P Scales

[AnonyMouse_3678]

Hi,

 

Does anybody else level their children for reading, writing and numeracy using the P Scales? In order to track the children's progress I level in Dec, Mar and Jun and this data is shared with the school and used to monitor progress into Year One.

 

Where would you expect a child to be on the p scales in Mar?

 

Does anybody have an aletrnative system based on profile points e.g. 3 in Dec, 5 in Mar?

 

Thanks

[Guest]

The p scales are NOT for use for foundation stage children. They are for SEN children in KS1...

[Guest]

Hi,

I was on a moderation course today and they said the P levels were only for SEN, so not sure. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

[AnonyMouse_3678]

I know they are not designed for Reception and they are so difficult to make a judgement against. All years have to submit data though, and this is how I have been asked to assess the children.

 

Have been told that children should have achieved 1c in June or they are considered target children - how would this compare to other people's experience of where their children are at the end of the year?

[Guest tinkerbell]

I have recently done a statement review with my HT who is the SEN co-ordinator.I persuaded her to record the achievements of the reception boy using the profile points not Ps.I have also heard that PScales are for children on the National curriculum not reception children.

[AnonyMouse_4544]

The general advice is NOT to use P scales as these do not apply to the FOundation Stage

We have just finished writing our Transition Policy and feel strongly that children should be assessed using the profile not other means and have included this in the policy (with the heads blessing)

'The Foundation Stage Profile is an invaluable tool for understanding children’s development up to the point of departure from the Foundation Stage and can be continued as an assessment tool in Key Stage 1 for those children who have not yet met all Early Learning Goals. It is intended to inform Key Stage 1 staff and does not require transference of information to National Curriculum levels.'

Edited March 1, 2006 by MARl0N

[AnonyMouse_3307]

Sorry, but I'm already starting to hyperventilate at the mention of those P levels!! Children are expected to achieve most of the ELGs by the end of FS and this is evidenced through their attainment against the FS Profile. P levels don't reflect all the FS curriculum, and really are for SEN assesment in the National Curriculum. 2008 can't come soon enough!

 

Now I am going off to scream into the nearest pillow. Sorry Sunflower but this really is the subject that pushes my buttons the most. (Unless someone says synthetic phonics, which a few long term members will understand - )

[AnonyMouse_3544]

I sympathise with you our reception teacher has to p scale too and the management team has the same expectations as yours A 1c mans the KS1 teachers don't have too difficult a task for sats.

I feel it is too high for our catchment area and we have a large number of children who do not make to 1c. (our fault in EY for letting them play!)

BUT Last year a quarter of the Reception class entered with poor speech and co-ordination skills and needed speech therapy and occupational therapy so how any one could expect them to be writing at the end of the year was beyond me.

We continue to battle on, passing over more and more info on FS being a KS in it's own right and progress being measured using SSand ELG, pointing to the official advice from the government that pscales are not for use with FS and that it is poor practise to use an SEN tool to predict progress with children who are not SEn but too small and inexperienced to have progressed to NC levels.

Sorry this doesn't answer your question just let's off steam.

[Guest]

I totally understand how you feel about having to use the P scales for reception- we to have to give this info as well as the profiles. Amazing really how schools choose to ignore the advice that the assessment team from the LEA give to FS. Using the p scales in this way is a nightmare as they do not correlate. It makes me feel that at times its pointless working in the way that we- do valuing play and child initiated learning when what the assessment coordinator wants is a NC level from 5 year old children!!!!!!!!!! I feel at times that its a stubborn refusal to acknowledge what the FS is really about.

 

Lisa

[Guest]

We just assess reception childrne against the profile. However, I have just done all the paperwork and annual reviews for 2 of my reception children with statements, and we refer to the P levels, because they broke down statments into much smaller steps. The said children had only scored 1 or 2 profile points in total over all the 6 areas. I'm not sure whether they are supposed to be used at all for this, but it was actually helpful to see that the childrne have made some (if very small) progress since Nursery.

[Guest]

We only use P-scales for SEN childen with statements, who are likely to be needing them further up the school, so that progress can be recorded easier, weak points are clearer to see, and IEP targets can be taken from them if necessary.

[Guest]

I totally understand how you feel about having to use the P scales for reception- we to have to give this info as well as the profiles. Amazing really how schools choose to ignore the advice that the assessment team from the LEA give to FS. Using the p scales in this way is a nightmare as they do not correlate. It makes me feel that at times its pointless working in the way that we- do valuing play and child initiated learning when what the assessment coordinator wants is a NC level from 5 year old children!!!!!!!!!! I feel at times that its a stubborn refusal to acknowledge what the FS is really about.

 

Lisa

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I can only agree with everyone here Sunflower P scales are not for Reception .It has taken me ,as coordinator 2 years to finally get Senior management,assessment coordinator and lit coordinator(who is also yr 1 teacher to listen .We are now going to use the FSP to assess writing.We will collect writing assessments fromthe children half termly but when the rest of the school are using P scales FS will look through examples of childrens writing collected during half term ,lists,writing from role play ,etc and agree the profile level they are working at.This will then be put on the school network and used to track the children .I have used a class profile sheet I found on this forum,which lsts Profile scales across the 6 areas and set it up in our tracker system.So now we enter chns Profile scores half termly and everyone in school can use them to see where each child is .I ve just read this through and Im not sure how easy it is to understand but I suppose its a bit like doing the profile on line ,but for writing we collect a folder of evidence for each child .Does that make sense ?Crestacat

[Guest]

Our school wanted us to use P Levels but the FS team managed to persuade them not.

 

HOWEVER!! We have had to comprimise.

 

We assess against the ELGs and FSP throughout Nursery and Reception, but at the end of their Reception year we have to P Level them against Reading, Writing and Maths.

 

Will be a lot of work at the end of the year but at least we're not doing it throughout.

 

Reason given was so that Y1 had some baselines to go against - although I'm sure they'll do their own baselines in September anyway!!

[Guest]

The general advice is NOT to use P scales as these do not apply to the FOundation Stage

We have just finished writing our Transition Policy and feel strongly that children should be assessed using the profile not other means and have included this in the policy (with the heads blessing)

'The Foundation Stage Profile is an invaluable tool for understanding children’s development up to the point of departure from the Foundation Stage and can be continued as an assessment tool in Key Stage 1 for those children who have not yet met all Early Learning Goals. It is intended to inform Key Stage 1 staff and does not require transference of information to National Curriculum levels.'

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