Thinking Deeply about Primary Education cover image

Thinking Deeply about Primary Education

Breaking Free 3: The Future of Key Stage One Writing Assessment

Jul 8, 2023
Neil Almond, an expert in primary education assessment, and Christopher Such, a specialist in early learning methodologies, dive into the transformative shifts in Key Stage 1 writing assessments. They discuss the recent removal of KS1 SATs, emphasizing how this opens the door for schools to enhance reading evaluations. Key topics include innovative teaching strategies like 'colourful semantics' to teach sentence structure and the importance of holistic assessments that consider students' overall writing development, from handwriting to creativity.
48:39

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

  • The removal of KS1 SATs allows for a transformative approach to writing assessment, shifting focus towards developing sentence construction skills over mere text length.
  • Emphasizing the relationship between spoken language and writing, the podcast advocates for targeted strategies that enhance students' understanding of sentence structure and writing mechanics.

Deep dives

The Future of Writing Assessment

Discussing writing assessment at Key Stage 1 reveals issues with current practices, such as the lack of formalized writing standards compared to Key Stage 2. There is an acknowledgment that teachers often face pressure to align student assessments with arbitrary targets, leading to superficial results that don’t accurately reflect students’ capabilities. Many students leave Year 2 without mastering essential sentence structures or basic punctuation, often creating poor writing habits due to these rushed processes. This results in unreliable data that affects students' transition to higher grades, indicating a need for a more thoughtful approach to assessment.

Get the Snipd
podcast app

Unlock the knowledge in podcasts with the podcast player of the future.
App store bannerPlay store banner

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode

Save any
moment

Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways

Share
& Export

Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode