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The Long Transition

This will be the second year running that primary and secondary schools in England will have no national data to support the transition process. This, coupled with the huge disruption of the past months, will make transition a bigger challenge in 2021, particularly from Year 6 to Year 7. In addition, schools are increasingly reporting that transition is becoming more of a concern between different year groups throughout KS3.

Explore this website to see how schools have used assessments to support their pupils over recent months and how they will be approaching transition in autumn 2021. Our guest blog from FFT explains how their Transition Service using CAT4 data is being extended this year to further support schools.

Explore themes

Top ten assessment tips

  • 1

    Be clear and transparent

    Explain why your school is doing assessments and how they will inform teaching and learning
  • 2

    Keep it simple

    Ensure that assessment is timely and aligned to your curriculum
  • 3

    Triangulate

    Collate data from different datasets where possible to get a more complete picture of student ability
  • 4

    Share widely

    The data won’t only be useful for colleagues but governors, parents, students and, where applicable, other schools too
  • 5

    Be consistent

    Assess students in the same way at approximately the same time every year to allow accurate comparisons
  • 6

    Don’t overcomplicate

    Present any reports or analyses in a clear and accessible way
  • 7

    But don’t oversimplify

    The headline score is only part of the picture. Delve deeper, discover the underlying story behind the headline score and use the information gleaned in a nuanced way
  • 8

    Minimise workload

    Standardised assessments can really cut down on workload like marking if used well. But be careful not to fall into ‘data rabbit holes’ and generate more data than you need
  • 9

    Benchmark nationally

    A standardised assessment not only gives teachers accurate comparisons with year groups across the country, it also allows schools to assess internal assessments against an objective external measure
  • 10

    Assess for the long term

    Assessment really comes into its own when a school has several years of data to build up a longitudinal picture. A rich data profile allows teachers to measure progress easily, to identify unexpected changes in performance and to demonstrate impact

The benefits of external benchmarking

This video covers how standardised assessments can help you to validate teacher judgement and identify specific learning needs. The video also touches upon the importance of standardised assessments at key transition points in a child’s educational journey.

The effective use of indicators

Many standardised assessments provide indicative grades for pupils taking public examinations. This video, also produced with Evidence Based Education, provides advice on how indicative grades should be used to help set effective and achievable goals for your pupils.

Assessments and Support