Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) Assessment, Feedback and Pupil Progress Syllabus

Assessment, Feedback and Pupil Progress syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for Assessment, Feedback and Pupil Progress in Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Principles and Purposes of Assessment

   4 topics

   • Formative versus summative assessment
   • Validity, reliability and avoiding excessive assessment
   • Statutory and standardised assessment in England
     • Phonics screening check and KS2 SATs
     • GCSE and the 9-1 grading scale
   • Baseline assessment and identifying starting points
2. 2

   Assessment for Learning in the Classroom

   4 topics

   • Checking for understanding throughout lessons
   • Questioning techniques and cold calling
   • Whole-class responsive techniques
     • Mini-whiteboards and hinge questions
     • Live marking and circulation
   • Adapting teaching in response to assessment evidence
3. 3

   Feedback and Marking

   4 topics

   • Principles of effective, specific and actionable feedback
   • Reducing teacher workload through efficient marking
     • Whole-class feedback approaches
     • Verbal feedback in the moment
   • Pupil response to feedback and acting on it
   • Self- and peer-assessment used effectively
4. 4

   Tracking, Recording and Reporting Progress

   4 topics

   • Recording and monitoring pupil progress over time
   • Using data to inform teaching and intervention
   • Avoiding data overload and meaningful tracking
   • Reporting to parents, carers and other stakeholders

Assessment, Feedback and Pupil Progress flashcards for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS)

22 of 51 cards from the Assessment, Feedback and Pupil Progress deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. What is the core purpose of formative assessment?

   To gather evidence about pupils' understanding during learning so teaching can be adjusted in real time. It is assessment *for* learning, used to close the gap between current and desired performance.

2. What is the core purpose of summative assessment?

   To measure and record what pupils have learned at the end of a period of teaching (e.g. tests, exams, end-of-unit assessments). It is assessment *of* learning, used to make a judgement about attainment.

3. Contrast the timing and use of formative versus summative assessment.

   Formative is ongoing during learning and feeds directly back into teaching; summative is a snapshot at a defined endpoint used for grading, reporting and accountability. The same task can serve either purpose depending on how the information is used.

4. Define validity in the context of educational assessment.

   Validity is the extent to which an assessment actually measures what it is intended to measure, and the degree to which the inferences drawn from the results are justified.

5. Define reliability in the context of educational assessment.

   Reliability is the extent to which an assessment produces consistent, stable results across markers, occasions and equivalent versions, so the same performance would yield the same outcome.

6. Why can an assessment be reliable but not valid?

   Because it can measure something consistently (reliable) while measuring the wrong thing or supporting wrong inferences (not valid). Consistency does not guarantee that the right construct is being assessed.

7. What is meant by 'excessive assessment' and why is it a concern in schools?

   It is assessing so frequently or in so much detail that it adds workload and takes time from teaching without improving learning. It can narrow the curriculum, increase pupil anxiety and produce data that is never acted upon.

8. In England, at what point do pupils sit the Phonics Screening Check?

   At the end of Year 1 (with a re-check in Year 2 for those who do not meet the expected standard). It checks pupils' ability to decode using phonics, including pseudo (nonsense) words.

9. What statutory national assessments do pupils sit at the end of Key Stage 2 in England?

   National Curriculum tests (commonly called SATs) in English reading, English grammar/punctuation/spelling, and mathematics, plus teacher assessment of writing and science.

10. What is the statutory Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) in England?

    A short, activity-based assessment of early maths and literacy/communication taken in the first six weeks of Reception. Its purpose is to be the starting point for a cohort-level progress measure to the end of KS2, not to label individual children.

11. What is the Multiplication Tables Check (MTC) and when is it taken?

    A statutory on-screen check taken in Year 4 assessing recall of multiplication tables up to $12 \times 12$, with pupils answering 25 questions against the clock.

12. Distinguish standardised assessment from teacher-designed assessment.

    A standardised assessment is administered and scored under fixed, uniform conditions so results can be compared against a national sample/norm; teacher-designed assessment is created for a specific class and is not nationally norm-referenced.

13. What is a standardised score and what is its typical mean?

    A score transformed onto a common scale so a pupil's performance can be compared with a nationally representative sample of the same age. The mean (average) is usually set to $100$.

14. What is the purpose of baseline assessment at the start of a topic or year?

    To identify pupils' existing knowledge, skills and misconceptions (their 'starting points') so teaching can be pitched appropriately and progress can later be measured from that baseline.

15. Why must a teacher establish prior knowledge before teaching new content?

    Because new learning builds on existing schemas; identifying prior knowledge and gaps lets the teacher pitch instruction, sequence content and target misconceptions, reducing cognitive overload.

16. What does 'checking for understanding' (CFU) mean in lesson delivery?

    Continuously sampling whether all pupils have grasped content during the lesson (not just at the end), using techniques like questioning, mini-whiteboards and hinge questions, so the teacher can reteach before moving on.

17. What is a 'hinge question' and why is it used?

    A carefully designed diagnostic question, usually multiple-choice, asked at a key decision point in a lesson. The whole-class response tells the teacher whether to move on or reteach, with wrong answers revealing specific misconceptions.

18. Define 'cold calling' as a questioning technique.

    Naming a pupil to answer *after* posing the question to the whole class, rather than taking hands up. It keeps every pupil accountable and thinking, since anyone could be asked.

19. What is 'wait time' (think time) and what is its benefit?

    The pause a teacher leaves after asking a question before taking an answer (around 3+ seconds). It increases the length, depth and number of pupil responses and gives all pupils time to think.

20. What is the 'No Opt Out' technique?

    When a pupil cannot or will not answer, the teacher gets the correct answer from elsewhere then returns to the original pupil to repeat or apply it, so no one escapes the thinking by saying 'I don't know'.

21. Distinguish closed (lower-order) from open (higher-order) questions.

    Closed questions have one short correct answer and check recall/factual knowledge; open questions invite explanation, reasoning or evaluation and probe deeper understanding. Effective teachers blend both deliberately.

22. What is 'Probing' or 'Process questioning' designed to elicit?

    It pushes a pupil beyond an initial answer to justify reasoning, e.g. 'Why?', 'How do you know?', 'Can you give an example?', revealing the depth and security of understanding.

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