A handy short guide for what makes great formative assessment (focussed on Primary / K-12), bringing together insights from the Commission for Assessment without Levels, serving Headteachers, Ofsted, Parents and Pupils.

1. 1) Customise your Curriculum
Good assessment practice is intrinsically linked to your teachers’ confidence in the
curriculum they deliver every day. The assessments your teachers make only have meaning
when the content of the curriculum is accessible for pupils and parents, therefore it is vital
that schools customise their curriculum to meet the needs of their pupils.
Checklist for Good Assessment Practice
Schools should be free to develop an approach to assessment which aligns with
their curriculum and works for their pupils and staff.
Final Report of the Commission on Assessment without Levels, September 2015
2) Consistent Assessment Policy
The key to any assessment practice is to have a clear and consistent assessment policy
across the school. We all have our own assessment policies which we can find in the
bottom of a drawer, but do we know exactly what our assessment policy means and
crucially do our teachers know if asked? If we don’t have consistent assessment taking
place across the school then any assessment system is set to fail because it won’t be able
to present accurate, meaningful assessment from teacher to teacher and pupil to pupil.
Before considering any commercially available assessment tool, schools should
make sure their policies on assessment have been confirmed.
Final Report of the Commission on Assessment without Levels, September 2015
3) Pupil Engagement
Children should be involved in their own learning journey. After all, how can we expect
children to get excited about their next steps without showing them what they need to do
to move forward or know their progress so far? Schools need to make sure that their
pupils are engaged in every step of their learning so that assessment becomes a process
pupils and teachers go through together.
Children are taking charge of their own learning and are proud of their achievements.
They know their next steps and their teachers tell them how to achieve them."
John Goodey, Executive Headteacher, St Mary's Lewisham CE Primary

2. 4) Planning
At its heart, great teaching and learning involves careful planning to build upon what each
child already knows and the skills and experience they already have. As teachers we’re used
to carrying a myriad of information in our heads about every child in our class - learning
preferences, friendships etc. However, relying on memory alone for lesson planning is
fraught with danger and simply isn’t an effective or accurate approach.
A new system for assessing pupils over time against a ‘ladder’ scale of building
knowledge and skills is developing well, helping teachers to spot gaps in
knowledge and plan accordingly.
West Earlham Junior School, Ofsted Inspection Report 2016: Good
5) Progress
‘Good progress’, ‘Expected progress’, ‘3 points of progress’, 'Secure Plus’...
Over the last three years the move to setting our own expectations of ‘good’ progress has
led to a fear of stepping into the unknown. What is good progress for our school? This
question has led many down the route of increasing the number of attainment descriptors
so that ‘good’ progress can be shown. But progress doesn’t have to be complicated!
Inspectors will consider how well pupils are making good progress towards
meeting or exceeding the expected attainment for their age, as set out in the
school’s own curriculum and assessment policies.
Ofsted Inspection Handbook, revised 23rd August 2016
6) Engaging and Supporting Parents
At its core, all parents want to know is that their child is happy and making progress, and
some want to know how to help at home. If you’re creating crib sheets and spending hours
replying to emails from parents then stop there. From our work with parents and teachers
we’ve found that sharing this information (especially if it can be translated into other
languages!) begins to facilitate a conversation during parents evening about other areas of
school life rather than simply becoming a checklist of what their child can or can’t do.
"I think this is an amazing tool. It provides accessible information all
year round, rather than waiting for updates at Parent Consultations"
Leanne Wyatt, Parent, The Oaks Learning Federation

3. 7) Consistency
One of the most important factors to consider when adopting any new system is that you
have staff buy in and effective training, otherwise you open yourself up to inconsistencies
later down the line. As we’ve said before when talking about your assessment policy, if
you don’t have every member of staff assessing their pupils in the same way, your data is
meaningless. Make sure all staff are on board and enthusiastic about whatever system
you choose to adopt and that the training they receive is going to develop consistency
and confidence across the school.
Without doubt the best and most useful training event I've ever been on.
Neil Shaw, Westonbirt Prep School
8) Confidence
If you’re building, embedding and bespoking a system to meet your school needs then be
confident in explaining that to whomever you report to and communicate it consistently
throughout your school community. Most importantly, demonstrate how your children
are benefitting from the great practice which goes on inside the classroom.
The easy to use interface ensures our teachers engage with assessment on a
daily basis. The gap analysis tool helps us to Assess, Plan, Teach, therefore
moving our children’s learning forward.
Laura Karamouzis, Assessment Leader and Head of Year 3, Star International School

4. Learning ladders does everything right, it puts control
of learning in the hands of children, cuts teacher and
SLT workload, and easily enables teaching to become
bespoke to groups of children within a class. The
ability to manipulate almost every aspect to fit your
school also makes it very attractive.
Matthew Woodhead, Deputy Head, Brighton College
hello@learningladders.info
020 3637 0500
www.learningladders.info
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