ABSTRACT
Middle leaders are likely to spend a huge amount of time dealing with assessment and it can become one of the most frustrating and worrying aspects of the job. Part of the problem stems from confusion over terminology: assessment can be too closely linked to attainment; it is often confused with marking; teachers are often unclear what is meant by feedback; and the line between formative and summative assessment is often hard to define. The aim of formative assessment is to inform the teacher about the performance, skills and knowledge of pupils in his or her classes so that learning can be planned, misunderstandings corrected, and misconceptions identified. Formative assessment is key to successful learning and it is the type of assessment to which middle leaders should devote the most time. Activities stemming from formative assessment should be carefully targeted, focusing initially on one or two learning points to which pupils are able to respond.
