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About GL Assessment

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Welcome to the GL Assessment web site. GL Assessment has been providing schools with tests and assessment services for over thirty years.

Renowned for their rigour and high quality, GL Assessment tests are used by over 85% of all UK primary and secondary schools, with over three million pupils taking our assessments every year. This makes it the UK's largest independent provider of educational assessments. Originally founded by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), with whom we continue to work today, GL Assessment has been part of the Granada Learning Group since 2000.

GL Assessment has developed a powerful web-based e-assessment portal, Testwise, that has delivered over four million tests to schools. Teachers can choose from a strong list of GL Assessment's tried and tested assessments, such as the Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT3) - which over 50% of UK Secondary schools use each year - and the Suffolk Reading Scale, as well as assessments for special educational needs such as the Dyslexia Screener and Dyscalculia Screener.

Used in 100 countries worldwide, our assessments help individual pupils to identify their strengths and needs and further recommendations are made to address gaps in learning or understanding.

The majority of our assessments are aimed at 5-14 year olds, however we publish paper and digital tests for the 0-19 age group.

GL Assessment enjoys an established reputation for high-quality assessment resources and services that teachers trust and we strive to create the most involving, dynamic digital and paper assessments for today's schoolchildren. The assessments we produce can be broadly divided into five main categories:

Knowledge, understanding and progress

These assessments are largely focused on mathematics and English language. They are designed to measure learning gains – knowledge, skills and understanding in core subjects taught at school. Most of these assessments enable teachers to compare each individual pupil to a national scale, and diagnose strengths and needs.

Ability

Our range of ability assessments explore all aspects of cognitive functioning or general conceptual ability. These measure verbal, non-verbal and spatial reasoning, and how pupils think in different situations and contexts. Again, individual performance can be compared to a national scale.

Special needs

Our special needs range comprises formal and informal assessments designed for individuals with special educational needs. The special needs assessments are used for diagnostic and progress checking purposes.

Personal development

These innovative assessments are designed to help teachers to recognise and develop social, cognitive and emotional intelligence. They offer an understanding of skills and abilities essential to the educational process, such as thinking skills and self-esteem, which can be identified and nurtured. In these areas we publish teaching resources as well as assessments.

Customised assessments

We create specific versions of our assessments for customers - frequently local education authorities - that wish to have unique tests.

Assessments for Health & Social Care Professionals

GL Assessment works with a number of the UK's leading health and social care opinion-formers to produce authoritative and reliable assessments for this sector. The screening and diagnostic tools we produce provide psychologists, therapists, paediatricians, doctors and health visitors with the necessary data to help them make well-informed decisions on behalf of the individuals in their charge.

Contact us to discuss your assessments needs

If you want to ask us a specific question about your assessment needs, please click here.

To book an appointment to discuss your assessment needs with one of our area consultants, please click here.

We hope you enjoy browsing our site.

To find out more about Education assessments and relating articles, please click here.

To find out more about Health & Psychology assessments and relating articles, please click here.