Flying solo but never flying blind
Many primary schools are reviewing the way they assess children and their long-term assessment strategy following the cancellation of SATs at KS1 and KS2. Nick Hackett explains how his school in Dunstable uses standardised reading assessments to identify gaps in pupils’ learning and to ensure colleagues are never ‘flying blind’
Most children find moving up a year both exciting and unsettling. This September promises to be no different – but it’s likely that any possible ‘summer dip’ in performance teachers might see will be magnified by the disruption caused by the pandemic.
In addition, the cancellation of SATs at key stages 1 and 2 has left many primary schools asking searching questions about how they can best address their main concerns – improving boys’ reading, for instance, gap analysis post serial lockdowns, identifying speech and language needs for younger children or supporting wellbeing and behavioural needs.
“Few years have tested primary school teachers in the way the last year has,” says Crispin Chatterton, Director of Education at GL Assessment, “and they have responded brilliantly. Now there is an opportunity for schools to think about a longer-term assessment strategy and what data they need to meet their priorities.”
At Beecroft Academy in Dunstable, Headteacher Nick Hackett says the focus has been on reading and how assessment can support learners and inform teachers. The school has been using the New Group Reading Test for every year group from Year 2 upwards since 2015. It therefore had a wealth of reliable, standardised data that allowed teachers to benchmark children nationally, against each other and against previous years. It meant that despite the disruption and even without SATs Beecroft hasn’t been ‘flying blind’.
Reading loss
It’s a matter of record that the pandemic has had a detrimental effect overall on the reading ability of primary-aged children. According to GL Assessment’s own figures, reading scores at primary showed the equivalent of two months’ loss in terms of reading compared to the year before. Unsurprisingly, the youngest children appear to have been hit hardest of all – almost certainly because most didn’t have sufficient language or reading skills to be able to flourish as independent readers.
Post lockdown Beecroft also discovered that children’s reading ability was not always as anticipated. “The gap between advantaged and disadvantaged pupils’ capabilities had widened a bit as expected,” says Nick Hackett, “but there was quite a lot of individual variation. Some children who we would’ve expected to fall behind didn’t, and some we thought would do better didn’t progress as we thought. The patterns were just not predictable.”
Individual support
In September, schools will face many of the same challenges they did pre-Covid in addition to further challenges as the impact of the pandemic lingers. For Beecroft, the ability of the school to register pupil progress accurately against a reliable baseline is not the only benefit of NGRT. “We always look at the data carefully – to try to understand what it means for each child,” says Nick. “This year we paid particular attention to it because of the amount of time most pupils spent out of school.”
One of the main advantages of NGRT is the detailed insights that it provides teachers on each pupil. “Of course, the overall score is important, but teachers also want to know what the NGRT reports say about a child’s progress and the advice they suggest – have you tried this for that child, and so on.”
As the assessments are digital, they can also greatly help with teacher workload because in-depth analyses are readily available. “Having access to more data does not create more work, it simply improves a teacher’s ability to work more effectively. And we’re working with Fisher Family Trust to help make it even easier for primary teachers to visualise data this academic year,” says Crispin.
Teacher judgement is obviously crucial, Nick points out. “Teachers know their children best and they can shine a light on why an individual may have performed better or worse than expected.” But teacher judgement can only take them so far. “It can’t show them if the trends they have noticed in their class are replicated in others – is inference strong and retrieval weak, for instance, or vice versa post lockdown? And teacher judgement can’t show how their children performed compared to others nationally.”
Sharing data
Nick says there may be a lingering suspicion of assessments in some primary schools because of their association with high-stakes accountability. NGRT involves no preparation on the part of the child, but even so he says school leaders should be transparent on why they are doing any assessment and what it’s for.
“You have to be clear with colleagues about why you’re doing assessment, what impact you’re looking for and what use you will put the information to,” he says. Transparency is greatly aided by sharing data widely – and Nick is an evangelist when it comes to sharing. Results at Beecroft are shared not only with other colleagues but with parents, governors and children – and with their chosen secondary school.
Teachers value the diagnostics and the in-school and national benchmarking, governors appreciate how NGRT can show how Beecroft is performing locally and nationally, and parents and children benefit from being shown what progress actually looks like.
“The NGRT reports generated show parents how pupils are performing nationally, which is invaluable, and they also allow us to demonstrate pupil progress, which can be incredibly useful if parents only have the headline SATs scores of neighbouring schools.”
Nick stresses, however, that schools shouldn’t lose sight of what assessment is for. “Assessment has to be purposeful and meaningful. You have to be clear that its main purpose is to have an impact on teaching and learning – it’s about a lot more than sharing top lines with governors.”
Year 2 insights
As Beecroft prepares for the new school year, Nick says that NGRT has been an invaluable complement to teacher judgement and ensures that the school has information across the year groups in the absence of national data. He also points out that it’s just as useful for younger children as older ones.
At Beecroft, children sit the assessment from Year 2. “This is where NGRT can come into its own because it’s adaptive and suitable for any level,” says Crispin.
“At this age, most children start to do their first independent reading but many still need help with their phonics. An assessment like NGRT can help teachers monitor all children consistently, regardless of their reading ability. And because absolutely no preparation is required, it can gently help acquaint young children with test papers and a formal testing environment minus the pressures associated with high-stakes accountability.”
Nick’s assessment tips
- Don’t use data in isolation
Schools should be sure why they are using assessment and how it will affect teaching and learning - Do share widely
Schools should share the data with those who will find it most useful. Governors, parents, children, teachers in other year groups and secondary schools will all find assessment data invaluable - Don’t just look at the overall figure
It can be tempting to take the headline score and not investigate further. Even if a child has performed well, they usually won’t have performed consistently across the board, so probe a little deeper - Do ensure regularity
It’s important that assessment happens at approximately the same time every year to allow accurate comparisons over time. Children can be assessed with NGRT termly, and it’s best to let them settle in for a few weeks but not test them so late that interventions don’t have the time to work before term ends - Don’t be inconsistent with how and where you assess
Give children spaced seating and sufficient time. And don’t be tempted to give them incentives – such as the promise of games on completion – that may compromise the test and lead them to rush it