This article covers the assessment arrangements for pupils in primary education aged 5-11 (Key Stages 1 and 2, ISCED 1).

Note: From September 2020, all pupils will be assessed on their entry to primary school in the reception class. This reception baseline assessment will be conducted in the Early Years Foundation Stage (ISCED 0). It is described in the article on ‘Early Childhood Education and Care’.

Pupil assessment

Responsibility for pupil assessment is shared.

The Secretary of State for Education is the Cabinet Minister in charge of the Department for Education (DfE). Under the Education Act 2002, he/she has overall responsibility for the assessment arrangements in relation to each subject for each key stage of the national curriculum.

The Standards and Testing Agency (STA), an executive agency of the DfE, is responsible for the development and delivery of national assessments for primary pupils.

Ofqual, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation, has specific duties to keep national curriculum assessment arrangements under review. Under the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009, it is also responsible for ensuring that the national curriculum assessment arrangements are valid, fit-for-purpose, fair and manageable; that the results are used appropriately; and that standards are properly set and maintained.

Ofsted, the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills, is a non-ministerial government department, responsible for school inspection under the provisions of the Education Act 2005 (as amended). The quality of the curriculum, teaching and assessment contributes to the overarching inspection judgement on the quality of education.

Local authorities, or (LAs), have a duty, under the Education Act 2002, to ensure that schools in their area administer national assessments appropriately. They are also responsible for moderating teacher assessment to ensure that it is accurate and in line with national standards.

Schools are responsible for planning the whole school curriculum for their pupils and for assessing pupil learning; informing parents of their child’s progress; and complying with national assessment requirements. Responsibility is shared between the headteacher / executive leadership and the school governing body or academy trust.

Within school assessment arrangements

Schools are free to choose their approach to assessment, and the DfE has produced a set of recommended core assessment principles to support them in developing and implementing arrangements for assessing pupil progress. According to these principles, a school’s assessment framework should allow the school to:

• check what pupils have learned and whether they are on track to meet age-related expectations
• explain pupil progress measurements clearly and simply to parents, governors and to Ofsted
• include formative and summative assessment approaches to support pupil attainment and progression.

Research published by the DfE in December 2018 identified the main components of schools’ assessment approaches as formative assessment, summative assessment, moderation, and tracking and reporting systems.

National assessment arrangements

National assessment arrangements are statutory in maintained schools in accordance with orders made under the Education Act 2002. They are also a requirement of the school’s funding agreement for academies.

The arrangements cover:

• the phonics screening check at the end of Year 1 (ages 5-6), to check children’s progress in early readiing
• assessment at the end of Key Stage 1 (ages 6-7)
• assessment at the end of Key Stage 2 (ages 10-11).

National assessment at the end of Key Stages 1 and 2 has two aims: to provide standard information to parents and to give a picture of school performance for accountability purposes.

Note: From the 2019/20 academic year, all publicly funded schools (maintained schools and academies) will also be required to administer an online multiplication tables check to Year 4 pupils (ages 8-9). The aim is to determine whether pupils can recall their multiplication tables fluently, which is regarded as essential for future success in mathematics.

Year 1 phonics screening check

Pupils in Year 1 (ages 5-6) complete a phonics screening check to assess their progress in reading. The check confirms whether they have learnt phonic decoding to an expected standard. It was introduced in June 2012 as part of the Government’s commitment to promote the use of systematic synthetic phonics in the teaching of early reading.

The assessment, which is produced by the Standards and Testing Agency (STA) and administered and marked by the pupil’s teacher, consists of 20 real words and 20 ‘pseudo-words’ that a pupil reads aloud to the teacher. Individual headteachers are responsible for timetabling the check within the course of a specified week (usually in June, towards the end of the school year). Schools must report the results of the check to their local authority (LA), which submits the results to the Department for Education (DfE). Those pupils who do not achieve the expected standard are given extra support and are re-assessed in Year 2 (ages 6-7).

Guidance for schools is available from the STA.

