Improvements are planned to the primary assessment system, aimed at creating a stable system for the long term.
The following information is taken from the announcement received from the STA on 14 September (external link), following the government response to the primary assessment consultations. The reforms will:
- improve the way writing is assessed, giving teachers more scope to use their professional judgement when assessing performance;
- introduce a new assessment at the start of reception from September 2020, to act as a starting point for measuring progress. This will acknowledge/give credit to schools for the progress they help pupils make in reception, year 1 and year 2;
- remove the statutory status of end of KS1 assessments at the earliest possible point, from 2022 to 2023 academic year, once the reception baseline is fully established;
- remove the requirement to carry out statutory TA in English, reading and mathematics at the end of KS2 from 2018 to 2019;
- improve the early years’ foundation profile, including revising the ELG to make them clearer and align them more closely with teaching in KS1;
- introduce an online multiplication tables check, to be taken by pupils at the end of year 4, from 2019 to 2020 academic year onwards.
The government has also responded on the recommendations made by the Rochford Review:
- to implement the review’s proposal to extend the pre-key stage standards to cover all pupils who are working below the standard of national curriculum tests but are engaged in subject-specific learning;
- there will be a pilot of the review’s recommended approach to assessing those pupils not engaged in subject learning;
- these plans will ensure there are effective assessment arrangements in place for primary school children working below the standard of the national curriculum tests.
2017 to 2018 revised writing assessment frameworks at the end of Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.
Revised frameworks for the assessment of English reading, mathematics and science will be published for use from 2018 – 2019.
The interim pre-key stage standards for English writing for KS1 and KS2 has also been updated to align with the changes to the frameworks. These standards should be used in 2017.