1102 Strategic Focus - Variance Report 2010

Variance Report 2010

Link to download printable version of Variance Report (PDF 324k)

Goal 1 (literacy)  By the end of the year at least 66% of year 6 children will be reading at or above the school reading age target of PM level 27 – 28 (10 – 11 year reading age)

Rationale

• We want to know that our children are leaving our school with a level of reading that will allow them to participate at year 7 – 8.

• We have chosen year 6 because we are aware that, at entry, many of our pupils have limited language skills and few have pre school education. By the end of the 6th year, however, we believe we can overcome the earlier setbacks and attain levels comparable to national averages.

What happened.

• Systems to gather information were put in place and a calendar developed so the data could be analysed and reported to the BOT. We decided on

  • STAR for year 3 – 6 reading,

  • asTTle for year 3 – 6 written language (recount)

  • running records for all reading

  • exemplars for years 1 and 2 writing

• At the end of the year it was decided that we didn’t get enough information from STAR so we are changing to asTTle for pupils working at or above level 2b in 2011.

Monitoring and reporting.

• In February, 50% of our year 6 pupils were reading at or above level 27 (10 – 10 ½ years reading age) using PM Benchmark running records.

• We took our children for another running record test in late October and early November and made comparisons only between those pupils who were at school for both tests.

• By November, 31 of the 33 year 6 pupils (93%) were reading with fluency and comprehension at or above our target of level 28.

• The average year 6 boy began on level 24 and moved 5.6 steps.

• The average year 6 girl began a bit higher on level 25.7 and moved 4.3 steps.

• This movement equates to about 2 years progress.

• By the end of the year the difference between boys and girls was negligible.

Next Steps - Suggest acknowledge shortcomings of Running Records and adjust targets.....comprehension

Goal 2 (numeracy)  By the end of the year at least 50% of year 6 children will be working at or above stage 5 (EA) as measured by the cluster Place Value test.

Rationale

• It is the school’s belief that understanding of place value is the “skeleton of maths”.

• Place Value testing in February showed that only 8 year 6 pupils (19%) could work at stage 5 (Early Additive level) in understanding number and that the bulk (81%) were at stage 4 or below..

• We have chosen year 6 because we are aware that, at entry, many of our pupils have limited number knowledge and few have pre school education. By the end of the 6th year, however, we believe we can overcome the earlier setbacks and attain levels comparable to national averages.

Monitoring and reporting.

• In February, 19% of our year 6 pupils were working at or above stage 5 (Early additive) according to the results of our cluster place value test.

• We took our children for another test in early November and made comparisons only between those pupils who were at school for both tests.

• By November, 17 of the 35 pupils (49%) achieved 10/10 and 9 pupils (26%)scored 9/10. We consider this equates to being able to work at stage5 or early additive.

• According to the test therefore, 75% of pupils tested are working at stage5 or above. This is better than the goal we set ourselves.

• Boys were marginally better in the first test with 62% of those scoring 9 or 10 correct being boys but the end of year test was 50- 50. The bottom 10 were also 50-50 boys and girls.

• While it was not mentioned in our goals, the figures do show a significant drop in very low achievers. 8 pupils correctly answered 6 or less questions in term 1 with some scoring none at all. By term 4 no pupils scored none at all and the lowest scores were from 3 pupils who scored 5 correct.

Next steps - reflect results to adjust goals