Sharing information with the LA/Ofsted
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Although we are not wanting to recreate levels of any kind, it is useful to have some overall data to aid the SLT in resourcing and planning whole school strategies and interventions. This information can also form part of, or the basis of, the information you share with the LA, our SIP, or Ofsted. What is important, however, is to be very aware of which pieces of information could hamper discussions and which would help to ease discussions. In other words, which pieces of data will confuse and which will be informative?
One immediate example of this is 'points'. Classroom Monitor has some 'points' or 'steps' in the background which are required to produce graphs. However, it may be useful to not focus discussions around these 'points' as there are such entrenched views held on points for people used to working with the old APS. |
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Our Interpreting your Data page has some useful videos which will help to illustrate how and when to use the 'points' and when these may be harmful in terms of an understanding of progress. It is well known that learning is not necessarily a linear and predictable journey and this is why the school will "own" their own progress within a Key Stage. A child may not have made their way through a set boundary in December, but may suddenly progress in January. Therefore, sharing information at arbitrary points of the year will not give any necessarily useful or accurate data and could hamper discussions if this data becomes a sticking point due to a misunderstanding of how this data is working or being used within your school.
However, all of the data sitting in the background within Classroom Monitor will, of course, give your SLT the information they need to help support teachers to impact on teaching and learning. The narrative around the data is what will be really useful within the year and can form the basis of any discussions with outside agencies regarding progress within the Key Stage - and, most crucially, for you to show how YOU use the data to make an impact across the school. Data will be more accurate at the end of the year rather than in December, certainly, but even then your obligation is not to share anything other than the information you ordinarily use to impact on the achievements of the pupils in your care and there is no national expectation that this is laid out in any particular way.
This means, with a lack of consistency, that a short Ofsted visit could end up with a lot of time taken up by unnecessary data if you need to spend a lot of time explaining your terminology and thresholds. Therefore, we would recommend sticking to terms such as "Working within age related expectations" as your terminology for these visits. If you are not sure how to find out how many children in each year group fall into these groups you can have a discussion with the Classroom Monitor Education Team or look through the Interpreting your Data pages for more ideas.
The main thing to consider is that if YOU find it difficult to explain your data then it isn't working! Feel free to get in touch with our Head of Education if you feel this is the case and would like to unpick some of the choices you can make to assist with ensuring that your school assessment process is a help and not a hindrance.
However, all of the data sitting in the background within Classroom Monitor will, of course, give your SLT the information they need to help support teachers to impact on teaching and learning. The narrative around the data is what will be really useful within the year and can form the basis of any discussions with outside agencies regarding progress within the Key Stage - and, most crucially, for you to show how YOU use the data to make an impact across the school. Data will be more accurate at the end of the year rather than in December, certainly, but even then your obligation is not to share anything other than the information you ordinarily use to impact on the achievements of the pupils in your care and there is no national expectation that this is laid out in any particular way.
This means, with a lack of consistency, that a short Ofsted visit could end up with a lot of time taken up by unnecessary data if you need to spend a lot of time explaining your terminology and thresholds. Therefore, we would recommend sticking to terms such as "Working within age related expectations" as your terminology for these visits. If you are not sure how to find out how many children in each year group fall into these groups you can have a discussion with the Classroom Monitor Education Team or look through the Interpreting your Data pages for more ideas.
The main thing to consider is that if YOU find it difficult to explain your data then it isn't working! Feel free to get in touch with our Head of Education if you feel this is the case and would like to unpick some of the choices you can make to assist with ensuring that your school assessment process is a help and not a hindrance.
