Hill West Primary School Issue 11, May 2014
Pedagogical Newsletter –May 2014 Work Sharing Evening ThankQuestionnaire you to all those families who came Findings
to join us on Wednesday 7th May between 3.30pm – 6.00pm to look at your child’s work. This evening was really well supported and we hope it gave you a greater insight into what your child has been doing in school. We also hope it enabled you to identify those things that your child is really good at and what your child needs to work on next. Our next work sharing evening will be early in the Autumn Term. Please remember to return your child’s learning profile to school.
In this issue: Work Sharing Evening EHC Plans Assessment after Levels Welcome to Holland Outdoor Learning What we look for in Hill West Leaders E-Safety Phonic Screening Check
EHC Plans to replace Statements From September 2014, Government reforms mean that everyone aged 0 to 25 with SEND will have a single plan setting out all the support they will receive from education, health and social care and who is responsible for each part of the plan. This EHC Plan will replace the statement of Special Educational Needs. Individuals and families will have more input into identifying their needs and the support they need to get the most out of life, whether that's from school, college, health or the county council. The council will need to produce information on all the services it expects to be available locally, 'The Local Offer', and arrange a personal budget if that is what the family wants.
Schools will also be required to publish information on how they meet SEND needs. All agencies will jointly plan and commission the services that are needed and will be responsible for monitoring whether these are improving outcomes. Those children with existing statements of special educational need will be transferred to an EHC over time (the current suggestion is within 3 years). We have been working hard with the support of our Educational Psychologist Anita Soni, the SENCO at Mere Green and a group of parents to develop our own personal offer that will soon be published on our website. This will detail what we as a school can offer children with identified special educational needs as well as signposting parents to what is available more widely as part of the City’s local offer.
Assessment after Levels Reminders: We break up for half term on Wednesday 21st May as school is closed to children on the 22nd and 23rd May for in-service training.
With the introduction of the new primary national curriculum in September 2014 we also see the disappearance of levels of attainment. Over many years of use teachers, parents and pupils to some extent, have learned to aspire to a 2B or better at the end of KS1 and a 4B or better at the end of KS2. With levels having been written out of the new national curriculum a new language of assessment needs to be created. The National Association of Head Teachers has recently published a report into life in schools after levels and made a number of recommendations. Some of which are outlined here.
Schools should adopt a consistent approach across the country even though advice from the DfE is that schools are free to design their own systems of assessment. Schools should retain the use of levels while they are designing their new systems. Pupils should be judged against objective criteria rather than ranked against each other. All assessment needs external moderation and this moderation needs to be rigorous and thorough. Assessment should be driven from the curriculum. We have already started to formalise a plan for September nd rd and will spend the 22 and 23 May preparing for the changes in our INSET days.