In our third instalment of developing assessment in primary science, I want to put a key focus on moderation and how completing moderation with all staff will not only support assessment but teaching and learning too.
As science is a core subject, we are legally required to report at the end of each key stage. In order to do this, we need effective and systematic assessment procedures in place. However, the practice is wide-ranging in schools, from those that have yet to put consistent assessment procedures in place for science, those that assess only working scientifically criteria, those schools that assess only on the substantive knowledge and a myriad of mixtures in between. As a core subject, we have an obligation to assess children against the national curriculum descriptors for each key stage. This means ensuring a valid and robust form of assessment that teachers are secure in using that is effective but not onerous or overly time consuming.
The HMI Research review document for Science: ‘Finding the optimum’ (February 2023) discusses that schools were often completing assessment of learning at the expense of assessment for learning, in that pupils were being asked to recall facts that they had not successfully learned the first time. This was also compounded by pupils not having the chance to link what they had been taught in previous years by assessing their prior learning.
In the ‘Pedagogy and Assessment’ section of the report, it stated that schools should: ‘ensure that assessment checks whether pupils remember the substantive and disciplinary knowledge they have learned in previous years. This includes checking that they can use their substantive and disciplinary knowledge to select, plan and carry out different types of relevant scientific enquiry.’
One of the final statements in the report states that: ‘…there is still more to do to make sure that curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and school systems all work together to create the most favourable, or ‘optimum’, conditions for learning science. Although many pupils leave school with a secure knowledge of science and working scientifically, there are still too many pupils who do not.’ It all comes down to ensuring the children leave primary school with secure knowledge in primary science.
There are ready-made options available to assist schools in tracking their pupils’ outcomes and you can find some options here:
Simple Assessment Tracker | PSEC (primary-science.co.uk)
Alongside the use of these trackers, however, we also must ensure that we are covering the requirements of the National Curriculum. Without the assurance that all objectives have been taught to a required level of understanding, we cannot accurately assess our children against age-related expectations.
Enter termly moderations! A brilliant way to assess children against the national curriculum objectives and ensure coverage (including Working Scientifically skills).
Running a moderation twilight for all staff once a term or (as a minimum) once an academic year can help you as a subject lead be confident in your school’s coverage, can allow you to support staff to pinpoint objectives that have and have not yet been met, can develop confidence in assessing ‘age-related’ expectations and to share good teaching ideas, approaches and strategies.
There are many documents out there to help with in-school moderations.
PLAN Assessment do a set of moderation documents for a nominal fee:
Knowledge: Moderating Assessment CPD (KS2 + Y2) | PLAN (planassessment.com)
The OGDEN Trust also has a set of moderation resources free of charge:
How to lead a primary science moderation meeting - The Ogden Trust
There are also end of Key Stage Exemplification documents available for Year 2 and year 6:
Teacher assessment exemplification: KS1 science - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Teacher assessment exemplification: KS2 science - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Your local science advisers may run courses on moderation in primary science (HFL Education runs moderation sessions for science and can run moderation INSET sessions for schools. Email: science@hfleducation.org for more information).
As Science subject leaders, supporting our teachers is supremely important and teachers’ experiences in teaching of science varies from year to year. There are many possible reasons why delivering a science curriculum and assessing against it can be a challenge, including:
- teachers changing year groups – teachers might not be 100% sure of the requirements of their new curriculum
- teachers may plan their progression the way they think about it as opposed to how it’s written in the National Curriculum (I nearly fell into this trap when planning Year 2 plants this year – I had to keep bringing myself back to what they should have been taught in Year 1, what I was meant to teach them in year 2 and what I needed to leave alone for Year 3 to teach them so I didn’t extend into another year’s curriculum)
- schools sometimes employ ready-made curriculums and may not be able to complete all activities meaning some core knowledge might be missed if we remove some lessons
- prioritisation of other subjects/special events
- being unsure of objectives
HFL’s progression documents can be found here for working scientifically and here for progression in scientific knowledge. These are really helpful in terms of planning and coverage.
Regardless of which way you choose to go in terms of resources, keep track of your assessment outcomes and ask for feedback from your teachers. Focus explicitly on science topics where there is coverage in multiple year groups (e.g. Classification, Plants, Materials, Electricity, Light, Living things etc) as this is where schools can often run into problems with duplication, progression and coverage. ‘Finding the Optimum’ is helpful in highlighting that a high-quality curriculum is one that is well-organised, connected and developed over many years in a logical order. Something I think we all aspire towards.
Finally, moderation sessions are a great opportunity to focus on all the good teaching and learning that has been delivered, use moderation to celebrate the wins and successes of your teachers and pupils as well as a way to think about ‘what’s next for developing our science provision’?
Voices from the Classroom
Our new blog series, Voices from the Classroom, allows primary science teachers to share particularly effective practical experiences they have had with their classes. It’s a great way to showcase what your school is doing and written guidance and examples are available for those of you wishing to participate.
If this is something you would be interested in participating in, please e-mail Charlotte Jackson charlotte.jackson@hfleducation.org
