 at the end of Key Stage 1
• level 4 at the end of Key Stage 2
• level 6 at the end of Key Stage 3

So, for instance, at the end of Year 6 a child of average ability may have achieved 4a maths, 4b literacy and 4a science in their tests, whereas a child with special educational needs (SEN) may achieve a 1a in English, 3c in maths and 2a in science. The tests won’t give you a complete picture of how your child is doing at school. At the end of Key Stage 1 teachers report teacher assessment not test results. This is to give a better indication of a pupil’s ability.

Teacher assessment

In most primary schools teachers are using Assessing Pupils Progress materials (APP) which give clear statements of attainment for each level of the National curriculum. These can be seen on the National strategies website along with examples of pupils’ work in the standards files. Pupils are assessed periodically against the statements of attainment and this enables teachers to make good judgements on the levels pupils are achieving. It also highlights areas of weakness which supports the teacher in planning next steps.

P Scales

Children with the greatest difficulties may have their learning measured on P scales.

To measure the progress of children with learning disabilities, the National Curriculum includes P scales where very small steps of progress can be measured. This provides a way of assessing children aged between five and 16 who are working below level 1 of the National Curriculum. P scales break down the important skills into small achievable steps. There are P scales for all subjects. The P scales use eight levels, P1 - P8, starting at P1.They can be used in primary, secondary and special schools.

It can be the case that some children with complex needs make very uneven progress - sometimes scoring highly on one area of learning and appearing to make no progress in other aspects of development. After a child achieves Level 8 on the P scale they move on to work at Level 1 within whatever Key Stage is appropriate for their age e.g. a 10 year old on P7 will be working within the Key Stage 2 programmes of study.

How do these assessments help children?

All the different types of assessments provide teachers with the information they need to plan future learning, taking into account what each child can actually manage. They also give parents and carers a clear idea of their child’s progress.

You will also hear schools refer to 'assessment for learning', which means that pupils are encouraged to discuss the next steps they need to take in their learning and how to get there.

Adapting work to suit each child

Children are not all the same. They develop and learn as individuals. Every class has a range of abilities so teachers adapt the materials and the way they teach to suit different learning needs.

This is called ‘differentiation’ or ‘quality-first teaching'. Some children may need extra help to learn what is being taught to them. The phrase teachers often use for this is ‘accessing the curriculum’. It might mean using simplified worksheets; recording work on a tape recorder rather than writing it; or using a computer. It might also take the form of extra support in class, group or individual teaching so that a child can make progress (often known as intervention). Differentiation is used across the National Curriculum. So, for instance, a Shakespeare play can be taught and explained to children with learning difficulties or concepts in maths can be demonstrated by using practical equipment.