Griffin Park is a medium sized community school in Blackburn with high levels of deprivation and above average FSM.
Their Headteacher was kind enough to answer the following questions for us.
How are you using New PiRA and New PUMA?
We use the tests termly to assess progress and to identify children at age related expectations and greater depth.
Why did you choose these assessments?
It is useful to have a test which gives standardised scores and ages for the children in reading and maths from Reception upwards. The more the children get used to the tests, the more their results reflect their ability. What's more, the children are not put off by the test because of the layout.
How effective have New PiRA and New PUMA been in helping you to identify strengths and weaknesses?
The papers give us very useful data which can be used at class level and also school level to identify patterns in strengths and weaknesses. Individual children can be looked at more closely, and the question level analysis enables a thorough picture of what is needed to improve.
How have you used the tests to track progression and achievement?
We record the standardised scores on our school’s tracking system and set targets for each child from this. We also present the findings to governors in order to show them the progress that the school is making.
How have they helped to direct your teaching plans?
Teachers use the information to target weaknesses. We also use Shine, which provides targeted interventions based on pupils' diagnostic test results.
Have you found New PiRA and New PUMA easy to use?
Yes, the children need little support, they are just able to get on with it.
Do you use MARK (My Assessment Reporting Kit) for inputting scores and for the reports?
Yes, it gives a good range of collated information and is good for SLT use.
Closing thoughts
Would you recommend PiRA, PUMA, MARK and Shine to other schools?
I would recommend the tests to other schools are they are an effective way of measuring progress and attainment at pupil level, class level and school level. Plus, you can compare to national averages too.
"The assessments save us time in analysing areas of strength and weakness."
"The measures and reports make it easy for us to track pupils’ progress from term to term."
"The standardised scores are useful to give us a clear picture of how our pupils’ attainment compared to national averages."