End of Key Stage 1 assessment

End of Key Stage 1 assessment (Year 2, ages 6-7) takes the form of a teacher assessment judgement of each pupil’s performance in English (reading and writing), mathematics and science. Teacher assessment judgements are informed by:

• teacher assessment carried out throughout the year as part of teaching and learning
• teacher assessment frameworks, setting out standards to support teachers in making robust and accurate judgements of pupil attainment
• external moderation of teacher assessment judgements in English and mathematics, which is carried out by the relevant local authority to ensure that judgements are accurate and consistent with national standards
• national curriculum tests, administered by teachers, usually in May.

The national curriculum tests used to inform teacher assessment judgements are set externally by the Standards and Testing Agency (STA) and marked by pupils’ teachers. They consist of:

• two compulsory tests in reading
• a compulsory test in each of arithmetic and reasoning to inform teacher assessment in maths
• optional tests in spelling, punctuation and grammar to inform teacher assessment in writing.

Test outcomes are reported as scaled scores, with a score of 100 representing the expected standard in each test.

Schools must submit their end of Key Stage 1 teacher assessment judgements to the local authority which, in turn, must submit the teacher assessment results to the Department for Education (DfE).

Statutory guidance on the assessment and reporting arrangements for Key Stage 1 is provided by the Standards and Testing Agency (STA). This includes information on the respective responsibilities of headteachers, governing boards / academy trusts and local authorities (LAs).

End of Key Stage 2 assessment

At the end of Key Stage 2 (Year 6, ages 10-11), statutory national assessment includes a teacher assessment judgement and external tests.

Teachers provide a teacher assessment judgement for each pupil in English writing and science. These judgements are informed by:

• teacher assessment carried out through the year as part of teaching and learning
• teacher assessment frameworks, setting out standards to support teachers in making robust and accurate judgements of pupil attainment
• external moderation by the relevant local authority of a sample of teacher assessment judgements of writing, to ensure that judgements are accurate and consistent with national standards.

Schools must submit their end of Key Stage 2 teacher assessment judgements to the DfE.

Note: prior to the 2018/19 school year, teacher assessment judgements in English reading and mathematics were also provided. These are no longer required. The change was introduced to reduce assessment burdens on schools, and because reading and mathematics are assessed in the compulsory national tests taken at the end of Key Stage 2.

The national curriculum tests in English and mathematics take place on set dates, usually during a week in May. The tests are administered by pupils’ teachers but set by the Standards and Testing Agency (STA) and marked externally. They consist of:

• two tests in grammar, punctuation and spelling
• one test in reading
• one test in arithmetic
• two tests in reasoning.

As in Key Stage 1, test outcomes are reported as scaled scores, with a score of 100 representing the expected standard in each Key Stage 2 test.

The results of the statutory assessments at the end of Key Stage 2 do not influence admission to secondary school. They may, however, be used to identify pupils needing additional support.

Statutory guidance on the assessment and reporting arrangements for Key Stage 2 is provided by the STA. This includes information on the respective responsibilities of headteachers, governing boards / academy trusts and local authorities (LAs).

Pupils at the end of Key Stage 2 do not routinely take a science test; their performance is usually measured using teacher assessment judgements. However, every two years, a sample of approximately 9500 pupils take tests in science in order to gauge the overall performance of the national Key Stage 2 population. The next science sampling tests will take place in June 2020.

Pupil records and reports

As outlined in guidance from the Department for Education (DfE), headteachers of maintained schools must prepare annual written reports for all pupils’ parents, which parents should receive before the end of the summer term (July). The report must cover:

• their child's achievements and progress in all national curriculum subjects studied, highlighting strengths and developmental needs
• the child’s progress and achievements in all other subjects and activities, their general progress and an attendance record
• the teacher assessment judgements of the child’s attainment and progress for all children assessed under the national assessment arrangements at the end of Key Stage 1 (age 7)
• the child’s results from teacher assessment and his / her national curriculum test results for all children assessed under the national assessment arrangements at the end of Key Stage 2 (age 11)
• how parents can arrange a discussion about the report with a teacher at the school.

For all pupils in Year 1 (aged 5-6) assessed under the national arrangements for the phonics screening check of progress in early reading, schools must also report to parents on whether their child has met the expected standard. This must take place before the end of the summer term and schools can choose how to communicate results to parents.

Reporting requirements for maintained schools are specified in the Education (Pupil Information) (England) Regulations 2005 (as amended). 

