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Each year, Year 6 teachers are requested to transfer a teacher assessment level for ICT. Here, Julie Leigh, Co-ordinating Adviser for ICT, shares with us some partnership headline figures…
Each summer Year 6 teachers are expected to transfer a teacher assessment level for ICT. This year the results below are based on returns for over 5,749 pupils which represents almost every Year 6 pupil. Congratulations to all those teachers who fulfilled their ICT Assessment responsibility this year. Only four primary schools failed to return their assessments and, as all statisticians know, the larger the sample the more reliable the data.
This year we have improved on 2004 figures by 5.42% and on 2005 by 1.35%. I have included, for your information, the 2004 and 2005 figures.
As you will see from the table there is considerable variation in these assessments with results ranging from 58% of pupils at Level 4 and above to 96.6% of pupils achieving Level 4 or above.
It is pleasing to note a steady increase in Level 4+ in partnerships such as Isis and Oxford EiC.
There are a number of partnerships reporting a high level of increase at Level 5+ i.e. Burford 36%, Thame 36%, Wantage 36.5%, Cumnor 39%, Henley 40% and Watlington 50%. This high level of reported results raises a number of questions in my mind:
- Do these levels represent pupil achievement across all aspects of ICT including Data Logging, Control, Monitoring, Handling Data, etc.?
- How have they been moderated?
- Is a Level 5 in a Wantage Primary School, for example, the same as a Level 5 at King Alfred’s School?
The Secondary Consultants have ensured that Heads of ICT have received pupils’ Year 6 Teacher Assessment levels by providing each secondary school ICT department with a CD with the ICT data and Fischer Family Trust predicted targets for ICT GCSE based on their English, Maths and Science KS2 SATS results. This data has been used as a starting point when setting ICT targets within the department.
For schools that wish to further refine their ICT Assessment there are a number of helpful routes. The ICT Team is offering two half day courses in term 4 through OQSA:
Assessment at KS1 on 21st February 2007 9.30-12.00
Assessment at KS2 on 21st February 2007 1.00-3.00
We also offer, as a Traded Service, where we can come and level your entire ICT Portfolio in order to provide you with a sound baseline to further develop assessment in your school. If you wish to take advantage of this service please contact us on 01865 428034 or email me on julie.leigh@oxfordshire.gov.uk
New
materials are available to help teachers identify, track and enhance pupil
progress in foundation subjects at key stage 1. This pack covers four subjects
(art and design, design and technology, history and ICT) and includes 23
activities, providing over 50 hours of classroom time.
Price: £34.00 Order Code:
QCA/06/2424 Published: Jun 2006
Telephone 08700 606015 email: orderline@qca.org.uk
The ICT book illustrates the importance of questioning as a means to clarifying understanding and furthering learning. The activities included in the book help the teacher understand what the pupil needs to do in order to progress further and level the pupils' work. To give you a feel for the contents of these books, the KS1 book includes the following levelled activities:
Using a Word Bank - Year 1
The information around us - Year 1
Labelling and classifying - Year 1
Writing stories and finding information - Year 2
Creating pictures - Year 2
Routes: controlling a floor turtle - Year 2
Questions and answers - Year 2
There is clear information about what you may see with links to the NC statements and levels.
A pack has also been developed for KS2 (Order reference: QCA/06/2425) it includes:
Combining text and
graphics - Year 3
Introduction to databases - Year 3
Writing for different audiences - Year 4
Branching databases - Year 4
Analysing data and asking questions: using complex searches - Year 5
Multimedia presentations - Year 6
Spreadsheet modelling - Year 6
Control and monitoring - what happens when? Year 6
Using the internet to search large databases and to interpret information -
Year 6
Finally, promised later in the year, we have had a glimpse of the new ICT Progressions document (Framework) which is planned to arrive, hot on the heels of the Literacy and Mathematics frameworks. This includes a great deal of support for assessing discrete ICT. There are three sections that are particularly helpful for assessment.
The purpose of these is to assist teachers’ understanding of the progression in ICT capability through the year groups. For example, for a Year 3 teacher it will indicate not only what Year 3 children should be able to achieve by the end of the year, but also what Year 2 and 4 should be able to manage. It will assist in assessment and the levelling of work as there will be a second table showing a range of national curriculum levels at which most children in the year group should be working.
This section of the progressions document illustrates the development of each strand/aspect of discrete ICT e.g. control and monitoring or data handling, etc. It has examples of the strand at each level from 1 to 5.
Assessment exemplars are provided for each year group and include: learning objectives, learning outcomes, commentary on what teachers and pupils have done, example key questions, example pupil output - complete with levelling statements that match the example, plus further illustration of how each activity could be reinforced across the curriculum.
