LEVELS OF ATTAINMENT

1
LEVELS OF ATTAINMENT

• Nottingham Diocese

National Board of Religious Inspectors and
Advisers (NBRIA)
2
Levels of Attainment

• Significantly revised to take account of change
  and development in RE
• Intended to benefit pupils, teachers, parents,
  governors and clergy
• Intended to support pupils learning by indicating
  educational progression
• Provide a generic map through which progress in
  religious literacy can be marked and assessed
• The ATs and Levels provide a framework to enable
  teachers to identify clear outcomes and accurate
  methods of assessment

3
Issues in assessing RE

• What is its purpose?
• What can I assess?
• People lack confidence.
• Need for clear statements about different levels
• RE assessment has been assessment for
  assessments sake
• Not only an academic subject - there are
  bolt-ons

4
Issues in assessing RE (cont.)

• Need for specific exemplars -annotated marking
  scheme
• Need for clarification of knowledge and
  skills - better links drawn between them
• Need HIA website - for further info for staff and
  pupils

5
Assessment

• Assessment of pupils work is a vital part of
• the learning process. It involves making
• judgements about attainment, achievement
• and progress.
• Its purposes include
• affirmation of attainment
• the necessary recording and reporting of pupil
  progress
• helping the pupil take the step in learning

6
Assessment contd.

• Assessment for Learning (AfL) is
• the prime purpose of all assessment.
• The Levels of Attainment are also a guide to a
  benchmark of attainment which will provide
  teachers and others with a measure of Assessment
  of Learning (AoL) - a more criterion-referenced
  measure of progress.

7
Assessment for Learning (AfL)

• (AfL) focuses on one aspect of
• teaching formative assessment
• AfL is at the heart of effective
• teaching.

8
Why AfL?

• Teachers need to know about pupils progress and
  difficulties in order to adapt their work to meet
  their needs, needs which vary from one pupil to
  another.
• AfL is about teachers using assessment evidence
  to adapt teaching to meet the needs.

9
Does AfL improve standards?

• Research studies show that
• Improved formative assessment helps low attainers
  more than the rest
• It raises attainment overall
• AfL requires
• New ways to enhance feedback and so requires
  significant changes in classroom practice
• Students must be actively involved in their
  learning
• Assessment must affect teaching and learning
• Assessment affects motivation and self-esteem of
  pupils

10
How do we improve formative assessment?

• The ultimate user of assessment information
  which is elicited in order to improve learning is
  the pupil.
• Rewards/grades/ranking focus pupils on
• ways to obtain best marks, not on their
• learning
• Constant low grades damage self-esteem
• and lead to flight from learning
• Feedback to any pupil should be about the
  particular qualities of his or her work, with
  advice on what he or she can do to improve, and
  should avoid comparisons with others.

11
How do we improve formative assessment?

• For formative assessment to be productive, pupils
  should be trained in self-assessment so that they
  can understand the main purposes of their
  learning and thereby grasp what they need to do
  to achieve.
• Self-assessment
• Pupils can only assess themselves when they have
  a clear picture of the targets that their
  learning is meant to achieve
• With that picture pupils become more committed
  and effective as learners

12
How do we improve formative assessment?

• Effective teaching
• Tasks have to be justified in terms of the
  learning aims that they serve, and can only work
  well if opportunities for pupils to communicate
  their evolving understanding are built into the
  planning.
• Questioning should give pupils time to respond,
  encourage exploration of understanding, involve
  all pupils
• Feedback should give each pupil guidance on how
  to improve, and each must be given opportunity
  and help to work on improving.

13

• WALT
• We are learning to

14

• WILF
• What Im Looking For

15
Learning About Religion

• This AT is about knowledge and understanding
  of
• (i) beliefs, teachings and sources
• (ii) celebration and rituals and
• (iii) social moral practices way of life.
• It includes skills of enquiry, investigation,
  analysis, interpretation and evaluation of
  Catholic Christianity, including how the Church
  relates to other denominations, religions and
  world views moral education, and study of the
  philosophical nature and characteristics of
  religion.

16
Learning From Religion

• This AT (Reflection on Meaning) is intended to
  develop pupils reflection on, and response to.
  their own and others experiences in the light of
  their learning about religion. It contains two
  strands
• (i) engagement with own and others beliefs and
  values
• (ii) engagement with questions of meaning and
  purpose.
• Learning from religion develops pupils
  skills of application, interpretation, evaluation
  and expression of what they learn about religion.

17
Progression

• Each strand of the Attainment Targets
  consists of eight level descriptors (1-8) plus a
  descriptor for exceptional performance (EP).
  Whilst both ATs, as well as the Early Learning
  Goals and P Scales, involve the development of a
  range of skills, the pre-eminent skill to be
  developed is to be able to think spiritually,
  ethically and theologically and be aware of the
  demands of religious commitment in everyday life.

18
Planning

• teachers should use the language of the level
  descriptors to inform the way intended learning
  outcomes are expressed
• teachers should clearly identify the focus and
  method of assessment from the outset
• the critical question to address at the planning
  stage is What must I do, in this topic, to
  enable the pupil to achieve level x.

19
Gathering evidence

• When gathering evidence teachers should draw on
  the full range of work produced by pupils, in the
  normal everyday teaching and learning process
• teachers should focus on the clarity of evidence
  collected and on making brief telling annotations
  in relation to significant attainments.

20
Best-fit

• more a subtle art than an exact science
• made across a range of work over a period of
  time
• in relation to single pieces of work they can be
  deemed to contribute to the best-fit judgement.

