​Purpose of Assessments

Assessments play a vital role in your child’s education. They help teachers understand how well students are learning, identify areas for support, and guide future teaching.

There are two main types of assessment used in schools. These are known as formative and summative assessments.

The key purposes of formative assessment are to:

1. Support Learning

This can be as simple as questions being asked in class or a review of work completed in lessons to identify misconceptions or misunderstanding and inform next steps. Additionally, this may also include low-stakes quizzes, homework assignments and informal end of topic tests.

1. Provide Feedback

Just as a sports coach provides constant developmental feedback, teachers’ use formative assessment to give students valuable feedback on how to improve. In the last decade research has shown that traditional written “marking” of student books is often a very inefficient way of providing this feedback. As a result, staff mainly use evidence-informed approaches such as whole-class feedback, sampling, diagnostic testing and verbal responses to provide effective feedback to students.

The key purposes of summative assessment are:

1. Tracking and Reporting Progress and Attainment

Regular common assessment enables us to monitor closely how students are progressing over time in relation to both their starting points and to their peers. This is also then used to provide information to parents through our reports and parents Learning Review Evenings (LREs).

1. Informing School Decisions

Data drawn from summative assessments enable schools to make decisions about grouping students for specific subjects, providing additional support or intervention and evaluating the impact of our curriculum and staffing with considerations about where best to utilise resource.

1. Preparing students for qualifications

Mock exams and mid-year/end of year assessments and practice papers help students get used to exam conditions and identify gaps in their knowledge. All students will sit a suite of GCSE or vocational qualifications at the end of Key Stage 4 (Year 11) and practice at revision and sitting these types of assessment is invaluable.

At Trafalgar School formative assessment is used every day in every lesson. It is a key skill of a teacher and parents should not expect to receive feedback from this type of assessment.

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MLP Common Assessments

As a school the majority of our summative assessments are coordinated as part of the Magna Learning Partnership Common Assessment Framework.

In Key Stage 3 all students will sit a 45-minute assessment in the following subjects both in the middle of the academic year (in either Term 2 or Term 3) and at the end of the academic year (in Term 6).

(NB Year 7 do NOT sit mid-year assessments)

English

Maths
Science

MFL (Reading and writing only)

History

Geography

 

In all other subjects, assessments take place as determined by the teacher and this is communicated through Class Charts.

 

In Key Stage 4 a carefully planned Common Assessment journey prepares students for their GCSEs at the end of Year 11.

 

Term 3 Year 10 – Mid-year assessments in all examined subjects (sat in classrooms)

Term 6 Year 10 – End of Year assessments in all examined subjects (sat in the exam hall)

Term 2 Year 11 – PPE (Pre-Public Examinations, sometimes known as ‘mock’) in all examined subjects (sat in the exam hall)

Term 4 Year 11 – Mock exams in Core Subjects (Maths, English and Science) only (sat in classrooms)

 

Preparing for Assessments

Every year an online Information Evening is available to all parents in Key Stage 3. This evening covers the practicalities of the assessments as well as giving parents tips on how to help their children revise.

 

In school, students are supported with revision in their subject lessons and through homework. Additionally students are taught a metacognitive (learning how to learn) strategies through tutor time sessions and assemblies.

 

Students also have access to a Revision Google Classroom (currently under construction) that has a wealth of information and resources.

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Reporting

Click here to see how we report to parents, including how we report the outcomes from Common Assessments.

 

2025-26 Assessment Calendar

Year 7 End of Year Assessments w/b 8th June 2026

Year 8 Mid-Year Assessments w/b 12th January 2026

Year 8 End of Year Assessments w/b 15th June 2026

Year 9 Mid-Year Assessments w/b 8th December 2025

Year 9 End of Year Assessments w/b 8th June 2026 (Core Subjects) and w/b 15th June 2026 (MFL/History/Geog)

Year 10 Mid-Year Assessments w/b 12th January and 19th January 2026

Year 10 End of Year Assessments w/b 27th April 2026 (Core Subjects) and w/b 22nd and 29th June 2026 (Options) 2026

Year 11 PPEs w/b 3rd and 10th November 2025

Year 11 Core Mock exams w/b 23rd February 2026

GCCE Public Examinations begin 5th May 2026​​​