A purposeful and manageable approach to tracking attainment and progress throughout primary school

Our Reception, KS1 and KS2 trackers have been gradually developed since 2016. They are now used by a number of schools in the region and have been updated for 2019/20.

The trackers can be used to gain deep insights into the attainment and progress of a cohort of pupils during their time within a phase or Key Stage. They are primarily a summative assessment tool but the termly insights gained will allow teachers to plan subsequent actions so that needs are met and teaching is purposeful. The trackers will instantly provide teachers, leaders and other stakeholders with both attainment and progress reports for the whole class and for specific groups (Boys, Girls, SEND, Disadvantaged, High Attainers).

The trackers have been designed around two guiding principles:

Purposeful: The trackers produce detailed attainment and progress analysis that is relevant and useful. When the purpose and simplicity of data management systems is not clear, they can become burdensome rather than beneficial. Often, they do too much. As the trackers were created at a primary school, they were developed gradually to meet the needs of the school. The result is a set of trackers that include the core features that primary schools need without clouding the analysis with additional reports, charts and data representations. All reports can be easily printed or exported in PDF format. One-page parent reports are automatically populated should schools wish to use them.

Manageable: The trackers are quick and easy to use – at each assessment point (two or three times per year) in KS1 and KS2, teachers input just one attainment judgement per pupil for maths, writing, reading and GPS (optional). The analysis produced within the tracker is simple and relevant; this reduces unnecessary workload created by ‘over-analysing’ and helps avoid confusion. In November 2018, the Department for Education published its ‘Making data work’ report. The report states: “We see no reason why a school should have more than two or three attainment data collection points a year, which should be used to inform clear actions.” With this in mind, and to further support workload and manageability, the tracker is available in two formats: a three-point format for schools with three assessment points each year (typically once per term) and a two-point format for schools with two assessment points each year.

Our trackers are free and available to all. We hope you find them useful.

Key features

• Free to all primary schools.
• Attainment reports: Compare the attainment of all pupils with specific groups: boys, girls, disadvantaged pupils, pupils with SEND and pupils with high prior attainment.
• Progress reports: These show progress towards end-of-Key-Stage goals and enable you to compare the progress of all pupils with specific groups.
• RWM combined report: At any time, see what percentage of pupils in a cohort are working at the expected standard in all three of reading, writing and maths.
• Pupil reports: One-page reports are automatically populated for each child. These have a clear, professional look and are ideal for sharing with parents. Space is included for a a teacher comment.
• End-of-Key-Stage targets set manually by the school. New targets can be set when a pupil is progressing faster than expected.
• Quick and easy to use – teachers typically take 30 minutes to update the tracker once each term.
• Relevant reports produced instantly.
• User-friendly and intuitive.
• Clear user instruction tab within each tracker.
• Training available – see below!
• Additional user instructions embedded throughout trackers.
• Available in two different formats to suit the needs of schools with two or three annual assessment points.
• Data stored internally on school servers using Excel spreadsheets.
• Easy setup for assessment leaders (pupil contextual data only needs adding once and can be easily updated when new pupils arrive etc.).
• Phase-specific reports: The Reception tracker includes a GLD (Good Level of Development) reporting tool and includes additional pupil groups: autumn, spring and summer born.

Select more information below to see examples of many of the above features!

Bespoke training and support

We are able to offer training and support for schools wishing to make the most of the trackers. Whilst the trackers are free to download and access, we do charge a fee for the bespoke training and support service. For further further details, please contact the school office via admin@pda.lancs.sch.uk.

We also provide free training via Zoom (usually once per year) for schools that are new to the trackers.

Assessment model

The summative grades that can be used with the tracker are:

BYG = below year group
WTS = working towards the expected standard
EXS = working at the expected standard
GDS = working at greater depth within the expected standard.

How teachers arrive at their summative judgements is entirely up to the school.

The tracker is not designed to be used with a ‘staircase’ assessment model. If a child is graded EXS in autumn of Year 3, this means that they are working at what the school deems to be the expected standard for autumn of Year 3 (not at the expected standard at the end of Year 3). As such, a child who is graded as EXS in autumn and as EXS in summer will have made steady progress throughout the year.