This article covers the assessment of pupils in primary education aged 4-11 (the Foundation Stage and Key Stages 1 and 2, ISCED 1).
Pupil assessment
Responsibility for pupil assessment is shared.
The Department of Education (DE) has overall responsibility for statutory assessment arrangements. It specifies the assessment arrangements for the areas of learning, cross-curricular skills, and thinking skills and personal capabilities of the Northern Ireland Curriculum. This is under The Education (Northern Ireland) Order 2006.
The Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) is a non-departmental public body, which oversees assessment, alongside the curriculum; keeps assessment arrangements under review; and advises the DE on matters concerned with assessment. These responsibilities are set out under the Education (Northern Ireland) Order 1998.
The Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) is responsible for primary school inspection. The effectiveness and impact of planning, teaching and assessment contributes to the school inspection judgement on the overall quality of provision. The legal basis for the ETI’s work is The Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1986.
Schools are responsible for planning the whole school curriculum for their pupils, for assessing pupil learning, for informing parents of progress, and for complying with statutory assessment requirements. Responsibility is shared between the principal, the board of governors, and individual teachers.
As set out in the Professional Competences (page 15), teachers are expected to select from a range of assessment strategies to evaluate pupils’ learning, and to use this information in their planning to help make their teaching more effective.
There is a focus on Assessment for Learning (AfL), to place formative assessment at the heart of teaching and learning, and give children an active role in the assessment process. Pupils work with teachers to determine what is being learned and to develop their performance. Although teachers are not required to integrate AfL in to their teaching, the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) recommends its use as best practice.
Other key features of the assessment system include:
- statutory annual teacher assessment of a pupil’s performance in the areas of learning, cross-curricular skills, and thinking skills and personal capabilities of the Northern Ireland Curriculum
- statutory summative assessment at the end of Key Stages 1 and 2 (pupils aged 8 and 11) in the cross-curricular skills of ‘communication’, ‘using mathematics’ and ‘using ICT’, by reference to levels of progression.
The Education (Northern Ireland) Order 2006 provides the legislative framework for the statutory assessment arrangements.
For an overview of assessment arrangements in primary education in Northern Ireland, see this Department of Education article.
Statutory assessment arrangements under the Northern Ireland Curriculum
Assessment in the Foundation Stage
During the Foundation Stage (pupils aged 4-6), assessment is based mainly on teacher observation which informs the learning programme for each child.
Teachers must assess pupil progress annually in each of the areas of learning, in the cross-curricular skills, and in the thinking skills and personal capabilities of the Northern Ireland Curriculum. This is required by The Education (Assessment Arrangements) (Foundation to Key Stage 3) Order (Northern Ireland) 2007. This statutory annual assessment of pupil progress is the responsibility of schools and information on progress is not collected centrally.
No assessment method is specified. The non-statutory guidance, Learning, Teaching and Assessment in the Foundation Stage (CCEA, 2012) recommends that teachers select assessment strategies that best suit the nature of the work and the purpose of the assessment (page 10). For example, teachers may gain assessment evidence from planned and spontaneous observation of:
- independent or group tasks
- discussion and interaction
- oral, written or visual presentations, or physical demonstrations.
Teachers assess each pupil in each component part of the cross-curricular skills:
- communication
- talking and listening
- reading
- writing
- using mathematics
- using ICT
- explore
- express
- exchange
- evaluate
- exhibit.
The Developmental Stages in Learning, produced by the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA), provide non-statutory guidance to assist with the assessment of the cross-curricular skills. They are intended to:
- gauge each pupil’s stage of development when they start Year 1 (age 4)
- provide a focus for regular observations of individual pupils’ skills and help to identify their needs
- track the progress of an individual or group of pupils
- assist in making formative and summative judgements about pupils
- help to ensure a smooth transition from Foundation Stage to Key Stage 1 (age 6)
- assist in reporting effectively to parents on pupils’ progress in the cross-curricular skills
- create an assessment continuum which links with the levels of progression, used to assess pupils’ progress in the cross-curricular skills at the end of Key Stages 1 and 2 (ages 8 and 11).
Assessment in Key Stages 1 and 2
In Key Stages 1 and 2 (pupils aged 6-11), teachers assess pupil progress annually in the areas of learning, cross-curricular skills, and thinking skills and personal capabilities of the Northern Ireland Curriculum. This is required under The Education (Assessment Arrangements) (Foundation to Key Stage 3) Order (Northern Ireland) 2007. This statutory annual assessment of pupil progress is the responsibility of schools, and information on progress is not collected centrally.
