Important update from TheSchoolRun
For the past 13 years, TheSchoolRun has been run by a small team of mums working from home, dedicated to providing quality educational resources to primary school parents. Unfortunately, rising supplier costs and falling revenue have made it impossible for us to continue operating, and we’ve had to make the difficult decision to close. The good news: We’ve arranged for another educational provider to take over many of our resources. These will be hosted on a new portal, where the content will be updated and expanded to support your child’s learning.
What this means for subscribers:
- Your subscription is still active, and for now, you can keep using the website as normal — just log in with your usual details to access all our articles and resources*.
- In a few months, all resources will move to the new portal. You’ll continue to have access there until your subscription ends. We’ll send you full details nearer the time.
- As a thank you for your support, we’ll also be sending you 16 primary school eBooks (worth £108.84) to download and keep.
A few changes to be aware of:
- The Learning Journey weekly email has ended, but your child’s plan will still be updated on your dashboard each Monday. Just log in to see the recommended worksheets.
- The 11+ weekly emails have now ended. We sent you all the remaining emails in the series at the end of March — please check your inbox (and spam folder) if you haven’t seen them. You can also follow the full programme here: 11+ Learning Journey.
If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected]. Thank you for being part of our journey it’s been a privilege to support your family’s learning.
*If you need to reset your password, it will still work as usual. Please check your spam folder if the reset email doesn’t appear in your inbox.
What are NFER tests?
At the end of Year 2 and Year 6, children take compulsory SATs in English and maths. But in the other school years, there’s no compulsory, externally set testing procedure. This means that schools have to find their own ways to test and monitor children’s progress and achievement. One such method is to use NFER tests.
What are NFER tests?
The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) is a charity that provides independent research into education and children’s services. Informed by its research, NFER launched a new range of tests for primary school pupils. ‘The NFER tests are paper-based tests that schools can purchase and use as end of term or end of year assessments,’ explains Alex Gutteridge, marketing manager at NFER.
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For children in Years 3-6 they are available for English (reading comprehension), maths, grammar and punctuation and spelling. For children in Years 1-2 they are available for English (reading comprehension) and maths.
NFER test results give concrete evidence to support teacher assessment of a child’s attainment, help them map progress and set targets, and enable them to identify areas of strength and weakness. The tests are designed to be a fresh alternative to the optional end of year tests offered by other companies, with a more modern context and questions worded like they are in class.
Assessing very young children is always a contentious issue. The NFER KS1 assessments have been developed in collaboration with teachers, with the young age of pupils in mind. They are designed to be child-friendly, with an age-appropriate level of support provided through the tests.
What do the tests involve?
NFER tests are aligned to the current 2014 national curriculum and test the knowledge and skills that a child is expected to have gained during the school year.
On the maths paper, a typical question might be:
Write down the two days when the temperature rounds to 5˚C
Monday 3.5˚C
Tuesday 5.4˚C
Wednesday -2.5˚C
Thursday -4.9˚C
Friday 4.7˚C
The English papers consist of a variety of types of text, both fiction and non-fiction, linked by a topic or theme. Children have to answer questions based on their understanding of the passages, such as:
This story is set in the autumnal forest. What clues are there that the story takes place in autumn? Explain your answer fully, using the text to help you.
What do the marks mean?
NFER tests produce two types of result. ‘The number of marks that a pupil gains produces an age-standardised score,’ explains Alex. ‘This compares their performance with that of other pupils of the same age. This is important in primary schools, as pupils who are the youngest in their year group tend to perform less well than the eldest.’ The average, nationally standardised score is 100; about 68 per cent of all children taking the tests will achieve a mark within 15 points of that (so, between 85 and 115).
What if you’re concerned about your child’s marks?
You may be told your child’s NFER marks as a separate grade on their school report, or the results may be used as part of the teacher’s overall assessment of their attainment. ‘If you have any concerns about your child’s result, you should talk to their teacher,’ says Alex. ‘It’s important to remember that the test is a snapshot of performance. It will often be supplemented by a teacher assessment result, which takes into account your child’s performance across a range of different activities and over a longer period of time.’
