The new points system!

[Guest]

Morning everyone - I desperately need some help as I have been on a course run by the local authority this week and am totally confused!!!!!!!

 

Firstly we have been told we no longer need to be doing learning journals. I appreciate that the new EYFS is much more about being with the children but we have been told that at moderation we just need to speak about our children confidently and there is not the need to back that up with evidence. My SLT and Ofsted I am sure will not appreciate that!!!

 

Secondly we have been told that the children need to get at least 30 points to be an 'expected' child. This has thrown me completely - apparently you gain up to three points for each goal but the children can't have straight 2's or 3's they must have a mixture.

 

Have I completely misunderstood ? I have been through the profile and can't see anything about points. Is there anyone who can help??? Plllleeeeeeaaaase!!!?

[emz321]

My local authority hasn't mentioned this but my mums has told her this is the way the government is going to track progress and analysis the data. She was told sumit data by ticking if a child is expected, exceeded etc for each scale point then then the local authority will assign a 1 to emerging, 2 expected and a 3 exceeding thus giving the child a score for data analysis. Therefore a 30 I think is expected in everything. I haven't heard about cant get expected in everything. I'm thinking most of my children that is what they will get!

[finleysmaid]

ive posted about this already this week and am awaiting some more clarification but the way i have been told so far is 30-50 is emerging/40-60 expected and above that exceeding. so 1/2 0r 3 points across the 17 elg's. I would imagine that most cohorts of 30 would have some variation ...so some working above and below the norm.

If you look at the exemplification material it is definately based on a learning journey/story...i would be VERY cautious of getting rid of those....perhaps get clarification on this and why this trainer said it!

[catma]

Morning everyone - I desperately need some help as I have been on a course run by the local authority this week and am totally confused!!!!!!!

 

Firstly we have been told we no longer need to be doing learning journals. I appreciate that the new EYFS is much more about being with the children but we have been told that at moderation we just need to speak about our children confidently and there is not the need to back that up with evidence. My SLT and Ofsted I am sure will not appreciate that!!!

 

Secondly we have been told that the children need to get at least 30 points to be an 'expected' child. This has thrown me completely - apparently you gain up to three points for each goal but the children can't have straight 2's or 3's they must have a mixture.

 

Have I completely misunderstood ? I have been through the profile and can't see anything about points. Is there anyone who can help??? Plllleeeeeeaaaase!!!?

 

 

To be honest I think there are some misunderstanding somewhere in the message they were delivering.

I have 2 points on this.

 

1) If you want to do a learning journey then do it. You can record what you like as you like, when you like. You don't have to record anything but your evidence (defined as anything known about the child, recorded or otherwise in the handbook) is to "illlustrate, support and recall" your judgements. See the handbook for all the info on this.

STA are very clear that how you capture your learning is a matter for you as per the statutory handbook. The key message about evidence is that you do not need invented rules, things like "3 pieces of evidence before you can give a dev matters statement" approach or indeed written evidence at all but you do need to be able to describe how you know a child demonstrates the skills you say they do. So recording stuff is important as I defy anyone to remember everything about 30 children across 17 aspects of learning.

 

For me the reduction in paperwork was a translation of "put down those wretched post it notes and start interacting with children so you have something useful to record instead of trailing around after them saying you are "observing"" (Rant over!).

 

2) There will not be as far as I know a single points score for any individual child. (Unless of course schools start doing daft things with numbers by themselves - you can tell people but sometimes they just don't hear).

 

The DfE definition of a Good level of development is as follows:

A child will need to get expected in all the ELGs for the 3 prime areas and literacy and numeracy.

The school will have a cohort measure which comes from giving any emerging score (40- 60 or below) a score of 1, expected (which is working at the level of the ELG not just within 40 - 60) a score of 2 and exceeding (beyond the ELG ie working in the KS1 programme of study) a score of 3, adding them all up and dividing by the number of children to get a supporting measure which takes into account all 7 areas of the curriculum. This is for the cohort.

In the pilots on average the overall measure was around 32 for all the children taking part. The national measure will change every year because it's an overall average. If they all got emerging then the national measure would be lower.

