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Introduction of Personalised Assessments>
                
        
    
    
    
        
    

Welsh Government is phasing in new online personalised assessments from the next academic year (2018/19). Starting with online Numeracy (Procedural), these assessments will replace the paper national tests as follows:

The personalised assessments are based on the skills in the National Literacy and Numeracy Framework (LNF) and will provide information on the reading and numeracy skills of individual learners and whole classes. The purpose of the assessments is diagnostic – to provide insights into learners’ skills which teachers can use to plan next steps in teaching and learning.

These assessments will be ‘adaptive’, meaning that questions are selected based on a learner’s response to the previous question. This provides an individual assessment experience and tailors the level of challenge for every learner. Other benefits include faster feedback for schools, automatic marking, and the flexibility for schools and teachers to schedule the assessments at points most beneficial to inform teaching and learning.

It will remain a statutory requirement for all maintained schools in Wales to ensure that learners in years 2-9 take the assessments once during the academic year. In response to feedback from practitioners involved in the design and development of the assessments, they will also be available for an optional second use by schools.

During the transition period, the remaining paper-based tests will be taken during a test window in the summer term. The timing for taking the personalised assessments is at schools’ discretion.

The assessments will be compatible with standard assistive technologies, and modified versions of the assessments will be available.

Learners will need to access the assessments using their user account in Hwb, the Welsh Government’s learning platform. Schools will be able to schedule and administer the assessments, and download reports on individual learners and classes, via a dedicated website accessed by logging into Hwb. All users – staff and learners – will require their Hwb log-in.

To ensure that all of your staff and learners can successfully access the online system, it is essential that:

1. your school’s Management Information System (MIS) is updated before you first schedule the assessments, and on a regular basis
2. the new Hwb Provisioning Tool client is scheduled to run on a regular basis.

By undertaking these actions, this will ensure that accurate and up-to-date information on your learners and staff is available in the new online assessment system.

There is no requirement for schools to have a large number of computers or other devices; learners will be able to take the assessments one at a time, in small groups or classes, according to teacher preferences and school facilities.

The assessments have been designed to be compatible with the following devices with a modern browser installed:

• Desktop computers
• Laptops – including Chromebooks
• Tablets – including iPads

One of the following browsers should be used (these are the minimum browser requirements):

• Internet Explorer 11
• Mozilla Firefox: 55
• Google Chrome: 59
• Safari: 10

To ensure that you are able to make best use of your digital technology in preparation for the online assessments, you may wish to refer to the Welsh Government’s Education Digital Guidance on Learning Wales. ICT requirements for the assessments (e.g. bandwidth) are included in our personalised assessments FAQs and IT Guidance on Learning Wales.

We are updating our administration handbook to include guidance for the administration of the personalised assessments. This will be published on the Learning Wales website and we will inform you through Dysg when this goes live.

The assessments are designed to be easy to use. Samples will be available for learners so that they can familiarise themselves with question types before taking the assessments. Support for schools will be available through online tutorials and through a managed helpdesk during school hours, providing a bilingual service.

For more information please refer to the FAQs that we regularly update on Learning Wales. We will also be issuing updates through the Dysg newsletter.

The assessments are being developed by a consortium of partners led by AlphaPlus Consultancy, and practitioners across Wales are engaged in the development process, providing feedback and advice, reviewing assessment content and trialling the assessments in the classroom. Your school can experience the new assessments at first hand by getting involved in trials. If you would like your school to participate in the trialling, please contact trials@nationaltests.cymru. If you would like to participate in teacher panels to review the assessment content, please contact NRNT@gov.wales.