Staff meeting this morning, just what I love for a Friday morning! We were told that pupil progress meetings are next week. For the non-teachery types who read my blog, a pupil progress meeting is where I meet with my headteacher and the deputy head (my mentor) to talk about the progress that each child is making.
It all involves looking at the levels that they were given at the end of the summer and the levels that I gave them a week or two ago. Out of 30 children, I gave 12 children a lower level in Maths, mostly just by one sub level, though some dropped two but I gave 21 out of 30 lower levels in Writing!! Now, here lies the problem. There are a few children who, having had a few more weeks, I can see didn't do their best in that writing task however quite a few, at least 10, I disagree with their summer levels on completely. As an NQT I don't really feel able to say that though, after all the teacher who leveled them is an experienced teacher, what do I know? The thing is, I moderated all of those writing tasks with my mentor and we agreed the levels so it's not just my opinion as an inexperienced NQT, it's the opinion of an experienced member of the SLT too. I really don't want to sit there and say that I think that someone else leveled children wrong but I don't want to set myself up for a fail by not making 3 sub levels of progress from a level where children weren't in the first place. Biggest problem is that the teach who had them 3 days a week last year is involved in teaching them this year and so will be in that pupil progress meeting too. Think I'm going to ask to have it separately though.
Most definitely stuck between a rock and a hard place! Any advice?
Oh dear-I don't envy you that one! Could you get your mentor to back you up? After all, it's a big ask for an NQT to do this all on their own! I hate all this levelling stuff-I feel all at see with it. We have assessment week the week before half term and then I will probably have to spend all half term levelling their tests lol! Progress meetings and PAR days follow shortly afterwards!
ReplyDeleteoops I mean at SEA!
ReplyDeleteYou already know the answer - be honest! These are their current levels, as moderated by my mentor (who is on your Senior Leadership Team!). Unfortunately, you now have to go to the Y1 teacher and speak about EVERY child who has got a lower level to see IF they've slipped back and for what reason.
ReplyDeleteE.g., I've got a child who's fallen off the map compared to what he was doing in FS. Big upheavals in the summer have done for him so have to put a programme in place to help him back to where he 'should be'.
You have to be honest with your head and then check chns' work in comparison to last year to see if they were given an inflated level OR whether there is some issue that you need to give support for. Don't envy you that job at all... Maybe it isn't so bad teaching Y1 as you don't have to put 2 sublevels on the foundation scores...