Guest blog from Dale Bassett, Director of Curriculum & Assessment, United Learning.

We know that assessment can feel like a burden – hours spent creating tests, marking papers, and generating data that doesn't always translate into meaningful insights. But what if assessment could genuinely empower your teaching and transform how you understand your students' progress?

At United Learning, our experts have developed assessments that do exactly that. And this year, we're thrilled to offer our complete assessment and insights package absolutely free to all secondary schools, whether you use our curriculum or not.

Why United Curriculum Are Doing This

Last year, we heard incredible feedback from schools about how our assessments transformed their understanding of student progress. Teachers told us that for the first time, they had genuinely actionable data – not just raw scores, but insights that directly informed their teaching. The ability to benchmark performance against thousands of students nationally proved particularly valuable, giving schools the context they needed to understand how their pupils were really doing.

What You'll Get

Our twice-yearly assessments for Years 7 and 8 cover English, Maths, Science, History, Geography and Religious Studies. (We also have Year 9 Maths and Year 10 French and Spanish.) But these aren't just any tests – they're carefully crafted by our curriculum and assessment specialists to be valid, reliable, and genuinely useful.

Through our partnership with Smartgrade, you'll receive:

Cohort-benchmarked data that shows you exactly where your students stand compared to tens of thousands of their peers across the country. This isn't about league tables – it's about understanding whether that 65% your student achieved is actually strong performance or an area for concern.

National percentile rankings that give you confidence in your assessment judgements and help you track progress over time in a meaningful way. For Year 10 MFL, you’ll also receive standardised 9-1 GCSE grade indicators.

Detailed formative insights that break down performance by question, topic and skill area. You'll see at a glance which concepts your class has mastered and where they need more support. Compare different groups – SEND, pupil premium or sex – to spot patterns and target interventions effectively.

Instant analysis through Smartgrade's intuitive platform – no more hours spent crunching numbers in spreadsheets. The analysis is done for you, letting you focus on what matters: using the insights to improve teaching and learning.

How It Works

Even if you don't follow our curriculum, you can still benefit. We've published detailed specifications showing exactly what our assessments cover, so you can check alignment with your curriculum and prepare your students accordingly. The mid-year assessments are available this December, ready to be taken in January, with end-of-year assessments following later – use either, or both.

The process is simple: your students take the assessments, you input the marks into Smartgrade's user-friendly platform, and instantly access a wealth of standardised data and analysis. No steep learning curve – just meaningful insights when you need them.

Join a National Cohort of Schools

United Learning’s academies and other schools across the country already trust this approach to assessment. They've discovered that with the right tools and insights, assessment becomes less about accountability and more about understanding – understanding where each student is in their learning journey and how to help them progress.

Ready to transform assessment in your school? Visit unitedcurriculum.org.uk/assessment to find out more and register to access this powerful package.

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