CSSME Seminar Series: Assessment in primary schools: sausage machine, dog’s breakfast or full English?

This presentation looks at impending changes to the curriculum, assessment and accountability framework and examines the impact on primary schools and the secondary phase of education.

Since 2014, the Government has made a number of changes to the National Curriculum and the associated statutory assessments for schools in the primary phase of education. The focus and presentation of the latest version of the National Curriculum is in some ways a departure from previous iterations of the statutory requirements made of schools regarding the structure, content and delivery of the curriculum. Statutory assessments have also been re-structured including changes to expected standards of performance, the removal of levels of attainment and the frequency and focus of tests. Following a recent DfE consultation on primary assessment, further changes are scheduled over the next few years. These changes sit within a context of concerns within the teaching profession regarding teacher workload, Ofsted inspections and the school accountability framework.  

This presentation looks at the recent and impending changes to the curriculum, assessment and accountability framework and examines the impact on primary schools and the implications for the secondary phase of education.

Speaker: Mick Walker, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Vice-Chair & Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors, former acting Director of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) and Executive Director of Education at the QCDA.