High quality, curriculum-aligned standardised assessments for primary

The primary standardised assessment market in the UK has been booming for the last 15 years. The removal of levels meant that schools went searching for alternate means of assessment, and oftentimes standardised tests were part of the answer.

However, the format of standardised assessments has seen relatively little innovation over that time, and at Smartgrade, we think that the traditionally available options have issues that often undermine their value.

Here are the most urgent problems we see:

• Most standardised maths assessments are not curriculum-aligned. At primary, most commercially available maths assessments were not designed to align with a school’s chosen curriculum. We’ve spoken to schools who have had as many as 40% of questions in a given assessment relate to topics they haven’t taught yet.  The problem compounds when you consider that these assessments are often commissioned by a MAT. So, a classroom teacher may look at the results and think “well of course the class struggled; we haven’t taught this yet”; while a MAT leader may look at the results and think “this class requires urgent intervention”. You also see varying approaches to content from prior years, meaning a year 4 spring test might give you limited or no information on how well a student has retained knowledge taught in earlier years.
• MATs’ needs are poorly served. Many commonly used standardised assessments were on the market before the rise of MATs, and it shows in the technology offered to support them. MATs require flexible analysis that offers insight at all levels from the individual student up to a MAT-wide view, but traditional standardised assessments have struggled to achieve this.
• Assessments are too constrained by what is covered in KS2 SATs. Almost all commercially available standardised assessments cover the tested SATs subjects (Mathematics, Reading Comprehension, Grammar, Punctuation & Spelling). Those are important, of course, but a consequence is that other important areas can be marginalised. For example, few schools track reading fluency, even though it is foundational both in terms of a child’s ability to read and also access to the rest of the curriculum. Science also gets marginalised, even though technically it is a “core” subject in the national curriculum.
• Standardisations can be out of date. Many popular assessments still rely on pre-pandemic standardisations. However, we know that national student performance has not been static during the years since then: reports from NFER and EEF have documented the impact on learning caused by the pandemic, particularly for disadvantaged students. This also isn’t a pandemic-only problem: we know that curriculum changes will arise from the Curriculum & Assessment Review, and this will lead to further changes in both curriculum sequencing and consequently student performance.

Since we set up Smartgrade we’ve been thinking hard about how we address these challenges. One way is to work with great primary curriculum partners like Ark Curriculum+ and CUSP, who offer high-quality assessments that align to their curricula. This isn’t changing, but we’ve also realised that we need to do more to meet the needs of schools where a partner assessment isn’t available.

Our response is therefore to launch the Smartgrade Assessment Series (SAS), which addresses all the above issues to give you a set of assessments that allow you to test your school in a way that both aligns with your curriculum and covers more of your key priorities than ever before.

Launching in Autumn 2026, the series will contain:

• SAS Maths, which aligns with the White Rose Maths curriculum
• SAS Maths (NCETM), which aligns with the NCETM curriculum prioritisation
• SAS Reading Comprehension
• SAS Reading Fluency
• SAS Grammar, Punctuation & Spelling
• SAS Science

All assessments are termly and available in years 1-6, with the exception of SAS Science which is annual (summer term) only, and SAS Maths (NCETM), which is for years 2-5.

Benefits of Smartgrade Assessment Series

1. Curriculum-aligned by design

Smartgrade SAS maths assessments are written around the curriculum sequence schools actually teach. Two options are available: one that aligns with White Rose Maths (and other common National Curriculum sequences) and another that fits with NCETM’s Curriculum Prioritisation framework. Unlike many assessments which are retrospectively mapped to a curriculum, these tests are designed from the ground up for the curriculum sequence you’ve chosen. This means pupils are never assessed on content before it appears in their curriculum pathway, tests follow the order schools actually teach, and schools do not need to unpick unreliable results caused by questions linked to content not yet covered. And of course, if you use the Mathematics Mastery programme from Ark Curriculum+ you can use their assessments on the Smartgrade platform too, meaning nearly all schools will have a maths option that aligns to their curriculum.

2. MAT focused analysis

Smartgrade understands what MATs want from assessment data. We also know that not all schools within a MAT are using the same maths curriculum which makes analysis much more difficult. That’s why we have focused on designing our assessments to follow the majority of different school maths schemes, and with Smartgrade, the different maths assessments can be compared and standardised on our platform. 

