Nc Levels At Beginning Of Year One

[Guest]

I work in the Foundation Stage of large primary school and the school are introducing a whole school tracking system for pupil progress. This is to start at the beginning of year one (thankfully the 3 foundation stage classes are not being asked to complete extra paper work and tracking sheets). However I need to find a simple way of being able to level the children against NC levels for either the end of Foundation or very soon in Year One. Is there any way of using their profile scores at the end of foundation to do this or are the yaear one teachers going to have to assess the children themselves at the start of the year. It seems a shame that all the work we do on the profiles cannot be used to give year one teachers the information they need. Would appreciate advice on this.

[Guest]

Year 1 teachers SHOULD NOT being doing assessments at the beginning of the year but using the FSP information to provide a curriculum that meet the needs of the children. Most children will not have completed all the 4 - 8 points on the FSP (the ELGs) and will therefore need more CGFS experiences to do so before they are ready to move to the NC Y1 curriculum. "Continuing the Learning Journey" by QCA and the Sally Featherstone publications "Smooth Transitions" and "Making it work in Y1" will provide structures, rationales and practical ideas for this

[Guest]

We have something called an achievement review each term with our head and up to now we've based our levels on P levels cos thats what previous head did. But this term I will insist on using the FSP points.

[Guest]

Just tried to say well moan about year 1 teachers not taking any notice of our FSPs. Should we use a class overview to persude an interest.

The year 1s have been gazing szdly at us this week, although they were allowed to PLAY this afternoon!!!!!

[AnonyMouse_73]

This is a really difficult one if youer school doesnt have a climate fo wanting to make changes in year one, and persoanlly I recommend the stuck record approach, always keeping it on the agenda.

 

W are very fortunate that we are making quite big changes in year one at least for the first term which is a start and are conituing as Ocelot says with the FSP initially. They then assess children against NC levels later in the year, using p levels only in the last term.

 

Gill have you waved the 'FAQ for the FS' under your Heads nose. You can find them

here

 

Do let us know how you get on

[AnonyMouse_3307]

Utterly agree - how can you assss children against a curriculum you haven't even taught them yet. Might as well predict their GCSE's while you're at it. Work from where you know children are (ie FSP outcomes) but keep an eye on expectations and Y1 learning intentions (as many are overlapped with FSCG anyway.) From about half term to the end of term you will be able to start to make INFORMED judgements about attainment against NC criteria using what you know, have observed or have collected.

 

Having a class grid for the profile scales is very useful for Y1 staff as it provides all they need to know - they don't really have time or need to read thousands of detailed entries of observations, and anyway these have informed the FSP so the information has already been used and synthesised into the FSP outcomes. They now need to use their own records to make their judgements on the next phase of learning towards the final KS1 assessments. Working together to find common ground can be a good way to engage Y1 who are often badly trained in the FSP so don't know how to use the scales etc. Working with Y1 teachers this year they were very enthusiastic once the meaning of the FSP was explained to them in ways that they could effectively use to support their practice and curricular requirements.

 

As for P levels......don't get me started. There is a rant somewhere on the site, so i'll leave you to search for that rather than repeat myself. CAn feel my BP rising as I think about them.

 

Cx