Dear Parents and Carers,

As Parental Consultations are taking place this week, we thought it might be helpful to give an outline of statements used to describe the attainment children have made against the New National Curriculum now that the previous system of levels no longer applies.

The New National Curriculum specifies what a child should know by the end of each school year, in other words the statements are age related. Each subject is broken down into smaller areas and within each of these areas there are subject specific statements. In Maths, depending on the year, the areas are: Place Value; Addition and Subtraction; Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division; Geometry- Shape; Geometry-Position; Fractions; Ratio; Algebra; Measurement; Statistics. In Reading: Decoding- Word and Comprehension. In Writing: Spelling; Handwriting and Presentation, and Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation. Each of the areas is then broken down into smaller statements against which a judgement is made.

When recording the children’s knowledge and understanding of concepts across each of the age related statements, teachers now use the following statements:

E= Emerging- An early stage of development and support needed.  D=Developing- Growing ability and independence but may still be needing some support. S=Secure- Exhibiting skills independently. M=Mastery- Exhibiting skill spontaneously and with confidence.