Academies are required, through their funding agreements, to provide parents with an annual written report of each pupil’s progress and attainment in the main subject areas taught.

Introduction of assessment reforms

During the period March to June 2017, the Government consulted on reforms to the system of assessment in primary education. Its response, published in September 2017, confirmed the changes summarised below to the system of national assessment. The Government will:

• introduce a new, teacher-mediated assessment in the reception class from 2020. This is intended to provide a ‘baseline measure’ to better track pupils’ progress during primary school. As this assessment takes place during the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) (ISCED 0), further information is provided in the article on ‘Early Childhood Education and Care’.
• make the end of Key Stage 1 national curriculum tests and teacher assessment non-statutory from 2022/3, once the new reception baseline assessment has been fully established
• introduce a mandatory multiplication tables ‘check’ in Year 4 (ages 8-9) to aid pupils’ fluency in mathematics. The check will be mandatory from June 2020. Trials took place in June 2018, and the check was available to schools as part of a national voluntary pilot in June 2019.

These changes are being introduced against a background of policy reform which has focused on increasing school autonomy; reducing the administrative burdens on schools; and raising standards for all pupils. Earlier changes to the system of primary school assessment and accountability also reflected this focus. They took account of the introduction, in 2014, of the new, more demanding national curriculum and included:

• an increased focus on teacher assessment by, for example, replacing the previous Key Stage 1 and 2 writing tests with teacher assessment of English writing, and introducing written tests of grammar, punctuation and spelling (optional in Key Stage 1)
• the introduction of new, more challenging national tests in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, and the replacement of the Key Stage 2 mental mathematics test with an arithmetic test;
• the removal of the system of eight ‘levels’ or ‘level descriptions’ to describe pupil performance in national curriculum subjects (see the ‘Historical note on level descriptions’ below). These were determined to be unsuitable for judging which areas of the curriculum a pupil had a secure knowledge of, and where the gaps in their knowledge lay.  

The reforms follow a prolonged period of review, which included the publication, in 2011, of the final report of the Independent Review of Key Stage 2 Testing, Assessment and Accountability (Bew Review); an in-depth consultation on reforming primary school assessment and accountability and the Government’s March 2014 response; and the publication, in 2015, of the final report of the Commission on Assessment Without Levels.

Historical note on level descriptions

Before 2015/16, there had been eight level descriptions for each attainment target in the programmes of study for the core subjects (English, mathematics and science) at Key Stages 1 and 2. There was also a description of exceptional performance above level 8. These level descriptions indicated the types and range of performance that a pupil working at a particular level characteristically should demonstrate over a period of time. The single scale spanned Key Stages 1 to 3 (ages 5-14). Teachers used their knowledge of a child’s work to judge which level description was closest to his / her performance.

The Government considered that this scale had come to be seen as thresholds for crossing, to the detriment of ensuring that pupils were secure in the knowledge and understanding defined in the programmes of study. In addition, the level descriptions used a ‘best fit’ model, which meant that a pupil could have serious gaps in their knowledge and understanding, but still be placed within the level.

Historical note on baseline assessment

The 2015-2016 Government planned to introduce a new, short baseline assessment for pupils starting the reception class in primary school (age 4/5), as a way to measure their progress when they reached the end of Key Stage 2 (age 11). These plans were dropped in April 2016, when a study concluded that the three different baseline assessments from which schools could choose were not sufficiently comparable to create a fair starting point from which to measure pupils’ progress. Pupil progress is now measured from the end of Key Stage 1 (age 7).

Plans to introduce a baseline assessment in the reception class – from 2020 - have since been re-introduced.

Progression of pupils

Progression of pupils from one class to the next is a matter of custom and practice, rather than a legal requirement. In practice, pupils almost always progress automatically to the next year.

Low attainment of individual pupils is addressed through differentiated teaching and the provision of additional support, rather than by repetition of a year. Academically gifted pupils are similarly supported through differentiated teaching and support.  

The expectation of inclusiveness is embedded in the national curriculum. Pupils are placed out of their age-related year group only in exceptional circumstances.

Certification

There is no certificate awarded to pupils on completion of primary education.

Progression to secondary education is not dependent on certification or completion of primary education.

Article last reviewed April 2021.