Bond Papers and Kent?

[Mumof2boyskent]

Email sent to Roger Gough, KCC Education Cabinet member, on this subject included:

I and many parents of Year 5 students are wondering what KCC's timetable is for reviewing GL Assessment's performance in the provision of the new format Test this year and re-tendering (if required) for next year's Test...Would it be possible for some indication to be posted on the KCC website or to go out in a press release... [re:] when the cabinet/department plans to evaluate this year's Test and when it predicts being able to confirm arrangements for next year?

Response on Mr Gough's behalf earlier this month:

We will be publishing information about the tests in advance of registration next June. We will be carrying out an internal review of the process around the new Kent Test once the process has completed (I.e. once pupils have their results).

I did try!

It seems as if the parents of next years takers will be as much in the dark as we were this year

[mystery]

More so perhaps - we did know that it was GL assessment and that it was going to include a "literacy" element quite early on so it didn't take too much guessing to work out that it would be something along the lines of the four sets of GL assessment familiarisation papers. Then, I suppose, because CEM does some spatial stuff too, that wasn't out of the realms of guesswork either.

I'm looking to the next test in 2016 and I think really that we just have to be open minded and prepared for CEM and GL and teach children to be ready to sit a test which might not be exactly as they expected in terms of timing.

For 2015 test onwards the fact that these children are studying the new national curriculum in maths and English should also be factored in. Whether GL and CEM take this into account or just plough on with whatever their view is that a child should have been taught by the end of year 5 I don't know.

[chimera-ma]

Re: your 2nd last post, Mystery: Hardly a surprise either that the review of this year's Test would follow the children completing it and the results being available to KCC! (I didn't ask about the grammar annexe as I thought my questions about the Kent Test would be less likely to get an answer if I combined the two. Ho hum!)

VanillaLatte: Like you, I'm concerned about preparation for next year's Test. I've looked at a lot of past threads in the Kent section and more broadly within the Forum. There is a great deal of helpful material - much of it from Mystery (thank you)...

As a result, I've used IPS to familiarise myself and DS with reasoning question types and GL Assessment's '11+ Explained' for both VR and NVR to help with an initial framework for preparation until we know who next year's Test provider will be. (Incidentally, going back to your original post, GL Assessment was set up by NFER and continues to work with them.)

For the time being, I am using Bond and GL material with DS, but not in an intensive way. I am keener to support his progress in spelling, grammar and Maths and also to try a variety of timed tests, including doing his homework to a supervised time limit with a medium-term reward system (as well as lots of encouragement and gentle feedback).

I think priorities must depend on your own assessment, as well as the school's, of your DC's relative strengths and weaknesses. For example, the standard of my DS's written English overall and his confidence in his writing have only recently caught up with his levels in Reading and Maths, writing having been the focus of extra support at home for years. We were advised at parent-teacher evening last week that DS is now in the top set for everything, yet, I know from my own work with him, that he is still weak on prefixes and suffixes, and on antonyms, for example, and therefore is not an 'even' top-setter yet.

Of most concern to me is that DS does not perform well with the pressure of timed tests, particularly in Maths. He is a perfectionist and does not like to skip any question that he is having difficulty with; even worse is his panic if he thinks he will not finish a whole test in time! This is not something I would know without working with him at home, and not something that I think his class teacher will help with.

We are spending regular time on test strategy and learning to remain calm, but I also figure that the more progress DS makes in Maths over the coming year, the less daunting he'll find the Maths paper when he sits the Test next year: no matter who the provider; no matter what the format of the Test.

[mystery]

That makes a good deal of sense. If you are having to distinguish the questions you know you can do from the ones you can't it is very difficult. Having done some extra work on relevant topics and feeling confident you have as good a chance of anyone at being able to do a good proportion of the questions is a great start.

I found the practise and pass series very good for starting to get over timing phobia.

[chimera-ma]

Thanks for the 'practise and pass' recommendation. Will investigate.

[dartmum2]

The practice and pass books are really very good - I would recommend them too - they are an excellent starting point and provide about the right amount of explanation for a child to read and get on with the short timed sections by themselves, especially if you start at the level 1 books and work through.

I personally never liked the bond books as they were not that well aligned with the GL-type content in my opinion, unlike the practice and pass books. I didn't use them at all with DD2. However, as you do not know the format for next year it might be best to look at doing both as a gentle introduction...Remember, a little well-targeted practice goes a long way. It is not about the amount of practice your child does, it is the quality of the practice that matters.