STATUTORY KEY STAGE ASSESSMENT ARRANGEMENTS 2024-25

As you know, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, End of Key Stage Assessment arrangements were formally disapplied in 2020 and continued to be so during the period of the pandemic to reduce the burden on teaching staff during this difficult time. The Department is currently progressing a Review of Statutory Key Stage Assessment (the “Review”). The Review was a commitment under The Pay and Workload Agreement in April 2020 (TNC 2020/01) and had also been paused in 2020 owing to the pandemic. The Review will consider in detail the arrangements for Statutory Key Stage Assessment going forward and we look forward to engaging with you as it progresses. As an interim measure in 2024-25, the Department wishes to begin again to gather information at a system level on our children’s performance in literacy and numeracy. You will appreciate how important this is following the period of disruption during the pandemic and given the time lapse since information has been available at a whole system level. The data will give us a key comparison of performance at system level before and after COVID. Northern Ireland is currently one of very few jurisdictions that does not have this type of information about our education system.

 

Click the link below to read the letter sent to principals on Wednesday 16 October.