ABSTRACT
Assessment has so many purposes that it is not surprising that there are so many styles to go with them. If there were only one simple unambiguous purpose then assessment would be a much more straightforward matter than it is. A few years ago I knew a headteacher who boasted proudly that he had never assessed a pupil in his life. Yet he often wrote references for his school leavers, and on many occasions I saw him asking questions of his pupils. He frequently offered words of approval to those who had done something that brought credit to the school, and I once witnessed him getting very cross with a pupil who had carelessly thrown a piece of litter in the school yard, telling the pupil off and ordering him to pick the litter up. What he presumably meant was that he did not attach much importance to written examinations, but whether he liked the idea or not, he was assessing pupils’ social and intellectual progress and behaviour every day.
