Simple Assessments is a new customisable feature to enable more versatility in recording different assessment types, and flexibility with reporting on the data.
If you subscribe to our assessment package, there is no extra charge for having Simple Assessments enabled.
- If your school is supported by ScholarPack directly, click the 'Contact Us' button in the top right of the Help Centre
- If your school uses a Support Partner, please contact them. Click their name in the top right of your ScholarPack above the search box, for their contact details.
Once Simple Assessments is activated for your school, you can start setting up your assessments at Admin > Config > Simple Assessment Config.
This document will direct you in how to set up:
- Point in Time Assessments
- Standardised Tests
- Linear Assessments
- Book Bands
At the bottom of this document you can see where marks and student targets can be entered in the Simple Assessment Markbook, and how to generate reports in Reporting > New Reports.
Setting up Point in Time Assessments
'Point in Time' assessments will record where students are academically at a particular Checkpoint in time, (the level they should be working at, if working below where they should be or working above where they should be). Point in Time assessments will clearly show the level students are working at, and whether or not they are making progress.
In the Assessment Config area, click Add Assessment, and choose 'Point in Time Teacher Judgements'.
Next, choose a mark scheme, with how many marks you wish to have in the scheme:
TOP TIP: Change the name of your assessment if you are adding multiple entries into your system in order to clearly identify them for data entry and reporting.
Then you need to add the number of Checkpoints you wish to use. Consider if you'd like a Baseline checkpoint, assess termly or whether you would prefer every half term
If the number of required Checkpoints isn't available in the dropdown, you can configure a new Checkpoint schedule on the Checkpoints tab in the Simple Assessment Config area. You can also label the Checkpoints as you wish.
You then select the subjects you wish to enter data for. You will find Key Stage subjects within the Main Subjects tab, and the Early Years subjects within the EYFS tabs.
Once this is set up, you will need to customise the mark scheme itself. Customise your marks to be named as you'd like (e.g. Working Towards, On Track, Greater Depth, etc). You can also add in any additional marks you would like to use. All marks need a corresponding value, so add this in the 'Value' Column for each mark added. The numerical value of the mark will affect the order of the marks and the reporting band that marks it in reports.
TOP TIP: Tracking SEN - You can add a mark called 'Out of Year Group Below' to track any SEN children as a value of -4, and add additional marks with ascending values This would mean you can track SEN children who are working out of year group within the same assessment but they would still show as making progress in reports.
Next decide which reporting Bands you would like assigned. Name these in a way that's relevant to your school and click into the circles to assign a colour. These will show on the reports for you to clearly see where the children are at a glance.
TOP TIP: VIEWING 'AT' & 'ABOVE' - some schools prefer to view students as 'Below' and 'At & Above', meaning they only use two reporting bands. You can add additional bands, or remove any if necessary, when configuring your Simple Assessments.
Any Reporting Bands used will need to be assigned to the marks in the Mark Scheme section. This way you can customise the way the system looks at the number of children in each band. If more than one mark is assigned to the same Reporting Band this will group these children together when selecting a certain view in reports.
Next, you can customise the Progress Reporting Bands. You can rename these to be whatever you wish and change the colour assignment accordingly.
Finally, click Update Assessment, and you have completed this Assessment Setup.
Setting up Standardised Tests (NFER, PUMA, PiRA, etc)
Standardised Tests are an excellent way to accurately measure attainment and progress. They anchor down a child's performance in a particular test, enabling teachers to accurately assess their attainment.
Go to Admin > Config > Simple Assessment Config.
Then select an Assessment Template.
If you use assessments such as PUMA, PiRa or NFER the templates have already been created for you. If you use another standardised test scheme that is not already in the templates, you can create your own by selecting 'Other Point in Time/Standardised Scheme').
You can then select which type of mark scheme you would like to have in your assessment. If you are using a set template these may be narrowed down to the ones relevant to the existing mark scheme (e.g. PUMA has the options of Raw Score, Standardised Score and Stanine). If you are creating your own scheme there are several options to choose from.
Click 'Configure Assessment'
Choose how many times a year you would like to enter data for this assessment. Some schools prefer measuring against a single point, others prefer once every term - you can select this in Checkpoint Configuration'.
Select the subjects you would like to record this Standardised assessment for. With PUMA, PiRA and NFER the subjects relevant to that test should already be selected.
If the subject(s) you need to assign isn't showing, you can add this in Admin > Config > Core Set Up > Subjects.
Check the marks are the ones needed for your test. You can add any additional marks with corresponding values in 'Show All Marks' and enter these in the white text boxes, then click Add.
Go to Attainment Reporting Bands and customise them however suits your school. Set schemes may already have options such as '0-9', '10-19' etc, but you can rename these to be most relevant to you and add more if needed.
If any of the Attainment Bands have been altered from the default options, these must be assigned to marks in the Mark Scheme section. This will affect how the different marks are presented in the reports along with the colour coding from the Attainment Band section.
Next, go to Progress Reporting Bands and make any naming or colour adjustments you would like.
Click 'Add Assessment' and this assessment type is saved.
