Primary school tests to separate pupils by ability

PRIMARY school teachers were given the go-ahead yesterday to start separating children as young as five by ability. Education Minister Charles Clarke marked a sea change for Labour when he said he favoured greater use of 'setting'.

The dividing of pupils into separate 'sets' for individual subjects was a way to get the best from each child, he declared. The move marks a radical shift for Labour which was until recently, hostile to the idea of any School separating children by academic ability, let alone at five.

It was signalled as Mr Clarke launched a new national system of 'baseline' testing for all four and five-year-olds which will be held within weeks of them starting primary school. The informal 20-minute assessments of ability in English, mathematics and personal behaviour will take place over the next seven weeks. They will allow teachers to judge how much children know when they first arrive in class.

More than 600,000 new pupils will be tested on, among other things, whether they can count from one to ten and recognise numbers; write and spell their own names, or recognise letters and concentrate without supervision for 10 minutes. Pupils will be graded on a four-point scale.

Gifted children could be identified for 'fast track' lessons to stretch their abilities while slower pupils could be grouped together for extra coaching.

'Teachers should use the evidence'

Mr Clarke said he had 'a lot of sympathy with more setting in primary schools than is currently the case'. He acknowledged that baseline tests could play a role in helping teachers to select children into different ability groups, though he said they were not intended to foster such developments.

'Any setting or streaming that develops will be done by teachers in school on the basis of a very rounded assessment of the children,' he said. 'Teachers should use all the evidence that they have at their disposal, of which these assessments will be a part, if they are going to go down the road of setting.' Mr Clarke added: 'The whole purpose of this baseline assessment is to establish the strengths and weaknesses of every pupil, boy or girl, to I ensure the teacher is equipped to move that child forward in the best way for them. 'He urged worried parents not to coach children before the tests, saying it would be 'counterproductive and unhelpful'.

Doug McAvoy, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, condemned any move towards separating pupils by ability in primary schools and accused Mr Clarke of misunderstanding the purpose of the tests.' Baseline assessment is there to provide teachers with diagnostic information on children's readiness to learn when they start school. 'To inflate it any further than to inform methods of classroom organisation would be to grossly misinterpret baseline assessment,' he said.

What they will be looking for in your child aged five

IN the baseline tests teachers will monitor pupils' abilities in a range of tasks graded at four levels of increasing difficulty. The third level is said to reflect the 'desirable learning outcome' expected of children.

Reading:

1) Hold books the right way up and turn the pages one by one from beginning to end, while talking about what happens on each page. 2) Make at least one attempt to predict a word or phrase. 3) Recognise at least two words in the book by pointing to them and saying them aloud. 4) Read a large portion of text accurately from a book that is familiar to the child.

Letter knowledge:

1) Recognise his or her own first name. 2) Recognise and say at least five letters. 3) Recognise and say at least 15 letters. 4) Recognise all 26 letters of alphabet.

Phonological awareness:

1 ) Recite at least one nursery rhyme accurately. 2) Recognise at least three initial sounds, when spoken. 3) Recognise at least three patterns in rhyme. 4) Write the letters corresponding to the sounds of at least six three-letter words.

Writing:

1) In a drawing session, distinguish between print and pictures in his or her own work. 2) Write recognisable letter shapes. 3) Write his or her own name correctly, using upper and lower cases. 4) Write at least six other words of at least three letters.

Speaking and Listening:

1) Can recount at least two events or experiences. 2) Asks questions to find out information and listens to the answers. 3) Able to make up a story and ball it. 4) Makes up a story with more detail and tells it to a group of about six other children. Also able to listen to others telling stories.

Numbers:

1) Can sort objects with different characteristics. 2) Can count five, nine, or ten objects at least twice. 3) Can complete three addition sums with totals of up to ten. 4) Can add or subtract numbers with a total of up to ten.

Mathematical language:

1) Can use at least one pair of opposites to describe size- eg big/small, tiny/huge. 2) Can use terms such as 'in front of' or 'behind' to describe position. 3) Can recognise and write numbers one to ten at random. 4) Can explain an addition sum by using terms such as 'plus' or 'add' and 'equals' or 'gives'.

Personal and social development:

1) Can play with other children in a group. 2) Is independent and keen to contribute to class activities. 3) Can concentrate unsupervised for ten minutes. 4) Can express his or her own opinions and ideas with a range of adults.