Irene Wilson - Yr 1 & 2 and Yr 7 &8
Gillian Crake - Yr 7 & 8
Jenni Clarke - Yr 5 and 6
Toni Nua and Kent Somerville - Extension Testing
Ana V and Rose Stephens - Yr 3 & 4
Roz Takerei - supported data entry
This year we were greatly challenged in terms of getting the balance right between continuing support programmes and getting the end of year testing completed.
I spent time teaching and mentoring Ana V and Rose S through this process and they were very quick learners. To ensure that we maximised the time they spent testing we used Roz to input the data and scan test papers into HERO.
Jenni and Irene as well as completing the testing, entered the data which includes scanning the tests and uploading them into HERO. This makes a huge workload for the testers to process all of this and it would be advantageous to streamline this even further with an Admin person dedicated to inputing the results so that this is done in a timely and consistent manner.
Once again there were many collaborative conversations between the testers along the way, that helped to ensure there was consistency and rigour in this process. As we had done previously, a checklist was used to keep track of who had been tested, with teachers entering an up to date Instructional Level to support this process.
As stated there is always a tension between testing and sustaining Reading Support Programmes and we were more stretched than before on this front. It would be ideal to be able to employ someone who is dedicated to this process for at least a month. Another challenge is ensuring that teachers continue to use Running Records for ongoing formative assessment over and above the two testing time points so that children's progress is more closely monitored. We will address via PD at a Staff Meeting in 2024.
It has been great to be able to export this Reading Data at the beginning of the year so that teachers have it at their fingertips for their new classes. We need to ensure that teachers still interact with the formative information that can be gained from this testing.
Toni Nua
December 2023