Target Tracker is the system that English Martyrs' teachers use to track the progress and attainment of children in all year groups. Teachers use this continuously and results are regularly reported to the Head teacher and governors.
The school reports to parents three times a year and you will receive your child's targets at these points. Target Tracker statements may be used to identify children's targets; parents often find it useful to view all the statements and these can be found here.
What are Target Tracker Bands and Steps?
The National Curriculum has been written to give Age Related Expectations (ARE) for the end of each academic year. As children travel from Year R to Year 6 in our school, they are tracked against the ARE. At English Martyrs' RC Primary School, we use Target Tracker to support our tracking. Target Tracker provides us with numbered bands and steps to track children.
Each year group is allocated to a band (Year 1 = Band 1, Year 2 = Band 2 etc.)
Each year group band is broken down into six steps:
- beginning (b)
- beginning+ (b+)
- working within (w)
- working within+ (w+)
- secure (s)
- secure+ (s)
A pupil working at an age appropriate level would be expected to begin the year as a 'b' and progress through the levels as the year progresses.
Additional Information
What does each step actually mean?
The three broader sections may be thought of in these terms;
- Beginning (b/b+) – Pupil learning is chiefly focussed on the criteria for the band. There may be minimal elements of the previous band still to gain complete confidence in.
- Working Within (w/w+) – Pupil learning is fully focussed on the criteria for the band. This is a teacher best fit decision but could be informed by statement assessments between around 40% and 70% achieved.
- Secure (s /s+) – Confidence in all of the criteria for the band. There may be pupil learning still focussed on gaining thorough confidence in some minimal elements but the broad expectations for the band have been met.
Lower and high attaining pupils may be working at a band outside of their current year.
For children to be working at age related expectation, they would need to reach the secure (s) step at the end of the appropriate year, although during the transition period w+ is also acceptable.
What does 'b' and 'b+' mean?
Each band is broken into two parts to enable progress within the band to be evident. For example, a pupil may be assessed as 'Band 2 Beginning' (2b) in the Autumn term in Year 2. The next time the teacher records their assessment they may not feel that the pupil has progressed to 'Working Within', but the pupil has made progress. An assessment of 'Beginning +' will allow that progress to be shown.
The school has 3 major assessment windows during the year where progress is entered into Target Tracker and three assessment windows in between when teachers report updated Target Tracker results to leaders.
What does 's+' mean?
The advice from the Government is that pupils who have gained a secure understanding of the programme of study for their year group should not be moved on to the next year’s programme. Instead, they should be provided with extension work to deepen and consolidate their understanding of the concepts and skills already grasped.
The current curriculum is challenging, so this extension work will be covered by a small cohort of each year group. 'Secure +' pupils have attained a more thorough and wide ranging grasp of the content and concepts.
'Secure +' is a stepping stone on to the criteria in the following band.
Where should my child be ideally?
This will depend on the pupil's ability level and how hard they work however, the expected standard at the end of each academic year will be ‘s’ – ‘secure’. It should be noted that progress will be tracked as well. There are some children who do find it difficult to achieve academically and it is important to recognise that progress in addition to attainment is tracked. Each pupil, regardless of starting point, will ideally make 6 ‘steps’ of progress from one year to the next.
How can you help?
Support school by working with your child at home - read with your child daily (regardless of age or ability). Be aware of your child's year group expectations, familiarise yourself with the Target Tracker statements found here. Remember that the curriculum is about breadth, depth and mastery too - not just moving to the next band. If you have any questions or worries about your child's progress, please contact the class teacher. They will be very happy to help.