Students assessed as secure in reading, writing and maths

WQ.342/2020

WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR EDUCATION BY DEPUTY J.H. PERCHARD OF ST. SAVIOUR

ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 6th OCTOBER 2020

Question

Will the Minister state what percentage of (a) Key Stage 1, and (b) Key Stage 2, students were assessed as ‘secure’ in reading, in writing and in maths at the end of the following school years –

1. 2018-2019; and
2. 2019-2020?

Answer

The assessment of primary school pupils was considerably hampered by the lockdown of schools in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. As schools closed to the overwhelming majority of children, teaching moved to various online and hard copy methods. This endured from 20th March, until the phased return on June. The focus on the return of children was on their well-being and safe re-introduction under the principles of the Recovery Curriculum. Significant learning time in the core areas of reading, writing and mathematics was lost, as were the means of assessing achievement in these and wider areas of learning. The normal methodology for assessing children at the end of both Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 is through moderated teacher assessment under the Jersey Primary Assessment Framework. Under this model, experienced serving teachers from across the education service are appointed and trained as moderators, working with Senior Advisors to moderate the working of teachers in Year 2 and Year 6 classes. In addition, the Department has used the DfE’s Year 6 Curriculum tests to support consistency across the Island’s system as these new assessment approaches under the Jersey Curriculum are developed.

In the summer 2020, teacher moderation could not happen, and the Curriculum tests were cancelled. Both of these decisions (in the UK and Jersey) were directly due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Schools hold data on all of their pupils. In this most unusual year, the Department focused on the assessment of primary children as the most useful factor to support transition, specifically the primary- secondary transition. This is the held data, only for Key Stage 2. Therefore, the 2020 data cannot be compared directly with that collected in earlier years. Our normal publication regime of the data requested is here: https://www.gov.je/Government/Pages/StatesReports.aspx?ReportID=5102). In 2020, the data collected and currently held is only from mainstream Government of Jersey schools i.e. this does not include the two special schools, Mont à l’Abbé and La Sente, nor the non-provided (‘private’) schools.

To assist with this question, we have recalculated the 2018/19 Key Stage 2 figures to make a comparison with 2020 possible, mindful that the two years cannot be directly compared.