Development Roadmap

To help everyone understand which aspects of educational content we are working on, we have now created a roadmap for the next 18 months of our development plans. This will help schools make financial decisions regarding their approach to assessment and whether our upcoming content may help them support the pupils in their setting. Whilst we endeavour to hit our development targets (and we are better than ever at achieving this), sometimes the sudden change in legislation by governments can shift our priorities. We will update our timescales as and when these changes occur.  

These frameworks may be subject to additional purchase.

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Four Broad Areas of Need

Progression Steps covers the Cognition and Learning area from the Four Broad Areas of Need. To support the holistic provision within schools, we are also going to be developing the remaining three Broad Areas of Need. This is something that schools have been requesting heavily and as such, is at the top of our development roadmap. These remaining areas will form highly detailed and specific frameworks requiring a great deal of research, expertise and effort to develop.

Progression Steps Plus Sex and Relationships Education

Shortly after completion of the Progression Steps framework, the Department for Education announced that they intended to review sex and relationships provision across England. As such, B Squared pulled this content before publishing the Progression Steps (plus) pack, and waited for the outcome of the Government's review and consultation process. This revised, statutory aspect of the national curriculum will not become mandatory until September 2020; however, schools are encouraged to adopt the new curriculum early from autumn 2019. B Squared will trial the revised assessment framework with early adopters, and will respond to any feedback they provide. In August 2020, the update will be rolled out for free to all schools who have purchased the Progression Steps (plus) pack. New customers will receive the updated content as part of any future purchases of the Progression Steps (plus) pack.

Primary Steps Plus Sex and Relationships Education

Shortly after completion of the Progression Steps framework, the Department for Education announced that they intended to review sex and relationships provision across England. As such, B Squared pulled this content before publishing the Primary Steps (plus) pack, and waited for the outcome of the Government's review and consultation process. This revised, statutory aspect of the national curriculum will not become mandatory until September 2020; however, schools are encouraged to adopt the new curriculum early from autumn 2019. B Squared will trial the revised assessment framework with early adopters, and will respond to any feedback they provide. In August 2020, the update will be rolled out for free to all schools who have purchased the Primary Steps (plus) pack. New customers will receive the updated content as part of any future purchases of the Primary Steps (plus) pack.

Engagement Steps

Based on the SEND Code of Practice and the Primary School Pupil Assessment: Rochford Review Recommendations—Government Response. This assessment framework is a highly detailed breakdown which enables special education settings to record PMLD and SLD students’ achievements within the Four Broad Areas of Need and the Seven Aspects of Engagement. The structure of this framework enables these settings to monitor the progress that students aged from 5–14 are making through an informal curriculum and before they engage with subject-specific learning. Whilst this Rochford Review recommendation has not been formally accepted by the government yet, it is currently being trialled in schools across the country. Once the trial concludes and the government have made their decision on the direction of assessment for pupils not yet engaged in subject-specific learning, we can adjust our current iteration of Engagement Steps to bring it in line with any new requirements (if necessary).

Steps4Life

This content is going to greatly enhance and extend our current post-16 offering, Adult Steps, which only covers Literacy and Numeracy. Based on the revised Functional Skills subject content for mathematics and English, the level 2 apprenticeship framework, and the Personal Independence Payment assessment framework, this Connecting Steps assessment framework will be a highly detailed breakdown which enables special education settings, alternative provisions, and further education settings to record students’ achievements within aspects of functional academic skills; vocational and employability skills; and independent lives and social skills. The structure of this framework enables these settings to monitor the progress that students are making whether they are working below entry level or up to RQF level 2.

Preparing for Adulthood

We are creating a framework based on the Preparing for Adulthood guidance, this will lead into the Steps4Life.

Picture Exchange System (PECS)

We are currently looking at creating a framework in conjunction with PECS, details to follow.

Cwricwlwm Cymraeg

The Welsh Curriculum is currently undergoing a massive overhaul after an independent review of the old curriculum and new approach formulated by Professor Graham Donaldson. This review is still ongoing with a version for feedback set to be made available in April 2019, a final iteration due to be released in January 2020 and mandatory adoption by state maintained schools in Wales by 2022. Development of this curriculum will begin in 2019 after the release of the draft, where we will begin our analysis of the document, providing relevant feedback through the official channels and then committed development in 2020 with the final release.

Early Steps

EYFS is set for another review. We will provide more details when these changes have been set out.