RESOURCES TO SUPPORT THE IDENTIFICATION OF GAPS IN READING, WRITING AND MATHS FOR YEARS 1-6

Support Your Pupils’ Return to the Classroom

Learning has continued, whether at home or at school, but the individual experiences of your pupils will be different. Our assessment for learning materials focus on the most important objectives from the English and Mathematics curricula for children to learn to help them access successfully the next stage of their education. The resources support learning conversations to assist teachers in identifying exactly what their pupils know and understand and where they have gaps in learning. Designed by our expert teaching advisers, the resources can be used as part of your school’s recovery plan and support pupils’ learning as they return to the classroom.

Identifying Key Learning Objectives

Our team of experienced teaching and learning advisers have worked with colleagues in schools to identify the key areas of learning from the National Curriculum that pupils require in order to successfully access their next year’s learning. These key areas are highlighted in purple on the grids.

Identifying and Addressing Gaps in Learning

Using the assessment for learning questions associated with each Purple Grid, teachers can have a conversation (face-to-face or remotely) with each child to identify which of those areas have already been learnt and identify any gaps. These can be highlighted on a purple grid for each pupil and given to their next teacher to support the transition. They can also be recorded in your tracking system so that leaders have a whole-school overview – the statements are available in Classroom Monitor, OTrack and Target Tracker. Teachers can then focus their planning on addressing the learning gaps and getting pupils back on track as quickly as possible and senior leaders can plan for addressing whole-school or year-group weaknesses.

Benefits

• Time-saving: the key areas of learning from the National Curriculum that pupils require in order to successfully access the next year’s learning have been identified (purple statements) with supporting questions to assess pupils’ understanding.
• Learning conversations: the questions structure learning conversations between children and their teachers and are based on effective assessment for learning strategies, enabling feedback on specific objectives.
• Consistency: teachers can use the same assessment criteria which will ensure consistency between classes and year groups.
• Transition: the highlighted grids for each pupil can be given to their next teacher to support transition planning.
• Supporting your school’s recovery plan: our resources have been created to support pupils’ return to the classroom and assist with your school’s recovery plan.