PIVATS news and information

Existing PIVATS resource provision

PIVATS and the Engagement Model

As many of you will be aware, from September 2021, it will become statutory for pupils working below subject-specific study (the old P scales 1-4) to be assessed against the Engagement Model. If pupils are end of KS, schools will have to report which children are assessed against this but not their actual assessments.

The PIVATS office have received several enquiries as to whether PIVATS can still be used and there have been some misunderstandings where people are under the impression that 'PIVATS is going'.

Regarding the Engagement Model, p.5 of the DFE guidance states,

"It will not necessarily replace a school’s existing plans, assessments and reporting systems, but adds value to them by helping schools assess pupils’ progress from a different angle." 

Therefore, schools can still choose to use PIVATS as an 'in-school' assessment resource. For information please see the presentation (PDF 246 KB).

The PIVATS team will bring out guidance on how PIVATS can be used to support assessment against the Engagement Model in due course.

PIVATS Milestones and the Pre-Key Stage Standards

Our PIVATS P Scale milestones are originally based on the old P Scale descriptors – however, in many instances, they have had additional information added into them to exemplify assessment of learning at that particular 'level'. With the P Scales being removed for statutory assessment, the PIVATS team had to re-evaluate the place of the PIVATS P Scale Milestones within the PIVATS assessment tool. It was decided to keep them in as they are still viable for showing progression for in-school assessment. However, it was recognised that they do not correlate exactly with the pre-key stage standards – hence please see the link below to the guidance document to support end of key stage statutory assessment.

Pre Key Stage Standards and PIVATS guidance (PDF 114 KB).