National Curriculum And P Levels For Children With SEN

National curriculum p levels

Children are tested either on entry to school or even before they have set foot through the door.

Not just the three Rs and cognitive ability, but interaction, co-operation and physical development.

Don’t worry; your child should not be aware the testing has taken place, though schools should let you know of any problem areas. Once in school, most children follow the National Curriculum in England or the 5-14 Guidelines in Scotland, as explained below.

The National Curriculum

The National Curriculum was originally designed to ensure some consistency across schools

It became a restrictive, prescriptive, tick-box exercise. It has been tampered with more times than a test match cricket ball, but recent developments sensibly give schools a bit more time and flexibility to do their own thing. It remains under review.

For the under 14 's state schools in England (including state special schools) have to follow the National Curriculum. Split into eight levels, the most able children aim for level 8 at age 14, with an additional exceptional performance category for those gifted and talented children who (rarely) achieve beyond this.

At the opposite end of the scale, P levels (or progress levels) are used with those children with learning difficulties and disabilities who are unlikely to achieve level one.

Standard attainment tests (SATs)

Recent changes have removed some of the plethora of tests, but key stage testing (or in some cases assessment) at ages 7, and 11 remains – for maths and English. It is recognised that children work at different levels according to age and ability and that for a few children even the lowest levels will be difficult to achieve.

At the lower end, and in exceptional cases, schools can choose to dis-apply weaker students from some elements of the National Curriculum.

Otherwise testing (barring test boycott's) is compulsory for all state school children in England.

SATs are designed to show the level a child is working at, or working towards at that moment in their career. In Scotland where there are 5–14 curriculum guidelines, pupils pass or fail levels, but should only be tested when they are ‘ready to pass’. The brightest child who reaches the dizzy heights of level F of the 5–14 curriculum will have been tested as many as six times in core subjects.

The P scales for those who struggle with NC level 1

National curriculum p levels Some children with special needs will be working below level 1 of the National Curriculum. They are assessed according to P scales.

Pupils aged 5–16 who are working at or towards P levels are likely to need significant help and prompting with tasks and activities.

P scales exist for all National Curriculum subjects, including the non-core curriculum subjects of personal social and health education (PSHE) and religious education (RE). There are eight levels of performance, with each describing some of the important knowledge, skills and understanding that pupils may gain from the programmes of study of the National Curriculum.

Children do not undergo any formal assessment or testing and, unlike the National Curriculum, the awarding of a P level is left to the judgement of staff. It’s expected that teachers will use their knowledge of the child, consider the contexts in which learning takes place and gather evidence from a variety of sources to support their decisions and to make a ‘best-fit judgement’ based on everyday activity and continual monitoring and assessment.

How P levels work - an illustration

So what are Progress or P levels? The following, from Towards the National Curriculum in Maths, published by the DfES (2001), helps illustrate P levels:

At level 1 a pupil will: ‘Encounter activities and experiences. May be passive or resistant. May show simple reflex responses. Any participation is fully prompted.’ Illustrated by the example: ‘Tolerate or show pleasure in hair brushing and hand massage as adult uses words like “more”.’

At level 3 a pupil will: ‘Begin to communicate intentionally. Seek attention through eye contact, gesture or action. Request events or activities. Participate in shared activities with less support. Sustain concentration for short periods. Explore materials in increasingly complex ways. Observe the results of their own actions with interest. Remember learned responses over more extended periods.’ Illustrated by the example: ‘Show some awareness of taking turns in a game or event. Offer items to people in turn.’

At level 4, subject-related attainment is introduced, eg ‘Show an interest in number activities and counting’, with the given example: ‘Experience numbers as names – bus routes, house numbers.’ By level 8 this will have graduated to: ‘Begin to use number names beyond 10 – number of players in a team, houses in a street or count the number of pupils in the class or group.’

Unlike the National Curriculum there is no expectation that a child will achieve a particular P scale by a given age or work through the P scales at a predetermined rate.

However, attainment of a level by a particular age may help identify likely rate of progress through the P scales. The subject-related attainments of P4 to P8 are designed with transition to the National Curriculum in mind.