In addition, teachers assess each pupil annually in each component part of the cross-curricular skills:
- communication
- talking and listening
- reading
- writing
- using mathematics
- using ICT
- explore
- express
- exchange
- evaluate
- exhibit.
No assessment method is specified, but schools may choose to use tasks provided by the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA). The tasks contribute to ongoing teacher assessment and, alongside samples of work from across the curriculum, support teachers to make summative judgements of pupil progress and attainment. (See page 4 of the CCEA guidance on Key Stage 1 and 2 assessment arrangements.)
At the end of Key Stages 1 and 2 (pupils aged 8 and 11), teachers must record the results of their assessment of the cross-curricular skills using levels of progression. This is a numerical level for each individual pupil, for each cross-curricular skill, which must be reported to parents and the CCEA.
Levels of progression set out, in the form of ‘can do’ statements, a continuum of skills that pupils should be able to demonstrate to build the literacy, numeracy and ICT skills needed to function effectively in life and in the world of work. There are seven levels of progression for each requirement of the cross-curricular skills.
In primary education, the expected levels in all three cross-curricular skills are:
- end of Key Stage 1, Level 2
- end of Key Stage 2, Level 4.
It is expected that a pupil will progress by at least one level in each key stage.
In Irish-medium schools and units, pupils at the end of Key Stage 1 are assigned levels in communication in Irish only. Pupils at the end of Key Stage 2 are assigned levels in both Irish and English.
To ensure reliability and consistency in statutory teacher assessment of the cross-curricular skills at the end of Key Stages 1 and 2, schools must submit a sample of pupils’ work to the CCEA. This must represent the range of levels a school intends to award in each cross-curricular skill. This school submission must be sent to the CCEA in February (the school year ends in June). It is used to provide confirmation of the school’s understanding of the levels of progression.
The levels of progression became mandatory in 2012/13 for communication and using mathematics, and in 2016/17 for using ICT.
Note on computer-based diagnostic assessment
Up to and including the 2016/17 school year, the Department of Education (DE) provided optional Computer-based Assessment (CBA) for primary school pupils in Years 4 to 7 (ages 7 to 11). These assessments comprised:
- the Northern Ireland Literacy Assessment (NILA), an untimed test, which usually took around 40 minutes and assessed pupils’ skills and understanding in reading, writing and listening
- the Northern Ireland Numeracy Assessment (NINA), which consisted of two tests, ‘Understanding and Using Number’ and ‘Shape and Space, Measures and Handling Data’, each taking around 20 minutes.
These diagnostic assessments, introduced in the 2012/13 school year, were designed to support schools in identifying pupils’ strengths and areas for improvement. They were taken in the autumn term. Due to the financial constraints facing the education sector, the DE did not renew the contracts for NILA and NINA for the 2017/18 school year.
As stated in this press release, the DE expects schools to continue to carry out diagnostic assessment using an assessment of their choice, and for the results to inform how pupils can achieve their learning goals. However, schools are not required to assess pupils for diagnostic purposes, nor to update parents with diagnostic assessment results in the autumn term.
Pupil records and reports
Grant-aided schools must provide the parents / carers of each pupil registered with an annual written progress report. This is required under The Education (Pupil Reporting) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009.
Parents receive a written report from their child’s school at the end of each year of primary education, by 30th June at the latest. The report should include:
- information on his/her progress in every aspect of the curriculum
- information on the child’s strengths and interests
- a focus for development
- any other optional content.
If a child is in Year 4 (the final year of Key Stage 1, age 8) or Year 7 (the final year of Key Stage 2, age 11), the report must also provide:
- the level of progression achieved in communication, using mathematics and using ICT (the cross-curricular skills). This is expressed as a number on a scale of 1-7. 2 is the expected result at the end of Key Stage 1, and 4 that at the end of Key Stage 2
- a statement of the expected numerical level for pupils at the end of the relevant key stage, along with comparative information on the percentage of pupils in the school achieving, exceeding or working towards the expected level for each cross-curricular skill.
No common format is specified for annual written reports.
For more detailed information on requirements for pupil reporting, see Circular 2009/15.
Progression of pupils
Progression of pupils from one class to the next is a matter of custom and practice, rather than a legal requirement. 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.
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.
Article last reviewed April 2021.