All pupils in the Trust sit summative assessments two times each year in all subjects except core PE.   For pupils in year 11, these are known as mock, or trial, examinations, and pupils will typically sit a whole set of past papers across the two assessment points.  These assessments are the same for all students taking any given subject throughout the Trust, and are therefore known as Trust Assessments.  They are set by assessment and moderation leads in each subject, informed by the outcomes of regular meetings with all heads of departments throughout the Trust.  

Each Trust Assessment is cumulative, assessing all knowledge learned in a subject up to a given point.  The intention behind this is that teachers, and students, continually revisit prior learning, interleaving it with new content so that children do not forget what they have learned.  

As well as providing an incentive to revise, Trust assessments are used to generate projected grades: statistically generated predictions of the grade a student is likely to score at GCSE based on their performance in that assessment.  More information about calculating projected grades is available here.  These provide the basis for reporting and are therefore an invaluable tool in keeping children and their families informed of their progress over time.  These grades can also help individual teachers, departments, academies, and The Trust itself to help children by identifying where support is most urgently required.  

To assist with this analysis, leaders and teachers within the Trust are provided with a range of tools, each one of which is carefully matched to the ways in which data are used.  For example, rapid progress graphs provide a clear overview of the performance of each subject, in each year group, on a single page.  Equivalent charts give analysis of key groups, such as PP or SEND learners.  In this way, leaders can see performance across the full range of the school at a single glance and plan their whole school strategies accordingly.  At the other end of the spectrum, class teachers have access to analysis which shows which, of their 30 pupils, performed worse relative to both their targets, and their performance in other subjects.  In this way, they can ensure their in-class intervention is optimally targeted.   For each tool, user guides and training are available for both users, and leaders in order to guide decisions and provide a structure for conversations about the use of data.