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The DfE has released information on the number of 'coasting schools' in England, according to the proposed definition and provisional 2016 performance results.

This handbook supports teachers in making accurate judgements about each pupil's attainment in the early years.

The DfE has released guidance and requirements to support schools and local authorities involved in key stage 1 and 2 teacher assessment and statutory moderation in 2017.

Thanks to Lorraine Petersen for this article.

After waiting for over six months, the final report from the Rochford Review was published on 19^th October, just as many schools were preparing for their half term break.

The Rochford Review was established in July 2015 to review statutory assessment arrangements for pupils working below the standard of national curriculum tests. The interim report, published in December 2015 provided an interim solution for reporting outcomes in 2016. It published the interim pre-key stage standards for those pupils working below the expected standard at the end of key stage 1 and key stage 2. The review team then continued discussions, looking at a longer term solution especially in regards to the future of P Scales.

The final report published in October outlines ten recommendations for those pupils who cannot access statutory assessments as they have not completed the relevant programmes of study when they reach the appropriate chronological age. These recommendations will be part of a wider government consultation on primary assessment that will take place in spring 2017.

The ten recommendations are:

1. The removal of the statutory requirement to assess pupils using P scales.
2. The interim pre-key stage standards for pupils working below the standard of national curriculum tests are made permanent and extended to include all pupils engaged in subject-specific learning.
3. Schools assess pupils’ development in all four areas of need outlined in the SEND Code of Practice, but statutory assessment for pupils who are not engaged in subject-specific learning should be limited to the area of cognition and learning.
   

Thanks to Deputy Headteacher Michael Tidd for this article. 

It seems that the 2016 reading test may well go down as one of those test papers that we all talk about for years. Like the traumas of “Caves and Caving in Davely Dale” or that wretched ‘fried-egg’ Venn diagram of a few years ago, there are some papers that take on an almost legendary quality. Jemmy the Giraffe is sure to have such fame. The challenge in the key stage 1 test was similarly daunting.

There is almost universal agreement that the texts were more difficult than those we’d seen in the sample test papers. But we need to be careful not to dismiss it as a one-off, pinning our hopes on easier tasks next year. The direction of travel has been clear for a while, and we need to do the best we can to prepare our pupils for challenging texts. While the 2016 paper may have been a particularly difficult paper, the thresholds have clearly shown that the DfE intends for the test to be hard. So, what can be done?

It’s clear from the new tests – and indeed the samples – that more challenging texts will be chosen for reading test papers at both key stages. Perhaps this is a reflection of the government’s intention that children read earlier, more frequently and more widely throughout primary schooling. Certainly this seems a likely outcome of the changes. Schools would do well to look at how they can broaden their children’s reading experience. It’s worth remembering that the National Curriculum clearly sets out that children should be exposed to books and stories which are beyond their reading level. 

Statutory guidance for assessing and reporting the national curriculum at key stage 2 in the 2016 to 2017 academic year has been released.

The DfE has published key dates for key stage 1 and key stage 2 assessments for 2016/2017.

Dates include actions and deadlines for the following:

The DfE has released the EYFS profile results for 2015 to 2016. This first release covers:

• the percentage of pupils achieving each assessment rating in the early learning goals