APP (Mathematics) Transition Project
Background to the Project
A small number of schools were invited to participate in this project in the Spring and Summer terms of 2008. The schools worked together with mathematics and assessment consultants to focus on trialling and using the new APP materials for mathematics.
Schools were then involved in action research using a small number of children and feeding back their findings to the group.
The project focussed on the use of these materials to support transition between years 2 and 3, with each school participating for three half days of training following a headteacher’s briefing.
Schools were invited that fulfilled the following criteria:
· high level of commitment
· leadership and management in the school willing and able to support active participation
· school adviser recommended that the school has an interest in further developing assessment approaches, in particular for mathematics
· the school is interested in looking at consistency in transition between Year 2 and Year 3 (particularly the Infant and Junior schools.)
The schools involved were:
Deepdale Infants School
Deepdale Junior School
Farington St Paul’s CE Primary School
Leyland Methodist Infant School
Leyland Methodist Junior School
Ribbleton Avenue Infant School
Ribbleton Ave Methodist Junior School
St Andrew's CE Infants School, Leyland
St George's CE Primary School, Chorley
Croston Trinity and St Michael’s CE/Methodist Primary School
Woodlea Junior School
Programme of the Project
The project ran as follows:
Headteacher Meeting
Focus: Introduction to APP Transition Project
Familiarisation with APP materials
Y2 And Y3 Teacher Meeting 1
Focus: Introduction to APP Transition Project
Familiarisation with APP materials
Outline of task for day 2 – levelling using MA2
Y2 And Y3 Teacher Meeting 2
Focus: Feedback from research so far
Moderation of judgements within MA2
Successes and issues with levelling MA2
Outline of task for day 3 – levelling using MA3
Y2 and Y3 Teaching Meeting 3
Focus: Feedback from research so far
Moderation of judgements within MA3
Successes and issues with levelling MA3
Looking at available data – how does this fit with APP?
How could the APP materials be used to support transition?
Action plan for further implementation in school
Outcomes of the Research
Successful Elements of the project
¨ The use of the APP materials was more effective where teachers had good subject knowledge and were able to incorporate this effectively within the planning-teaching-assessment cycle.
¨ Assessment guidelines grids were easy to use.
¨ Open ended tasks provided children with a greater understanding to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding. This was even more successful where children used their own format for recording.
¨ Evidence was best when it was in a variety of forms including:
· Observational notes related to the task
· A clear context given
· Transcripts of dialogue during practical activity
· Annotated photographs
¨ Effective questioning and guided group work proved to be very successful in obtaining good quality evidence of children’s learning and allowed teachers to identify the next steps.
¨ Teachers found that completing the APP grids enabled them to reflect on:
· Classroom practice
· Areas not covered
· Knowledge of children’s attainment
· and moderate their end of year assessment
¨ Teachers had more confidence when planned time was arranged to discuss with colleagues. The evidence collected and judgements made were more consistent.
¨ Both Year 2 and Year 3 teachers felt that APP supported transition as it gave a greater focus to discussions and allowed each teacher to identify cross phase elements from the curriculum.
¨ Where APP was incorporated into the existing planning - teaching - assessment cycle teachers were able to personalise the mathematics curriculum by identifying gaps in learning.
Areas Where the Project was Less Successful
¨ Evidence produced from closed tasks (e.g. end of year tests) was less useful in enabling teachers to determine the levels of children’s attainment. For example, if a child is given the question 73 – 48, they can only show whether or not they can answer this type of question. The children might be able to subtract five digit numbers or decimal numbers, but the question does not allow them to show this.
¨ Where teachers were lacking in confidence in the subject knowledge the procedure became more time consuming.
¨ It was difficult for teachers to make a secure judgement where the evidence was based on a narrow range of activities.
Further Recommendations
¨ School leaders need to be fully supportive and engaged with APP. They need to have a clear overview of the materials and the process
¨ The implementation of APP is more effective as a key focus of an ongoing school based CPD programme when time is given to enable staff to become familiar with the materials within a phased introduction.
¨ A designated member of the senior leadership team needs to be involved in all aspects of moderation to ensure rigorous and robust systems are in place, to feed into reliable and accurate judgements at the end of each year and each key stage.
¨ Subject knowledge needs to be good for the implementation of APP to be effective. CPD needs to be planned in where subject knowledge needs to be developed.
¨ Teachers need to understand the principles behind APP, namely that they are using six children as a benchmark to enable levelling of the whole class, but that all children are being constantly assessed using AfL strategies.
¨ Although the approaches to APP in mathematics and literacy are similar, schools need to be aware of where the differences lie and accommodate these, e.g. the more prescriptive approach in reading and writing compared with a best fit approach in mathematics.
¨ Schools should familiarise themselves with resources available to enable them to carry out investigational type activities with a more open ended focus.