Teach Secondary Issue 13.6

ASK THE EXPERT “A concrete measure of progress” Emma Smith, Assistant Headteacher at Fullhurst Community College in Leicester, shares her experience of taking part in a standardisation trial for new KS3 Maths and Reading assessments EXPERT PROFILE NAME: EMMA SMITH JOB TITLE: Assistant headteacher AREA OF EXPERTISE: Applying standardised assessments in the classroom BEST PART OF MY JOB: Helping students progress their Maths and Reading skills as they move through KS3 What attracted you to being part of a standardisation trial for these new tests? We’d known for some time that we’d like to use standardised tests on our KS3 cohort, so when the opportunity arose to become one of the schools whose data is used to create measures such as standardised scores and reading ages, we jumped at the chance. It’s great that the tests were available as printed papers or online and auto-marked, and the data we got back has helped us track progress and plan interventions. What is a standardisation trial? Trials are how test publishers gather all the data that will sit behind these new KS3 tests. Our students sat all of the papers, along with thousands of others, to ensure a nationally representative sample of schools. The process is really rigorous, with statisticians analysing all the test data to produce measures that every school can rely on. What are the key benefits of using standardised tests, in your view? At KS3, there’s very little comparative data out there, so it can be really difficult to know how your students are performing in comparison to others nationally. The Access Reading Tests and Access Mathematics Tests are super flexible, so can give you standardised scores, age- standardised scores, reading and maths ages, and other progress measures too, at any time of year. Also, we can identify gaps by topic and strand to plan our teaching, and then test again whenever we need to and have a clear and concrete measure of progress made. Howwill you use the tests in practice? They’re really versatile. The new tests can be used from the very beginning of Year 7, and then again at the end of the term or year to baseline, identify gaps in learning and track progress. The same goes for Year 8 and Year 9. And because they test underlying skills in maths and reading, rather than a specific curriculum, we will also use them for new students joining throughout the school year, to get a sense of their attainment level. Our SEN department will use them flexibly, too – they’re not designed for a specific year group, so older students can sit papers that would often be used in younger years, to ensure they can access the content. How do you feel the tests help you most? The icing on the cake for us is that they come with an interventions package called Shine. It’s optional, but we will subscribe to it because it enables us to see exactly where gaps in learning are, and then click through to targeted learning materials for specific areas. These are super easy to use, so our TAs will pick them up, as well as some being used in full class settings where there are common gaps in knowledge. ASK ME ABOUT • STANDARDISED TESTS – using national data to understand progress and plan interventions • PROGRESS TRACKING – using enhanced reporting, to easily see how the standardised measures we provide show progress • INTERVENTIONS – tailored content for each student that addresses gaps in knowledge and is easy for all staff to pick up and use Contact: 07841 815 688 | alison.lapthorn@hoddereducation.co.uk | hoddereducation.com PA R T N E R C O N T E N T 26 teachwire.net/secondary