Profiles

[Guest]

Having recently taken over a Reception class i am a little unsure about the profiles. I have looked at the assessment completed by the teacher last term and a lot of children have already acheived on average 4 or 5 of the points. If we carried on at that rate most ch will have acheived all 8 points by end of spring and maybe some even 9. Is the assessing which is being carried out too leanient or is this level of acheivement about on parr with what others have experienced? The class on a whole are not exceptionally high achievers from what i've seen so far. How many times should we see a child do something before we can confidently mark the point as acheived?

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Lola

[Guest]

Hi Lola

 

I am doing moderator training at the moment and am about to go out in May to moderate some schools.I would say unless your children are fairly high achievers this kind of score is a bit high especially at this time in the year.A good level for reception children to be achieving by the end of foundation is level 6 or 7 across the board,so 8 or 9 across the board is exceptional.You may have a high score in 1 or 2 strands and that is okay but if it was in all strands I think I would be asking how teacher assessment supports this.

As a rule of thumb I would look at perhaps seeing the evidence of achievement 3 times before giving the point.We have a class list(taken from this wonderful site)with all the profile points on it and if I see achild achieving a point I put a tick next to their name.I do this 3 times and when the child has 3 ticks I feel confident enough to shade in the point on their profile.Hope that makes sense and is of some help to you .

[Guest]

Hi Lola

I wouldn't say the assessing is necessarily too lenient, a lot of my class are achieving at that level now too. What you will probably find is that you won't be giving them points at the same rate throughout the year, so they might only achieve one or two extra by July. Guidance (from an LEA) is:

8 scale points "indicate achievement well above what is expected."

6-7 scale points "across all areas of learning indicate a good level of achievement"

4- 5 scale points "across all areas of learning indicate typical achievement"

1-3 indicate "achievement below what is expectd normally"

I don't have a fixed amount of times for a child to do something before I give them a point. I work more on the basis of evidence over time and try to have confidence in my 'professional judgement'. You will know when you feel happy that they can do something. Hope this helps.

Debbie

[Marion]

We opperate on a 3 times achievement system. The way we work is if a member of staff sees a child achieve a particular statement we put a coloured dot next to their name on the group assessment records (we use different colours for each term) Once there are 3 dots we colour the statement to show it has been achieved.

Most of our children entrer the unit below national average and leave with 6 points which is around average or slightly above. If your children are above this already maybe it would be wise to double check any statements you are unsure of.

[Guest]

can you tell me where i can find the assessment sheets you use

 

thank louise

[Marion]

I use the Durham Flying Start 2 Assessment scheme the whole class sheets are attached they break the profile down into smaller steps but can be used to directly inform the FS profile

Edited September 15, 2006 by Marion

[Guest]

Can I just ask about the 3 ticks/3 dots - do you have any supporting written evidence/photos/work to go with these dots or ticks or are they just your judgement (eg if you saw 'X' order the teddies 1 - 10 during child initiated you would just tick that profile point and leave it at that?)

 

 

I just ask because at my moderation meeting last year ticks were not really acceptable AT ALL and I also have a big problem with "see it 3 times" thing.

 

Also I think those scores for this time of year do sound a bit high.

 

 

Also when the Profile was first brought out we were told on one of the first training sessions that we would only need to get them out 3 times a year(!!!!!) and fill them in using all the cummulative evidence. However, we all know in reality that the work load to do it this way would be ENORMOUS. Yet this was how the Profile was designed and, I think, why we have so many problems completing it -

 

it shouldn't be snap shots /test results

 

but to leave it, build up a variety of evidence, and then fill it it makes the workload impossible

 

this is why we have all had to design our own wierd and wonderful ways.

 

Sorry about all that!

[Guest]

I use the Durham Flying Start 2 Assessment scheme the whole class sheets are attached they break the profile down into smaller steps but can be used to directly inform the FS profile

50890[/snapback]

 

Marion do you use this for assessment on entry or is there a seperate assessment for this available from Durham - do you have it if there is and could you please share it --- am getting alot of harrassment about measuring progress and needing a format for assessment on entry - why dont people seem to trust teachers anymore and be bothered to look at samples of work?????

Jacqui

[Marion]

At our moderation meeting last year we were told NOT to keep evidence for each child as this was excessive workload and as long as we can justify why we believe the child has achieved the profile statement that is all that is required.

We do keep photographic evidence but not for every child we also keep observations but not for every child and we do test hopefully in a fun way to see if children are able to do certain tasks. Many of our assessments take the form of informal observations scribbled down on post it notes and we were praised at our recent OFSTED for this and the inspectors suggested that the rest of the school should adopt a similar system.

Most of my class enter the Foundation Stage below national average and leave average or slightly above. I would not expect many of my children to have scores that high at this time in the school year

I think I am lucky in that our LEA has devised a very workable approach to completing the FS profiles. I am at this years moderation meeting next week and will keep you informed.

[Guest]

Just checked my scores and some of my children's scores are high at tis time of year, 5s 6s and 7s... but if they can do it... then I don't see the problem... how can ayone possibly quantify what 's 'expected' at this time of year?

 

If a child can "find one more or less than a number from 1 to 10" then that's great... if they can do it in the Spring term (consistently) - then why feel unsure of marking it off as achieved in the FSP? Of course we have to monitor this as the year goes on, and if needs be alter it towards the end of the year, but definately not hold off marking something off in the profile just because the score 'seems too high'.

 

In terms of the 'see it 3 times' thing... I think, if we were assessing say C7 "find one more or less than a number from 1 to 10" then we're already going to have an idea of the children that will/won't be able to do it even before we start assessing. If a child (who I was sure would be able to do it) did it confidently in front of me, and could explain how they'd done it, or do something of increasing difficulty, I wouldn't think "Oh I'll wait to see if they can do it another two times next term" - I'd be confident in how well I know the child, and be confident in the fact that through my planning to move that child on they certainly shouldn't digress that much.

 

Am I totally off the mark here or does anyone agree?...

 

I love the post-its idea and use that alot, usually with "wow's " and "ouches" and we too don't do written observations on every child - more when there's a specific need to, say: problems with behaviour, or social issues.

 

~ Porl

[Marion]

I agree with some children you 'just know' and when you see them achieve you should be able to use your professional judgement, but at the same time you might see a child do something unexpected and may need to check at a later date that they do in actual fact understand and are able to do that particular 'task'. We souldnt be afraid of using our own judgement!

[Guest]

I agree with some children you 'just know' and when you see them achieve you should be able to use your professional judgement, but at the same time you might see a child do something unexpected and may need to check at a later date that they do in actual fact understand and are able to do that particular 'task'. We souldnt be afraid of using our own judgement!

51424[/snapback]

 

agreed.... our own judgement is what makes us 'us' and we've got to believe in it over anything else