Summative assessment

Summative assessment considers learning that has taken place over a period of time. This is usually at the end of a unit of work or period of time such as a half term. It can be internal to the organisation such as pupil records and to inform reports or be external in the form of statutory tests or examinations.  Summative assessment may be considered assessment of learning while formative (or informative) assessment is regarded as assessment for learning.

Summative assessment should review pupils' capability and provide a best fit level.  Use of integrated projects or open ended tasks provide opportunities for pupils to demonstrate capability in relation to a half or whole term's work i.e., over one or two units of work.  It should include pupil review and should identify next steps.

Current national expectations for pupil progress in ICT state that at the end of Key Stage 1 the average child will be operating at level 2 and at the end of Key Stage 2 level 4. See the documents Progression in ICT [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]   and Primary APP standards.

Summative assessment should be recorded for all pupils – showing whether the pupils have met, exceeded or not achieved the learning outcomes.

Agreement trialing for tracked pupils should be run to support this process (teacher annotation) is helpful in this context.

Assessment records should be used to inform planning by current and future teaching staff.

Types of summative assessment include:

  • tests and examinations
  • marks awarded at the end of a project or unit of work
  • pupil records
  • end of year grades that feed into reports
  • portfolios of work
  • formative use of summative assessment
  • analysis of summative assessments such as ICT tests can be used to guage strengths and weakness of individual pupils and the class and can inform curriculum planning to ensure any errors, misconceptions or gaps in curriculum coverage are addressed.

NC in Action uses pupils' work and case study material to exemplify discrete and cross-curricular ICT in practice.

Formative assessment

Further background reading