3. A new way to assess reading fluency

Not only will we cover the core SATs subjects of Mathematics, Reading Comprehension and GPS, but we’re also launching a standardised reading fluency test. While we’re proud of our reading comprehension tests, on their own we don’t think they offer the full picture when it comes to key reading skills like word recognition, reading speed, reading accuracy and prosody. We’ve therefore been working on an innovative reading fluency assessment which uses AI to hear and transcribe a student’s reading of selected passages, and can then calculate key metrics like words correct per minute, mispronunciation rates and prosody scores.

4. Science is covered too!

The Smartgrade Assessment Series includes an end of year science assessment that covers all the key topics from that year’s national curriculum. We know that schools can teach science in varying orders throughout the year, so we have designed the test to come at the end of the year, when most schools have taught the relevant areas from the national curriculum.

5. Live standardisations and scaled score indicators

Smartgrade Assessment Series will benefit from Smartgrade’s “live standardisation” approach, which means that students are always compared to peers from the same cohort, eliminating the “out of date standardisation” problem. Where relevant, we also still offer our popular “scaled score indicators” alongside traditional metrics like percentile ranks and standardised scores. Scaled Score Indicators turn maths, reading comprehension and GPS scores into grades that use the DfE’s “80-120” scale, adjusted for the year group being assessed. So, in other words, a child with a scaled score indicator of 100 in the autumn term of Year 4 can be considered on track to score 100 in the KS2 SATs.

6. More granular topic breakdowns

All assessments produce data; Smartgrade Assessment Series are designed to help teachers know what to do next.

We’ve introduced more granular topic breakdowns to make diagnosis more precise, help teachers access resources they need, and plan targeted interventions which address underlying issues. Topics are hierarchical and include broad and narrow topic descriptions as well as year and term of teaching. The result is assessment that supports targeted reteaching and intervention, not just the recording of scores.

What’s changing?

If you’ve previously used our HeadStart partner assessments, you’ll recognise some great features from those assessments. Last year we acquired the underlying tests and we’ve used the best bits of those when developing the SAS, while also thoroughly reviewing and adding new content where required. The paper-based assessments also still follow the popular SATs-style format of the old assessments.

However, we’ve made a couple of important changes:

• We now have high quality standardised maths assessments that align with the curricula of 95%+ of primary schools nationally. We’re unique amongst standardised assessment partners in that we now have assessments that align with White Rose Maths, NCETM and Mathematics Mastery from Ark Curriculum+. We also didn’t forget about those other 5%: while SAS Maths is designed to follow the White Rose Maths curriculum sequence, we also reviewed the tests carefully to ensure they could still meet the needs of many schools with a more bespoke maths approach.
• We’ve codified our principles of assessment in a living document which we’re making public for the first time, and we’ve updated all our assessments to align more closely with these principles.
• The best part is our prices aren't changing so you get all the benefits of the Smartgrade Assessment Series for the same price as your existing Smartgrade contract

Finally, another thing that makes Smartgrade unique is that at the end of year 5 and in year 6, schools can use our standardised practice SATs assessments. We get schools all around the country doing the same practice SATs paper at the same time, and use the results to provide standardised grades, which once again include Scaled Score Indicators. We also have practice Phonics options in years 1 and 2. As a result, we’re confident that between our curriculum partners, the Smartgrade Assessment Series and our Practice National Assessments, Smartgrade offers the most complete, insightful and curriculum-aligned approach to assessment on the market!

Join our launch webinar

Join Hilary Fine, Assessment Designer & Expert and Joshua Perry, Smartgrade CEO, as they delve into the philosophy of a great assessment and showcase the brand new Smartgrade Assessment Series.

What will be covered:

The philosophy of a great assessment

• How to design a great assessment
• Curriculum-aligned assessments that are actionable for schools and MATs
  

Introducing Smartgrade Assessment Series

• Maths - innovation that fits all sequences
• GPS & Reading - changes to comprehension and first look at the new AI fluency assessment
• Science - why science should be assessed at primary

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Can’t wait that long? Book a demo with our experienced sales team and get a first look at Smartgrade Assessment Series or get a quote.