Progress in Foundation Stage

[Melcatfish]

We have been working on one complete bands progress in a year as good \ expected progress. I have only a small minority of children who start nursery working within 30-50. Whatever we assess them at when we do our initial assessment 4 -6 weeks ish in (somewhere towards the end of the first half term) their "target" for expected progress is 3 sub bands up - we use beginning, working within and securing, so beginning 22-36 to beginning 30-50.

Mel

x

Edited March 5, 2014 by Melcatfish

[clm33]

We have been working on one complete bands progress in a year as good \ expected progress. I have only a small minority of children who start nursery working within 30-50. Whatever we assess them at when we do our initial assessment 4 -6 weeks ish in (somewhere towards the end of the first half term) their "target" for expected progress is 3 sub bands up - we use beginning, working within and securing, so beginning 22-36 to beginning 30-50.

Mel

x

Just come across this post as I have been having the same worries. I have a feeling I will be asked to set targets for each term for example, every child must move a sub band by christmas, another by Easter so that they have moved at least 3 by summer. Does this sound like good progress to you? Is this how people do it? It needs to go in the Improvement plan and they ks1 and 2 targets are based on points and sub levels. I'm expected to do similar for eyfs eeeekkkk

[catma]

The new Ofsted inspection guidance with the EYFS judgements now included give the Ofsted opinion on this.

Cx

[Melcatfish]

clm33 I think it is clear that inspectors will be looking for progress and to show that you are going to need to break down the bands so you can record and illustrate the progress your children have made.

Personally if I am setting targets I would do it for the year and then review it termly rather than expecting a steady 1 sub level progress every term. Most children don't make nice neat predictable progress and usually I find that there are times when it looks like it is plateauing but other times when they have the learning equivalent to a growth spurt.

Of course the other really important thing, particularly if your children come in at a level below that expected of their age, is that "expected progress" is actually really not good enough! It is all about narrowing the gap. So in reality you need to be looking at your data in comparison to the national average and if it is low forget aiming for anything less than significant narrowing of the gap!

 

Good luck

Mel

x

[clm33]

clm33 I think it is clear that inspectors will be looking for progress and to show that you are going to need to break down the bands so you can record and illustrate the progress your children have made.

Personally if I am setting targets I would do it for the year and then review it termly rather than expecting a steady 1 sub level progress every term. Most children don't make nice neat predictable progress and usually I find that there are times when it looks like it is plateauing but other times when they have the learning equivalent to a growth spurt.

Of course the other really important thing, particularly if your children come in at a level below that expected of their age, is that "expected progress" is actually really not good enough! It is all about narrowing the gap. So in reality you need to be looking at your data in comparison to the national average and if it is low forget aiming for anything less than significant narrowing of the gap!

 

Good luck

Mel

x

 

Thanks melcat fish, this is reassuring as it is my feeling about progress. Children can spend a chunk of time dele oping within an age band and still making progress. I would like to aim for end of year targets but unfortunately have no choice and we have to break it down into terms I also feel I can't set these until we have on entry data for the reasons you have said... We need to show good or better progress, not just expected. Thanks for your input, it has really helped.

[catma]

clm33 I think it is clear that inspectors will be looking for progress and to show that you are going to need to break down the bands so you can record and illustrate the progress your children have made.

Personally if I am setting targets I would do it for the year and then review it termly rather than expecting a steady 1 sub level progress every term. Most children don't make nice neat predictable progress and usually I find that there are times when it looks like it is plateauing but other times when they have the learning equivalent to a growth spurt.

Of course the other really important thing, particularly if your children come in at a level below that expected of their age, is that "expected progress" is actually really not good enough! It is all about narrowing the gap. So in reality you need to be looking at your data in comparison to the national average and if it is low forget aiming for anything less than significant narrowing of the gap!

 

Good luck

Mel

x

Exactly!!!

[Guest]

Hi

 

Just thought id share...within my setting we assess the children against the Broad Phases of Development using Emerging, Developing and Secure. We assess at the following points of the year Autumn 1, Autumn 2, Spring 2, Summer 2. Each assessment in each Aspect is inputted into Target Tracker our online tracking system. This helps us analyse progress across the year and analyse it using different filters eg. FSM, Summer Born, EAL, Boys V Girls etc. We assess using the Broad Phases of Development only during the school year, when a child reaches secure 40-60 we then continue to assess them as above 40-60 or significantly above 40-60. We only use the ELG'S at the end of reception year. As Catma says it is a discrete goal that we try to view as a whole. This is how we track progress across the year however day to day we constantly make and record observations using our electronic observation system and then set next steps for our children this is where our good levels of progress comes from. This whole approach works for us and has massively reduced our paperwork, it also went down very well with ofsted last year.

 

Xx

[Guest]

Oh and obviously if a child is working significantly above 40-60 we will then begin to implement year one curriculum and objectives for that aspect with that child.

 

Xx

[teacher13]

Hi all,

 

The above makes for interesting reading!

 

I know I'll probably get into trouble for saying this and lots of people will probably say that progress can't be measured in such a simplistic way and that DM/ EYO aren't tick lists and I do agree but....I was told that within the DM bands that 3 sub levels progress is good progress and anything more is outstanding. Should they be shot?

 

What are everyone's thoughts on this?

 

Thanks xxx

[Melcatfish]

I *think* this is one of those ridiculous areas where schools are supposed to make their own judgements about what constitutes good \ outstanding progress. From memory (the summer has blurred things a little) we worked on:

3 Sub levels = expected

4 or more = Good

6 or more = Outstanding

will try to check this and edit if my memory is failing but I think this is what we worked on. I am sure someone will come along and correct me but I don't think it is actually written down anywhere what Ofsted considers to be good \ outstanding etc...

Mel

x

[catma]

It's all based on professional judgement and linked to progress from starting points, benchmarked against the national expectation of the ELGs at the end of the key stage.

"Sub - levels" as such are a made up construct to satisfy Primary HTs. You could have as many steps as you want!!

Really you should just be best fitting the child to the band you think they are in and a child could rightly be in the same band for a year but HTs wouldn't wear that so we set about inventing systems to make it match the NC systems.

Cx

[teacher13]

Thanks for the replies! Really helpful for my CPD meeting which is coming up. I've worked out the sub levels progress for the sake of showing my head but I think I'll look at the chn who came in below and achieved the ELG as it makes sense that those children have made rapid progress.

 

Thanks so much for your advice, it's so so helpful for me to be able to call on other professionals and their expertise in the position I'm in.

 

Thank you!

 

T13xxx