Articles

Tina Humber, Reffley Community School Deputy Head, Senco and Norfolk Division Treasurer, gave her personal views regarding assessment in the NUT Teacher magazine this month. Tina is an invaluable asset to Norfolk NUT and her wide experience and knowledge in this field may ring true to many members.

Assessment is not a new thing for teachers, it is an integral part of teaching and learning. In September 2005 the DFES introduced PPA (Planning, preparing and assessment) time as part of the National Agreement on Workforce Reform, which is a minimum of 10% guaranteed planning, preparation and assessment time, to allow teachers to have time to plan and prepare high quality lessons which meet the needs of every pupil. Giving them the opportunity within the school timetable to work with other teachers and support staff to devise and develop increasingly personalised teaching and learning strategies should contribute significantly to tackling teacher workloads and raising the standards of achievement of all our pupils.

From Nursery teachers are taking photographs, recording and collecting evidence to support their assessments on where children are at with their learning journey. As children reach KS2 (Key Stage 2) the assessment focuses are predominately in English and Maths, and we all know what that means . . . SATs (Standard Assessment Tests). SATs are a method of comparing children's ability against local and national standards of achievement. However, I believe it all comes back to trusting the professionals and working in clusters to moderate work to come to an agreed understanding of what a Level 4 etc is, which is what many clusters of schools have been doing with APP (Assessing Pupils Progress).  The money that would be saved not administering, printing, posting, marking SATs etc, could be put back in to schools budgets to improve the quality of teaching, reducing class sizes and allow more CPD (Continual Professional Development) for teachers to help staff cater more effectively for those children that struggle because of the ever growing learning/behavioural difficulties, e.g. Autistic Syndrome Disorder (ASD), Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, speech and language delays etc.  

SLT (Single Level Tests) are in English reading, English writing and Mathematics and assess knowledge, skills and understanding at a specific, single level (level 3, 4, 5 or 6). QCDA develops and delivers the single level tests pilot on behalf of the DCSF. At the moment, only a small number of pilot schools are involved, as well as other stakeholders like Ofqual and local authorities. Would these be a good replacement for KS2 SATs? For example a teacher levels a child's writing as a Level 3a and then you give the child a Level 3 test and low and behold they get a high Level 3. So I ask myself, what is the point of testing? As the saying goes, you don't weigh a pig to make it fat.

What would make much better economical sense and be beneficial to schools is national sampling. In Teaching Times (May 2010) Christine Blower, General Secretary of the NUT, said: “We would like to see the next government introduce a national sampling system for English and mathematics tests in Year 6, which they have already done for science in Year 6 and for all subjects in Year 9. A sampling system would give a national picture of pupil achievement without identifying individual schools or children."But sensible strategies and policies are not something that happen much in education, as I found out recently that by law a school doesn't have to have a library, but a prison does.

What schools and all those that sail in them need are processes that support and help improve areas of weakness, not judge and destroy what the school have manage to achieve with the children, given the resources and staff they have. Doing APP for three to six children in your class for English and Maths helps the teachers to be secure in their judgements they are making regarding levelling children's ability at a given time. APP gives teachers the language to use in dialogue with other staff, and makes them grow in professional confidence to be able to justify what they are teaching the children in their class.

By using APP as an assessment tool for all the children in your class damages teachers work-life balance because of the hours it takes to complete, it duplicates the assessment processes that are already present in schools and undermines the profession by not allowing individual schools to do what works best for them, as the end result is the same - levelled work or a snapshot of how children are doing at that moment in time.

Teachers are guardians of the standards in their own classrooms and are held accountable by processes such as, performance management, teaching standards, capability procedures and OFSTED (Office for Standards in Education). Teachers want the same thing for the children in their charge, to be able to help them reach their full potential by the experience and opportunities provided for them in class and school. What 'good' teachers do is teach relevant skills for life, such as how to respond in different situations or presenting information to an audience, which can be orally presented or written down, but not just learned to pass a test.

Teachers in the 21st century now have to find ways of reaching children who have been damaged by society. Schools have to compensate for the many children who are in one parent families and feel the loss of a parent, children who are feed a diet of chocolate, crisps and coke, children who are exposed to drugs and born into poverty that effect their life chances. Perhaps if schools where assessed souly on children's, emotional, social and behavioural well-being, neighbours may not suffer from so much anti-social behaviour and the male prison rate may indeed drop. Because it takes more to build and run a prison than it does a school.

If your job is becoming increasingly difficult because of the growing, unnecessary demands of APP contact your regional office for support and advice or visit the website www.teachers.org.uk

Interesting and useful websites:

www.tda.gov.uk/remodelling/nationalagreement/ppa.aspx (will give you WAMG - Workforce Agreement Monitoring Group advice on PPA)

www.teachers.org.uk/files/active/0/ppa_207sq3996.pdf (will give you Planning, Preparation & Assessment Leadership and Management time - Guidance for NUT Members

www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/SATS.html (will give you some brilliant online resources to use in class with the children)

www.teachingtimes.com/articles/sats-boycott-chaps.htm (information about the SATs boycott)

www.nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/app

www.teachingtimes.com/articles/asessing-pupils-progress--scheme.htm

www.adhd-add.co.uk (gives you comprehensive information on ADHD/ADD)

www.qcda.gov.uk/assessment/333.aspx (information on Single Level Tests)

www.teachernet.gov.uk/teachingandlearning/schoolstandards/mgppoilot/ (information on the making good progress pilot)