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Devonport Primary School – Moving forward with PaCT
Beverley Booth - Principal
Devonport School is a year 1–6 primary school situated on the North Shore of Auckland. It has a roll of around 400.
This is our story of our approach to assessment in literacy and numeracy. In particular, it is my approach, as Principal, to assessment, but I do have good evidence of staff, family and student buy-in.
We have been a PaCT user since 2015 – reading, writing, and mathematics, all students. We are a PaCT support school and we contribute to two advisory groups concerning PaCT. It works well for us.
How PaCT has helped us with the things that are important to us
The tool has highlighted for us, as teachers and leaders:
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- the breadth and links to the wider curriculum. Our curriculum has developed accordingly.
- the importance of the exemplars and annotations
- what is expected at each level - what is progression in each area?
- gaps in our interpretation of the curriculum
- the need for rich conversations with colleagues so that we deepen our common understandings of progress within and across subject areas
- that PaCT can be used as a learning tool - gaps feed into planning, create exemplars for the students, etc
- STEM within curriculum helped here - teachers knowing what progression looked like across the whole curriculum
- the more you use it, the more you get out of it.
What do teachers think about using PaCT?
I asked them some questions:
Since first using the PaCT tool do you:
- feel more positive about using it: 62%
- about the same: 38%
- less positive: 0%
Did you notice any gaps in your teaching when analysing the data from PaCT?
- Certain parts of statistics and geometry. Strand maths not at the same level as number.
- Not so much gaps, more like areas that haven’t been covered as yet. I also found this difficult making assessments on things I hadn’t taught.
- Yes – analysis of statistical data.
- Yes.
- Covering all aspects – Geometry, statistics and measurement were areas I hadn’t covered. Using statistics across other areas of maths. i.e. graphing patterns in numbers to see relationships.
- Yes. The scope of the maths standard.
What professional learning would you like to see in the future relating to PACT?
- Moderation: 37.5%
- Use in planning: 37.5%
- Where to access rich tasks: 12.5%
- Working with others: 25%
Overall, this seems to me to be a very positive reaction by the staff to Pact. This has been recently confirmed with an ERO review.
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