On 19th October 2016 Justine Greening, Secretary of State for Education, made a statement about primary education. She acknowledged that the new assessments at the end of KS 2 taken this summer raised the bar on what pupils should have been taught by the age of 11. She also acknowledged that the pace and scale of change has been stretching and that no more than 6% of primary schools will be below the floor standard in 2016.
The Secretary of State now wants there to be a clear pathway to a settled system to ensure we can achieve strong educational outcomes for all children. With this in mind she announced that:
- There would be no changes to assessment until at least 2018 -19.
- There would be a full consultation on primary assessment and accountability in the new year.
- There will be improved guidance on moderation of teacher assessment which will be accompanied by mandatory training for local authority mentors.
- That the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile will remain in place for the 2017 to 2018 academic year.
- The key stage 1 grammar, punctuation and spelling test will remain non-statutory for schools this year but tests will be available for teachers to use if they choose.
- There will be no statutory mathematics and reading resits on children’s arrival in year 7. Schools will need to focus on the steps needed to ensure a child catches up lost ground. High-quality resit papers will be made available for teachers to use if they wish, as part of their ongoing assessments.
- There will be a targeted package of support to make sure that struggling pupils are supported by teachers to catch up in year 7.
- The Rochford Review Final Report, also published on 19thOctober, will form part of the primary assessment consultation in early spring.
Written by Lorraine Petersen and published on www.lpec.org.uk
