Gathering Evidence to Support Teacher Judgement

We caught up with Mark Stephenson, Year 3 Teacher & Science Lead at Lanchester Endowed Parochial (Controlled) Primary School, for a quick interview about how LbQ is working in his classroom! In particular, how he is making great use of Tracked Classes this May!

What are your main goals for May in your classroom?

Now lockdown is over and our remote learning using zoom lessons has passed, the aim is to quickly assess where the children are currently at before moving them along in their learning. We were fortunate to have a wide range of remote learning tools available to us, including LBQ, which thankfully allowed us to carry on with the bulk of the work we would normally have done. Now that assessment is complete, we have a picture of where the children are at and we can focus on interventions, top up session as well as continuing our planned work.

Do you feel there is a greater need this term to gather 'evidence' of pupil progress than there has been before, given lockdown and the approach of the end of this academic year?

The past 12 months have been unprecedented. Given the first lockdown which then included the summer holidays, children had missed 6 months of direct teaching. Then to be faced with the challenge of a second lockdown and a further term of home schooling. Our school has adapted quickly. Each year group had 3 daily live teaching sessions via zoom with work being placed on our online learning platform with feedback able to be given immediately once the work was completed. However, there is still the need for a clear understanding of where the children are at. Assessments have already taken place with updated tracking systems in place. Data has been analysed and interventions targeted. Work is constantly assessed by the class teachers and subject leaders in order to check the progress of each child.

How has LbQ helped you to keep track of pupil progress?

We used LBQ throughout both national lockdowns as well as when individual class bubbles have had to isolate. The results tool is invaluable as a means of quickly checking against the progress of the children in relation to the key objectives. Using the informal class has continued to allow staff to see the results of particular question sets, see if there is an issue and then be able to put in place interventions or top up activities. As LBQ is being used throughout the year in both Key Stages, the results give a clear indication of a pupil’s progress. It is easily accessible and easy to use as well as informative.

Have you any particular examples you can give us where the information gathered by LbQ automatic marking and saving has surprised/ confirmed/ helped in some way?

Having used LBQ now for a number of years, it continues to help me focus on the areas that are needed at that moment in time. With sessions in school allowing for that live feed straight back to the teacher, any misconceptions, errors or difficulties can be addressed straight away, either by pausing a session and focusing in on a particular question that has flagged up, by sending ad hoc questions out where errors have occurred as a reinforcement, or by spotting individual children who have had a difficulty within a question. Being able to look back at the results straight away then enables quick identification for any top up or interventions that would help a child or also as a starting point for the next session. LbQ makes it far simpler to ensure all the children are on track during lessons.

One of LbQ's chief principles is that it supports teacher judgement in the classroom. Do you think LbQ does this and how does that compare to other online resources?

LbQ is a tool that reinforces and backs up our judgement as teachers and is instantaneous. With the live feed we can identify any areas that need direct input quickly, or identify children who need assistance quickly. The fact that results are saved and can be seen at any time gives us the data we need. Question sets can be revisited or adapted and then data compared. The new tracked classes feature makes it even easier to track and monitor each child across the year. As far as the resources we use are concerned, it is by far and away the best and easiest of the online resources and gives us the instant access to data that is useful.

Any favourite Question Sets?

In all seriousness, no! Everything that I have used to date has been of high quality and, more importantly, useful and key to help develop the children’s understanding. I use the question sets in English, Maths and Science. I use the comprehensions within guided reading sessions. The Maths question sets especially are useful both as a starting point when beginning a new unit of work as well as at the end – allowing to see the progression of the children and also giving the data that allows us to focus additional interventions, top up or even homework.

What do your pupils think?

I'll let them speak for themselves:

**“I like how Learning by Questions encourages everyone to have a go at it so you know that if you get it wrong, you can always retry it and have another chance to get it right,” **

“Even if you get an answer wrong, it’s not like a test where you don’t know if you’ve got it wrong or right. You know if you’ve got it wrong so you can keep retrying and retrying,”

** “It’s a lot more fun than just working on a normal piece of paper.”**