15 replies to this topic

[Lola]

We have had a call today to say we are being moderated on 22nd May. They have implied that we are being moderated as our scores were above national average last year - fair enough although our catchement is a very affluant (?) area and so we would expect our scores to be above national average.
Anyhow they have said today that we are being moderated on Numeracy and Physical. We have lots of evidence for our points etc.. However with the idea now being that 'most' childrten will acheive 6 points we are woryying as some of ours have already hit the 6 mark. We feel we can justify this with the evidencewhich we have collected. We have been told that myself and the nursery nurse will each have an hour long interview (eeeK!)

We are very nrevous and wondered if anyone had already been moderated or if anyone had any words of wisdom!

Lola x

[Marion]

Dont worry about it Lola your LEA must moderate all schools on Maths and physical this year.Theyre not picking on you. I had my moderation before Easterand it was quite painless.
Not sure how other LEAs opperate but our LEA runs a 2 year cycle one year a moderator will visit the school and the following year the Reception teacher takes the evidence to a moderation meeting.

[kermit21]

We were moderated too and the moderators were lovely. We just showed them the work and talked about the context that helped us to reach our judgements.It was nice to be treated as a professional and they told us where children had actually achieved other FSP points too

[apple]

Lola dont worry... what is the most important thing is that you can validate your judgements regardless of which point/s the child is on, obviously any evidence in whatever form you have for these scales, to back this up, is handy to have at the moderating meeting.

Do not worry either that some children will have passed the national average of 6 points if that is where you think they have been performing then good on them. What is good is to compare your results (you can do this from last year) with the LEA, schools in your area and the National data and see where you lie.

You said you were being moderated as your scores were above national average... where there any particular points where children were achieving more than others? If children are achieiving lots of 9's then in what area and are you absolute sure that every aspect of 9 was achieved. I 'm thinking of point 9 on Creative and K & U... quite complex skills needed... Just something to keep an eye on.

Remember your moderator is there in a purely supportive role to check that all practitioners in your area are making accurate and secure judgements. Relax and let your obvious professionalism and understanding of where your children are at shine through...best of luck

[buttonmoon]

Hi,

I am being moderated next week along with the rest of our cluster group - by the sounds of it we'll all get together, show our evidence and have a chat to make sure we are all along the same line.

My main concern is although i have evidence to back me up is that most of it is through teacher led activities and hardly anything else. The way we work at our school is quite structured and myself and my TA always have activities on the go so it is difficult to observe the children during play.

Do you think this will be a problem?

Thanks guys :)

[apple]

hi button moon... children's achievements for the most part should really be assessed as much as possible during independent play activities, although you will inevitable get evidence from teacher focused activities. If you are finding it difficult to observe then maybe, if I could suggest, you may need to reconsider to importance of the observation process and build this into your weekly planning. Something will have to give... maybe one of those focused activities?? We had to do this and thought Oh my God I'm not doing an activity, but as long as the children are getting some focused inout to the main objective for that session, then there should be no problem with you taking time out to observe them. We often put out the teacher focused activity from the week before as an indpendent activity the following week. That way when we observe, we have a focus and we can see if the children are consolidating and taking on their learning. Hope this makes sense :)

[buttonmoon]

Hey,

Thanks for the reply - i think that's what i am going have to do. I like the idea of having the previous weeks activity out for independent work.

[Daisy]

buttonmoon, on May 2 2006, 17:57, said:

Hey,

Thanks for the reply - i think that's what i am going have to do. I like the idea of having the previous weeks activity out for independent work.

I'm been moderated too! So worried don't know what to expect first time with reception yikes!!

[Moose]

I've just found out I'm being done, too! It's my 'first time' as well. What with that, the SEF and imminent Ofsted I feel like doing a Reggie Perrin!

[buttonmoon]

Well mines next week so i'll tell you how i get on...

[Marion]

Moose, on May 3 2006, 19:04, said:

I've just found out I'm being done, too! It's my 'first time' as well. What with that, the SEF and imminent Ofsted I feel like doing a Reggie Perrin!

Hope everyone's mederation is as painless as mine was.

[Beckyann]

Hi
We were moderated this year, the moderator was fantastic, and was positive about everything. It really is panless, and there is no need to lose sleep!
:)

[Daisy]

Thanks for all support re moderation, don't feel quite so stressed now!!
x

[suse]

Please don't worry about being moderated I am a moderator for my local authority and honestly face the same problems as everyone else! I still have my own class who are not performing at all well this year and who I worry about. A moderator isn't concerned with how well or otherwise your children are doing we want to see the reasons for your judgements and the evidence to support it. The important factor is that you are using the curriculum and the profiles to support your planning and assessment and that your moderator can see this. As long as you can justify your assessments you will be fine! good luck!

[buttonmoon]

Hi guys,

Had my moderation today and it was fine!

We wrote down the names of the HA, MA and LA for each of the mathematical development and physical development areas - eg the children who you were focusing on.

Then dicussed were they were now and where i thought they would be at the end of the year.

We then looked through each child and what i had given them e.g child who has achieved a 7, looked at points 7 down to 4 (if necessary) and i showed her evidence backing up what i had said. e.g. this is x making a repeating pattern, counting to 20 etc

I had photos, sticky labels, observations and work in their books and she seemed pretty pleased.

All that worry for nothing!