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Assessment

In 2016 St Peter's School was awarded a DfE Workload Challenge Research Grant to develop a MAT wide summative assessment system that reduced teacher workload. This was a highly collaborative project which involved school leaders from across the Lighthouse Schools Partnership and more than 25 class teachers. We worked alongside leading experts James Pembroke (Sig+ data) and Professor Gordon Stobbart.

The research resulted in a highly effective summative assessment system that is now being used in all primary schools across our MAT. We have presented our research project and our summative assessment system at national conferences and events including the DfE Workload Challenge Roadshows. Our project is included in the DfE Teacher Workload Toolkit. 

In 2018 we were asked to share our knowledge in this area by sitting on the DfE Workload Advisory Committee around the use of data in schools. This was chaired by Professor Becky Allen alongside Sean Harford, Professor Rob Coe and Geoff Barton as well as members of the DfE and included a briefing session directly to Damien Hinds. This was an exciting opportunity to contribute to a report that has made had recommendations accepted by the DFE and OFSTED. The report , Making Data Work, can be found here. 

Our work on summative assessment was built on and extended our work on formative assessment and written feedback. This has changed how teachers in our school feedback to pupils - not only improving workload by dramatically reducing the amount of time teachers spend marking but also greatly increasing the quality and quantify of formative and responsive feedback that our pupils receive. Again, we have shared this work at national events and conferences, including at the 2017 Chartered College Assessment Conference and as a case study on the DfE Workload Challenge Blog.