Gretton Primary Academy

Assessing without levels

The new National Curriculum for Key Stages 1 and 2 came into force in September 2014 and does not include any levels. Instead it provides an outline of broad expectations indicating what pupils should be taught in different year groups or key stages. Schools are given the opportunity to develop their own assessment system or adopt a system that meets the needs of the school as there is no national system as yet. At Gretton Primary Academy we will be adopting a phased approach to the new assessment method in line with other Primary academies in the Brooke Weston Trust. We will be using the phrases Entering, Developing and Secure to describe a child’s progress against the statements for their year group.  To start with, many children will be Entering for their year group. As the year progresses, it is expected that the children’s knowledge and understanding of the curriculum will increase and they will move to Developing. By the end of the year many children will be assessed as Secure in age-related attainment. A very small number of children may not achieve expected standards. If children acquire a very secure understanding or ‘mastery’ of the curriculum for their year they will then begin to work on some of the content for the following year.

It should be noted that the new curriculum is generally harder than the previous version so the proportion of children achieving age related expectations may be lower than in previous years.