Coming from another tracker

Sonar Tracker works differently from trackers built on levels, steps, points or ticked objectives, and from Juniper Education’s earlier Target Tracker. Use this page to see how familiar ideas map to Sonar, and how to bring your historical data across.

How familiar ideas map to Sonar

In other systems	In Sonar	Read more
Levels and sub-levels, such as 2b	Four judgements against the pupil’s own year group: Below, Just At, Securely At and Above	The four judgements
Steps through the year, with most pupils low in the autumn	Point in time assessment: a pupil secure in what has been taught so far can be Securely At in autumn	Point in time assessment
Point scores, average point scores and steps per year	No points or averages. Progress compares one judgement with another	Expected progress
Emerging, developing and secure	Just At and Securely At both count as on track, and Just At marks pupils who could slip	On track and the higher standard
Greater depth in every subject	Above means on track for the higher standard. Greater depth is a KS2 writing outcome	Judgements and statutory outcomes
A summative result calculated from ticked objectives	Teachers make summative judgements. Formative codes inform them through Triangulate, but never calculate them	How assessment works in Sonar
Data collection every half term	Up to six half-termly assessment points, but two or three a year are enough	Assessment points and the school year
Judgements carried forward automatically	Summative judgements do not carry forward. Copy Data From Previous Term copies them for you to review	Copy judgements from an earlier point
P scales, or separate codes for working below	A code from the band the pupil is working in, which reports count as Significantly Below	Assess pupils working below their year group
Flight paths and predicted outcomes	An End of Year Projection, which can rise or fall. The Primary Flight Path report is a history of attainment	Set targets and end-of-year projections
Targets that roll forward each term	Targets set for a chosen term, which cannot be copied from one term to the next	Set targets and end-of-year projections

What changes in practice

Judge what has been taught so far

Under point in time assessment, an autumn judgement is about the autumn curriculum, not the whole year. Your staff may be used to most pupils starting the year low and rising by the summer. In Sonar, expect more pupils to be Just At or Securely At from the first assessment point.

Many will also keep the same judgement all year. A pupil who stays Just At has kept pace with a curriculum that got harder each term, which is expected progress.

Stop counting points

Why Sonar does not count steps or points sets out the research. If leaders or governors are used to a single progress number, agree a different way to discuss progress. For example, look at the share of pupils on track, and at the pupils whose judgement has dropped.

Make summative judgements yourself

If your old tracker turned ticked objectives into an overall result, that step now belongs to the teacher. Triangulate shows the formative picture, test scores and statutory results beside the judgement list. Record formative assessment where it helps your planning: you do not need to tick every objective. See Good assessment practice.

Move your historical data

Summative judgements

When your school moves to Sonar, Juniper’s onboarding team can migrate historical summative data as part of setting up your account. Agree with them which years and subjects to bring across.

Note

Schools that moved from another Juniper product were given a code model that let their data transfer, so your codes may differ from the four in this guide. The Summative Code Labels page shows the codes your school uses. See Assessment settings.

Statutory results

Statutory results come in from common transfer files (CTFs), the DfE’s format for moving pupil data between systems. An admin role, such as Account Owner or Account Admin, usually imports them. Portal-linked schools import CTFs in Juniper MIS. Stand-alone schools use Send a file to Sonar on the School page.

You can get CTFs from:

• your management information system (MIS), for the whole school or one year group
• the NCA Portal, the Standards and Testing Agency’s national curriculum assessments website, for KS2 results
• the multiplication tables check (MTC) service, for MTC results
• Get Information about Pupils (GIAP), for missing EYFS profile, phonics or KS1 results

Import and export statutory data explains each step.

If you used Target Tracker

When schools moved from Target Tracker, Juniper converted its steps to Sonar’s judgements (Juniper’s guide to moving from Target Tracker):

Target Tracker step	Sonar judgement
w or below	Below
w+	Just At
s	Securely At
s+ or above	Above

Some Target Tracker data does not come across: observations, custom columns, pupil notes, groups, user profiles and past formative judgements. Recreate any groups you still need in Sonar. Groups that come from your MIS arrive with your pupil data. See Create and manage groups.

Raw KS2 test scores do not transfer either. Import the KS2 CTF from the NCA Portal instead, and the MTC CTF from the MTC service for any missing multiplication tables check results.

Target Tracker’s early years year groups have new names in Sonar:

Target Tracker	Sonar	Age the child turns during the academic year
Rec	Reception	5
Nur	Nursery 2 (N2)	4
Pre3	Nursery 1 (N1)	3
Pre2	Entry 2 (E2)	2
Pre1	Entry 1 (E1)	1

Target Tracker could also send a CTF straight to the local authority. Sonar does not, so make statutory data returns from your MIS.

Related pages

• Judgements, bands and age-related expectations
• Import and export statutory data
• How pupil data gets into Sonar
• Get support and training