ABSTRACT
These replace the statements of attainment used in the original National Curriculum and describe what pupils can or should be able to understand and do. They are designed to ensure that progression within each subject is clear and that levels across subjects are comparable. Teachers should judge which description ‘best fits’ the standard of achievement of each pupil against the attainment target(s). At the end of Key Stages 1-3, for all subjects except art, music and physical education, standards of pupils’ performance are set out in eight level descriptions of increasing difficulty, with an additional description above level 8 to help teachers to differentiate and recognise ‘exceptional performance’. An example of a level description is:
Mathematics – Attainment Target 2: Number and Algebra – Level 2 Pupils count sets of objects reliably, and use mental recall of addition and subtraction facts to 10. They have begun to understand the place value of each digit in a number and use this to order numbers up to 100. They choose the appropriate operation when solving addition and subtraction problems. They identify and use halves and quarters, such as half of a rectangle or a quarter of eight objects. They recognise sequences of numbers, including odd and even numbers.
