Life Without Levels INSET

Editor's Notes

• #3: Aims and objectives today – this is an ongoing process and will take us into next year. Like with the development of our curriculum, we will be revisiting this next year and working together to develop a shared understanding of assessment at QM.
• #4: 1 - Before we can think of the specifics of assessment today, we need to consider the bigger picture. This model is called the Golden Circle and provides a ‘code’ of how to think about being successful. Simon Sinek developed the model after studying the most successful and innovative people and businesses and digging down to what enabled their lasting impact in whatever area they were in. For example, he looked at Apple and how they maintain their success. The idea is that everyone, 100% of people, know what they do. Some know how they do it. But very few know why they do what they do. By why – he doesn’t mean to make a profit. But what is your purpose, what drives you, what is your belief, why does your organisation do what they do and why do we get out of bed every morning to do it. He says most people work from the outside in: from the clearest thing to the fuzziest. But the most successful people work from the inside out and begin whatever they do with why. 2 - So, we know that we assess pupils. And we know how we do it – marking, feedback, SIMs, SATs, etc. BUT why do we do it?
• #5: 1 - SO, we’re going to continue thinking about why we do what we do but it would help if we just had a bit of background about the types of assessment in primary. AfL v AoL AfL is the everyday and AoL happens less regularly but is not necessarily less important. It is this AoL that is changing in terms of a whole school approach (we want to continue the excellence we provide in terms of AfL – which was highlighted in our review) and which is really helping pupils move forward in their learning. The use of summative data is just as powerful in supporting children in their progress through their school journey.
• #6: Key reasons (the why) for a new curriculum and assessment system is – (read key points) 4 – So we have a shift of approach in terms of curriculum, which leads to assessment.
• #7: the idea of deeper learning is a huge one underpinning the curriculum and therefore our assesment of pupils. It surrounds children developing their knowledge and understanding of central concepts in curriculum areas. And it recognises the idea (shown in the cartoon we started with) that pupils can increase in what they know while actually decreasing in what they understand. 1 – in order to secure understanding, and on the road to deep learning pupils (and staff!) may have to go through a process of ‘unlearning’, where previous concepts and ideas that you held in an area need to be reworked and your understanding challenged before you can grow to understand more. e.g. SPaG – children say ‘we was playing in the park’. This is so rooted in their understanding (they use it everyday, families, etc) that they may have to unlearn that in order to deepend knowledge and secure understanding.
• #8: Removing labels is another belief that underpins how and what we do. DISCUSSION – what are the labels we give children? What is the impact of this on them and their learning? Think about your classrooms and your practice but also what you may have been labelled in the past. 1 – the pygmalion effect is from research from the 60s that explains the greater expectation we have on people, the better they perform and removing levels opens up pupil’s learning. 2 – this effect is central to growth mindset – a term being used a lot recently, which is based on research from Carol Dweck. She is the best person to explain it and you have a hand out about it to take away.
• #9: So this change of approach in curriculum and ideas of challenge and learning has lead to a shift in assessment. 1 - Unfortunately some of the ways this change is going is more fixed mindset (pass/fail, etc) – BUT with life without levels we have the opportunity to develop a growth mindset at QM and help children push themselves to go above and beyond what they imagine they can do, developing a growth mindset themselves.
• #10: So in terms of how we can achieve this we need to think about our ‘why’ and develop principles to drive how we assess. One key quote I read recently was… If we believe in a growth mindset and we want to achieve it, how are we going to show rather than tell this? We need a clear set of principles to drive how we assess… because… (next slide)
• #11: …we want to ensure that our system of assessment supports and drives learning rather than gets in the way. Rather than taking up unfocused, countless hours of teacher’s time and efforts.
• #12: THE ONLY guidance from the DfE is that they are not going to impose an assessment system. All schools have the opportunity to develop their own linked to the needs of their pupils. As long as it demonstrates pupil progress, etc. it is OK! Which is a big, open task and lots of people have differing opinions on this.
• #13: Instead of a specific system of assesment, the DfE do provide a set of principles for what they think a system should be like. 1 – the key points to consider here, and the main ‘why’ of developing our system is that it allows teachers to meaningfully track pupil progress in order to drive improvement for pupils. That is the key – the reason we get up everyday is to help our pupils develop and grow, to empower their success.
• #14: And now we get to the what. Now, target tracker is one tool for tracking assessment (and will not be the only tool in our assessment ‘tool kit’ at QM.) It is a possible system that we can employ in order to support the assessment of learning and the tracking of pupils progress. And hopefully to support and drive pupils learning forwards. We are going to see what it is like and then decide as a team if we think it will work for us and our pupils.
• #15: The system of learning at QM is a cycle of planning, teaching, learning and assessment. 1 - We plan lessons to deliver and enable children to learn concepts. We assess the stage at which they are with the concepts and we plan to move them on in our teaching, etc. 2 – central to this at QM is our learning systems and AfL practices (feedback and marking) which really drives the learning. However, we need a system to track the progress and development of the pupils and this is where target tracker will fit in. 3 – Combined, all of these elements should be underpinned by a growth mindset shared both by staff and pupils – together we believe that anything is possible and that every child can learn and develop their potential.
• #16: So if we use TT for core areas (Eng, Maths, Science), what will we develop for Foundation subjects? This is the next task (and again one that is ongoing). 1 – go through tasks 2 – hand out key principles for effective systems to help support discussions/development
• #17: 1 - Before we can think of the specifics of assessment today, we need to consider the bigger picture. This model is called the Golden Circle and provides a ‘code’ of how to think about being successful. Simon Sinek developed the model after studying the most successful and innovative people and businesses and digging down to what enabled their lasting impact in whatever area they were in. For example, he looked at Apple and how they maintain their success. The idea is that everyone, 100% of people, know what they do. Some know how they do it. But very few know why they do what they do. By why – he doesn’t mean to make a profit. But what is your purpose, what drives you, what is your belief, why does your organisation do what they do and why do we get out of bed every morning to do it. He says most people work from the outside in: from the clearest thing to the fuzziest. But the most successful people work from the inside out and begin whatever they do with why. 2 - So, we know that we assess pupils. And we know how we do it – marking, feedback, SIMs, SATs, etc. BUT why do we do it?