Inclusive Education

The P Scales are a method of assessing pupil attainment below National Curriculum levels and stretch across a range of assessment criteria and Special Educational Needs.  Assessment is based upon subjective teacher assessment rather than the objective SAT testing undertaken by mainstream pupils, as would be expected.

Teacher assessment is made against a broad list of outcomes against which the relevant teaching staff make a subjective judgement.  Moderation involving a  number of partner organisations with a mixture of mainstream, SEN and specialist schools and teachers is essential to ensure consistency of observation across the class, school, Local Authority, etc.  In recent years, this moderation has been called into question across a number of OfSTED inspections, though in the early days it was often apparent that inspectors did not understand the intricacies of the P Scales assessment method, progression through the various levels and how individual need should be taken into account when making any subjective assessment of development.

The submission of P Scales for SEN pupils was made compulsory in September 2007.  Previously, SEN pupils were simply recorded as ‘W’, providing no method of assessing the suitability of learning and teaching without a detailed inspection.  Though still sometimes controversial, due to the specific nature of SEN pupils and their progression, the move towards SEN pupil assessment is vital to identify and share good practice amongst partners whilst equally identifying poor teaching and lack of pupil development.