21
Making judgements

• Teachers need to
• make professional judgements about pupils
  performance almost continually to ensure further
  learning
• review these judgements to make a cumulative
  judgement about attainment
• decide whether a pupils performance taken as a
  whole over a period of time has been more one
  level than another (best-fit judgement)

22
Making judgements contd.

• the attainment within any level may be described
  as hesitant, secure or confident
• the process of making judgements about pupil
  attainment will inform decisions about future
  planning.

23
A chart of progression

• The Levels of Attainment provide a chart of
  education progression
• However, progress through the levels will not be
  accomplished automatically. Appropriate
  challenge will have to be provided.

24
Reinforce good Religious Education

• Addressing the question What must I do to enable
  pupils to achieve a particular level, to
  demonstrate understanding? will promote
  clearer thinking about the purposes of assessment
  and their contribution to good religious education

25
Religious Education through Early Learning Goals

• Religious Education is statutory for all
• pupils registered on the school roll (i.e.
  
• from Foundation).
• Although not a legal requirement for
• much of the Foundation Stage it
• forms a valuable part of the
• educational experience of pupils
• throughout the Key Stage.

26
Religious Education through Early Learning Goals

• RE can make an active contribution in all
  areas but has a particularly important
  contribution to make to
• personal, social and emotional development
• communication, language and literacy
• knowledge and understanding of the world
• creative development

27
Levels of Attainment

• handout

28
AT1 Learning about Religion Knowledge
and Understanding of i) beliefs, teachings
and sources

• Pupils learn about
• what people believe, the faith they hold and how
  that helps them to make sense of the world
• the teachings of different religious traditions
  and the answers those traditions give to
  questions of meaning and purpose
• the sources that different traditions use to
  guide them in their understanding of faith,
  belief and practice how to engage critically with
  such source material.

29
AT1 Learning about Religion Knowledge and
Understanding of ii) celebration and ritual

• Pupils look at ways in which faith is celebrated
  and how that takes different forms in different
  times and for different traditions.
• They can explore different liturgies (public
  worship) and rituals (e.g.festivals of other
  traditions) and how they make use of actions,
  words and symbols
• They will learn about the significance of these
  celebrations for believers and see how the
  spiritual life can be analysed and expressed.

30
AT1 Learning about Religion Knowledge and
Understanding ofiii) social and moral practices
and way of life

• Pupils learn about
• the ways behaviour is influenced by what people
  believe, whether in religious practice (e.g.
  actions) or general way of life, e.g. ways in
  which the Catholic Christian interacts with the
  world
• the ways in which religious belief shapes their
  lives and the way they see and interpret society
  and the world
• understanding the religious and moral basis for
  certain belief systems

31
AT2 Learning from Religion Reflection on
meaningi) engagement with own and others
beliefs and values

• Pupils will be
• reflecting on beliefs and values by exploring,
  discussing, thinking, responding and questioning
• increasingly able to structure and articulate
  their thoughts
• able to listen attentively to others and come to
  understand and empathise with others views,
  beliefs and values
• developing the ability to engage critically with
  their own and others religious beliefs and world
  views.

32
AT2 Learning from Religion Reflection on
meaning ii) engagement with questions of
meaning and purpose

• Pupils will be
• confronting the difficult questions which all
  people have to face.
• thinking critically about their own questions of
  meaning and purpose and about the ways in which
  people of all faiths, and none, have struggled
  with similar questions
• exploring the evidence and arguments used by
  people of different faiths and other traditions
  to justify and defend their position
• developing the ability to express their own point
  of view.

33
Reflection Contemplation

• This is now seen as a discrete aspect of the
  Levels of Attainment and will no longer be
  subject to assessment
• Its intention is to be aspirational, rather than
  evaluative and judgemental
• The stated levels may inform the provision of
  opportunities for growth in reflection and
  contemplation
• It recognises the significant part that
  reflection and contemplation play in the
  spiritual development of pupils

34
P Scales TRREACLEand the Levels of Attainment

• TRREACLE is an acronym which quickly identifies
  general descriptors for the incremental levels of
  progress within P scales.
• It is used by some special needs teachers to give
  a quick handle on the level descriptors and to
  identify a pupils level of performance.

35
P Scales TRREACLEand the levels of attainment
contd.

• T olerates, explores, encounters, experiences
  though the process is fully prompted P1(i)
• R eacts, appears alert, begins to focus attention
  P1(ii)
• R esponds with facial expression, body language
  to stimuli P2 (i)
• E ngages co-actively, shows interest P2(ii)

36
P Scales TRREACLEand the levels of attainment
contd.

• A nticipates, participates. Begins to
  communicate, demonstrates, preferences, begins to
  be pro-active, examines with interest P3 (i)
• C hooses to get involved, initiates P3 (ii)
• L ink Experiences P4-8

37
P Scales

• There are P Scales for each subject in the
  National Curriculum, including RE. The following
  are the P Scales for RE in Catholic schools and
  colleges.
• These differentiated performance criteria
  provide a chart of progression in religious
  education for pupils with special educational
  needs with a range of learning disabilities and
  difficulties (LDD) who are working below and
  perhaps towards Level 1 of Attainment Targets 1
  and 2. They apply in both special and main
  stream schools wherever there are pupils with
  LDD.

38
Impact on Leadership Management of Religious
Education

• Inspectors should evaluate
• how effectively subject leaders in religious
  education lead and support their staff
• how effectively performance in religious
  education is monitored and improved through
  quality assurance and self-assessment and staff
  development
• how well equality of opportunity is promoted and
  discrimination tackled so that all learners
  achieve their potential
• the adequacy and suitability of staff to ensure
  that learners are well taught
• the adequacy and suitability of learning
  resources and accommodation
• how effectively and efficiently resources are
  deployed to achieve high standards
• the effectiveness with which governors discharge
  their responsibilities.