Setting up Linear Assessments
Linear Assessments are useful for tracking how ahead or behind students are in relation to where they are expected to be at a specific point in time. For instance. if students have a particular mark in Autumn they could be 'Age Related Expectation', but assigning them the same mark again in Spring may show them as 'Below Expectations'. This dynamic reporting is a good way to track students.
Go to Admin > Config > Simple Assessment Config.
Click on 'Add Assessment', then select 'Other Steps/Linear Scheme':
Once you have selected this assessment (by clicking on Configure Assessment) you are advised to rename the scheme at the top of the page to make it more accessible for entering and reporting on data.
Next select the number of Checkpoints you wish to record data, and the subjects you would like the assessment to be allocated to.
When configuring the mark scheme, work your way through the marks, renaming them to be most relevant to your style of assessment. For example, for tracking a remote learning assessment, you could add marks relating to the percentage of work completed.
Add any additional marks by clicking 'Show all Marks', naming the mark, entering a value (used in calculate progress) and clicking 'Add'.
Next you will need to configure the Attainment Reporting Bands.
This requires you to set a particular mark to be the 'expected' for that point in time. This anchors the marks for the system to then calculate how ahead or behind the student is and show this in reports.
For example, by the end of the last Checkpoint of the year you would expect 100% of objectives to be completed - so this can be entered as the Summer 2 Checkpoint, the Expected Mark is '100% Objectives Completed'. You can also adjust how many points of progress you would like the system to count as an expected level of progress within the mark scheme. You can add any additional reporting bands you require by naming them, giving them a mark value difference value and clicking 'Add'.
Next, you customise the 'Progress Reporting Bands'. You can rename the bands to 'Accelerated Progress, Expected or Lesser Progress' if needed and change the colours accordingly.
Finally, click 'Update Assessment', and you have completed this Assessment Setup.
Setting up Book Bands
Go to Admin > Config > Simple Assessment Config
Click on Add Assessment and select the Assessment template 'Book Bands', followed by Configure Assessment.
Select how many Checkpoints you would like to add for this assessment, then add or change any marks you would like in the Mark Scheme. For instance, if your school has any different tiers within the book bands you can add these as additional marks with a corresponding value. If not, simply keep them as they are. The Mark Scheme marks are also reflected in the Attainment Bands as standard, but you can customise these if you prefer.
Next, you can adjust the Progress Reporting Bands to suit how you would like these to show. You can change the naming of the bands, and the corresponding colours.
Click Add Assessment and the assessment type is set up.
Where to enter Marks in Simple Assessments
Once you have set up your assessments, you will find a single markbook under My Subjects. This means in future there is no need to set up individual assessment classes, and anyone with Teacher user role can access the single markbook here:
This is where data is entered for each assessment type created, with the subjects and checkpoints configured as part of that assessment setup. Each Checkpoint entry point allows you to copy over the figure from the previous Checkpoint, or you can individually select marks for students and then bulk fill gaps with a particular mark for ease of data entry. If a mark is entered accidentally, click on Undo in order to remove (delete) the mark. It is currently not possible to bulk delete a mark assigned to the class, but will need to be individually removed next to each student.
NOTE: Student Targets are entered in the Simple Assessment Markbook. Select the Assessment Type, Year Group and Class, and from the Checkpoint dropdown choose 'End of Year Targets' or 'End of Key Stage Targets'.
How to Report on Simple Assessments
To report on Simple Assessments you go to Reporting > New Reports:
Here you will find a range of Reports: Attainment Report, Progress Report, and Pivot Report, as well as a new Attendance Report. Then there's an area for Saved Reports and the Report Builder.
As an example of output, if you chose Attainment Report, you'd select the Assessment type, Subject, Year Group(s) and Checkpoint. You can also opt to show the student names and percentages. If you have a split year group in a class, you can select each year group in order to display all students in the report.
All the filters are on the right side, and you can download any report to either Excel or PDF by clicking on the Export button at the top of the report. You can also View the table in a variety of formats, prior to exporting:
The Progress Report enables you to select two checkpoints to show student progression.
The Pivot Report enables you to select Year Groups, then a value for a Row and a Column to compare features (End of Year Targets for Maths against Pupil Premium in this example below):
Saved Reports will display all reports you have created and saved for your own personal use, as well as reports saved and Shared with all staff by yourself and others. All the reports in the New Reports area have the option to Save and Share. The reports will be stored under Shared Reports.
To return to the main Reporting area between running reports, you click on Report Library at the top left of the screen:
The Report Builder enables you to configure a bespoke report. You can choose a year group(s), then add any number of additional columns, choosing from Assessment Templates, Targets or Student Attributes (SEN, EAL, FSM or PP).
Any report created here can also be Saved and Shared with other staff in the school, to appear in the Saved Reports section.
If you are interested in having the Simple Assessment module enabled for you, please contact your Support Team -
- If your school is supported by Scholarpack directly, click the 'Contact Us' button in the top right of the Help Centre
- If your school uses a Support Partner, please contact them. Click their name in the top right of your Scholarpack above the search box, for their contact details.
We will raise an escalation to the Account Management Team for someone to provide you more details, and to activate this area for you.