The new baseline assessment and Toolkit has been designed to help teachers and SENDCos assess and support the needs pupils with learning difficulties. As well as focussing on key skills in Maths and English, it also helps identify possible underlying difficulties.
It is aligned with Pre-Key Stage and National Curriculum Standards up to Year 4. It also takes into account basic functional skills, Best Endeavours and Blank levels.
We have tried to include all the assessments you may need. However, they
are not designed to be used in their entirety. The idea is that you can pick and choose the assessments which are relevant to your pupil. Ideally, they should to be used in conjunction with your teacher assessments to help you identify what your
pupil can do independently and plan next steps.
The Baseline Assessment and ToolKit can also be used to monitor progress, evaluate the impact of targeted intervention and support on-going next steps planning.
Literacy Baseline (Whole Document)
Maths Baseline (Whole Document)
Training
To get the best use out of the Baseline Assessment and Toolkit, we recommend that you attend our 2 half day training sessions which are part of the SENDCo Essentials (free to Bradford Schools)
Dates and Venues for 2020/21 TBC.
Profiling Checklist
This is an initial assessment tool which allows you to unpick potential areas of difficulty your pupil may experience. It is a helpful starting point to support your graduated response and to help you to decide which areas to assess. In addition, it
begins to highlight whether difficulties appear more specific or general in their nature.
Profiling Checklist
Records of Attainment
These documents summarise standards expected from Pre Key Stage 1 up to Year 4. They are designed to be used as working document to map your pupil’s progress. We have included the standards up to Year 4 to accommodate both secondary and primary pupils.
As with the assessment, we have separated the standards into distinct sections. We have provided assessments for each section and the relevant assessments are noted above each section.
Literacy Record of Attainment
Maths Record of Attainment
The Assessment Tools
Personalised Pupil Plan
This document is used to create an individual pupil plan. It summarises your assessment findings into a concise and personalised pupil profile, which highlights strengths and areas of difficulty, next steps and supportive strategies.
Personalised Pupil Plan
The Toolkits
To complement the baseline assessment, we have created a a Literacy and Maths Toolkit which provide a range of strategies and short activities to target specific areas identified in your assessments.
Literacy Toolkit
Maths Toolkit
Some resources developed using the Toolkit from Schools
Year 4 Writing Mat
Year 4 Writing Mat
Year 1 Word Mat
Year 1 Word Mat
Year 6 Writing Mat
Year 6 Writing Mat
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Do you have to complete all the sections on the Literacy and Numeracy baseline?
A. No just choose the sections that are relevant for your pupil, however you may want to complete all the sections to give a really good picture of the pupil’s strengths and weaknesses. Also you may have assessments in school to assess particular
areas and prefer to use those. For example – the TALC to indicate blank levels, or the Salford to test reading accuracy and comprehension. The advantage of using the assessments in the baselines is that questions are aligned to the Pre Key Stage Standards.
Q. Do you have to start at the beginning for letter recognition and common exception words?
A. We would recommend that you assess all pupils with letters to see whether there are any gaps. If your student is secondary age you may not have to start with the year one words. Use your knowledge of the pupil you are assessing.
Q. Is it ok if a pupil sounds out the words on the reading of common exception words? And is it the same with the reading assessment?
A. Ideally we would want the pupil to have automatic recall of the common exception words without sounding out. If a pupil sounds out and then reads the word – it would be important to make a note of this and it could be a target to work
on. On the reading assessment, if the child sounds out and then reads the word or self corrects this is fine, but again good to note down as if a child is doing this for every word it will affect their fluency and comprehension.
Q. Can the pupils use concrete resources in the numeracy assessment to support their working?
A. Yes, but make a note of what they use, including using their fingers for your analysis. For some questions you are directed to give them resources.
Q. We feel some of the questions on the number assessment were quite wordy for a Year 2 child to understand. Can they be simplified?
A. This is something we will look into.
Feedback from Schools
Baseline Assessment Comments
- Good assessment to pick up gaps in knowledge and to highlight areas of strength.
- It was really easy to follow, nice to have all the elements together and helped me plot on School Age progress grid more accurately.
- Found the structure of the Maths assessment helpful.
- It's well-structured and easy to follow, hoping to train my TA so we can do them together.
- It was very straightforward to use – thanks!
- Found it useful and identified things I’d not recognised before. It will get easier the more its used.
- Literacy assessments easy to use, resources were there and instructions were clear.
- Tests were effective. Child was engaged throughout, it didn’t seem onerous.
- Good to pick and choose different sections.
- Maths assessments were clear – child enjoyed them.
- Assessments made it clear when to stop.
- I have used the baseline assessment for both Literacy and Maths (only the number one). It was clearly organised once I got my head round the layout and the supporting resources were easy to use.
- It will definitely help us to write more specific targets and has helped us pick up on some strengths of children who struggle significantly in other areas.
Toolkit comments
- Everything is all together which is really useful.
- Saves time trawling through the internet
- A good in class resource for teachers to support themselves
- Invaluable for planning provisions for individuals
- Great that it has links to other resources
- Nicely organised to refer to different sections
- Looks like a great bank or resources and that a lot of work has gone into it.