The references cited here are to major studies carried out over a number of years. The TAPs research sample is 12 schools plus 38 commenting on the research from the 12. The schools are all located in the west of England. We would be interested in knowing if teachings find the findings and advice useful in their own context. Please email comments to enquiries@meshguides.org
The project aims to produce and disseminate a tested ICT-based teacher assessment package, with a bank of benchmarking examples of children’s attainment across the primary science curriculum and age-range, together with a web-based CPD unit and programme of further support.
During 2019-2021 there will be a large scale evaluation of the TAPS approach funded by the Education Endowment Fund, involving 3,500 pupils across 140 schools. Focus4TAPS is a CPD programme designed to support teachers to improve their teaching and assessment of science in primary schools.
In June 2013 we issued an invitation to Bath Spa University (UK) partnership primary schools in the South West to apply to become one of the development and piloting cluster of 12 project schools. 50 schools applied, from which we selected 12 against a set of criteria agreed with our external adviser, Anne Goldsworthy.
This MESHGuide builds on the findings from the Teacher Assessment in Primary Science(TAPS) project. The focus of the TAPS project (September 2013 to July 2016) has been the development of a solution to teacher assessment in science to meet the requirements of the revised national curriculum in England and to define ‘best practice’ across the UK and internationally.
The Teacher Assessment in Primary Science (TAPS) project (Earle et al, 2017) explores the ways in which pupils, teachers and senior colleagues can work together to achieve a valid, reliable and manageable approach to assessment in primary science which is consistent with evidence-based research in this field, implements Nuffield (Harlen, 2012) recommendations and meets the requirements of the revised National Curriculum for England including the requirement to report on attainment at the end of key stages.