 

You can find the DfE description of this measure here

 

You need to read the Assessment and Reporting Arrangements 2013 alongside the Handbook (as per normal every year). This is where the information of how data will be returned in a numerical form (ie points) is available. You can find it here

 

 

 

Cx

[finleysmaid]

Catma ....Thank you SO MUCH (i knew i should have read that info you gave me PROPERLY the other day!!!)...sorry!

 

Interestingly this info is not what we were given in a meeting this week but then i'm not sure our LEA knows either!!...as long as i'm doing it right then i don't care

 

As i only have one child on this system i sometimes miss out info from the correct sources!

 

I'm not sure my little chap will acheive any ELG's unfortunately (if he ever turned up it might help!)

[catma]

It's all from official documentation so I don't understand how it gets so mangled!!

 

PS it also dawned on me yesterday as I was looking for something, the the ELGs, as well as being in bold have the words Early Learning Goal separating them from 40 - 60+, emphasising that they are single assessment criteria, rather than a developmental stage!

Cx

[Guest]

Thank you all for your help - feeling a lot better about the whole thing now.

[Froglet]

Thanks Catma. Seems like I'm the lucky one; so far everything you've said fits with what my LA were saying on our profile briefings las month. Just make sure I've understood. The good level of development is what used to be 78points with 6 in PSED and CLL under the previous profile and is now that they have to get expected in 12 out of the 17 ELGs? Was having this conversation with my head tonight and tying myself in knots a little.

[dreamgirl]

Why only 12 out of the 17?

[Froglet]

Getting 'expected' in the prime areas plus literacy and maths.

[dreamgirl]

Ta

[catma]

Thanks Catma. Seems like I'm the lucky one; so far everything you've said fits with what my LA were saying on our profile briefings las month. Just make sure I've understood. The good level of development is what used to be 78points with 6 in PSED and CLL under the previous profile and is now that they have to get expected in 12 out of the 17 ELGs? Was having this conversation with my head tonight and tying myself in knots a little.

 

Yes, that's correct and the cohort supporting measure tales care of the 7 areas.

 

"The Government has set out how the new Good Level of Development (GLD) measure will be defined, following trials of the new EYFS Profile assessment.

 

From 2013, children will be defined as having reached a GLD at the end of the EYFS if they achieve at least the expected level in:

• the early learning goals in the prime areas of learning (personal, social and emotional development; physical development; and communication and language) and;
  
• the early learning goals in the specific areas of mathematics and literacy.
  

The GLD measure has been introduced following Dame Clare Tickell's review of the EYFS, which emphasised the importance of the prime areas of learning for children's healthy development.

 

The Government also believes that a good foundation in mathematics and literacy is crucial for later success, particularly in terms of children's readiness for school. We want to encourage schools to strengthen children's knowledge and understanding in these important areas.

 

However, all areas of learning within the EYFS are important. To reflect this, the GLD measure will be supported by a measure of the average of the cohort's total point score across all the early learning goals. This will encourage the attainment of all children across all the early learning goals."

[Mouseketeer]

Thanks for putting that up catma.....(you were nearly a catamaran then ....stupid ipad why can't it just do as its told !)

[Froglet]

Thank you.

[apple]

Catma is there any 'official' documentation about the point system or is it just purely through LA moderation meetings? I ask as I do like to keep abreast of things but being in nursery I don't get to attend these meetings.

[catma]

It's always on the DfE website for anyone to access. Schools would have had a DfE mailing re the good level of development. It's also included in the annual Assessment and reporting arrangements which comes out around November for each key stage assessment. As things change year on year this supplements the statutory handbook.

 

You just have to keep tabs on the website.

 

Cx

[jayney78]

I went on the Cambridgeshire training on the profile on Thursday and they said that once the profiles are completed this year, "they" (whoever they are) are going to make up some sort of point system with as it stands children receiving 1 point for emerging, 2 for expected and 3 for exceeding the ELGs. Hope this helps and doesn't throw the cat amongst the pigeons!

[catma]

They are the standards and testing agency. The details have been available about the points for reporting the data since November so I'm surprised your LA don't know the actual details. The good level of development has been available since last month. The national cohort measure will be based on all children's scores so will change annually

Cx

[Guest]

As always, I should spend more time on here than attending LA meetings, thank you Catma