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Assessments

Assessment of pupils by their class or subject teacher provides a lot of important information on how your child is doing.

Teacher Assessment

Assessment lets teachers see what progress your child is making and provides teachers with information which assists them to plan how to help pupils make further progress.

Assessment also enables schools to report information to you as a parent, as well as information to help older children make choices about the examination courses they will follow and the qualifications and careers they will seek.

Assessment also helps schools to set targets for the future and to measure their performance. This information lets government monitor the performance of the schools’ system generally.

Key Stage Assessment

Literacy and numeracy are at the very heart of the revised curriculum and this central role is emphasised through the cross-curricular skills of Communication and Using Mathematics.

Revised assessment arrangements are now being rolled out to support the delivery of the curriculum at Key Stages 1 to 3. From the 2012-2013 school year, Communication and Using Mathematics (and from 2013-2014 Using ICT) will be assessed with reference to new Levels of Progression, which will focus on skills as well as knowledge.

The Levels of Progression will provide clear information for teachers, parents and young people themselves on the progress pupils are making in developing their literacy and numeracy skills.

The Levels of Progression set out, in the form of “can do” statements, a range  of skills that pupils should be expected to be able to demonstrate if they are to build the communication, numeracy and ICT skills needed to function effectively in life and in the world of work.

Further information on assessment at the end of Key Stages 1, 2 and 3 can be found on the Northern Ireland Curriculum website:

Current/Transitional Assessment Arrangements

Until new Levels of Progression are introduced, the present assessment arrangements will continue in the 2011-2012 school year, with assessment at the end of Key Stages 1, 2 and 3 against the existing Levels of Attainment descriptions for Language and Literacy and Mathematics and Numeracy.

While these levels pre-date the revised curriculum, they cover most of the knowledge that pupils are expected to develop in these two fundamental areas.  

They are in operation to ensure that, between now and the 2012-2013 school year, there is no gap in arrangements for formal assessment and reporting of assessment outcomes of progress in literacy and numeracy.

Further information on Transitional assessment arrangements at the end of Key Stages 1, 2 and 3 can be found on the Northern Ireland Curriculum website:

Assessment and Progression

The Department of Education has agreed the levels which they expect most children and young people to be able to reach in all three cross-curricular skills of Communication, Using Mathematics and Using ICT with a clear expectation that individual pupils should progress at least one level between each Key Stage.  

This allows for progression to be shown and ensures that there is a clear focus not simply on achievement at or above the expected levels, but also, importantly, on measuring the progress made by pupils, bearing in mind their different starting points.

Guides for parents on the curriculum

The Council for the Curriculum Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) have produced two booklets for parents of primary and post-primary children on the curriculum and what to expect when their child starts school. The booklets can be downloaded below.

More useful links

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