Last summer DCSF published plans jointly with the National Strategies and the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors, to invest £50m a year for three years in order to embed Assessment for Learning in every school.

This year all schools will again receive £1,000 that might be used to facilitate CPD or staff release to enable subject leads and the Senior Leadership Team to take up offers of support and work alongside other schools.

The remaining funding that Local Authorities have received should be used to underpin a Lead Assessment School model, encouraging the better performing schools to work with others in their area to improve Assessment for Learning practice.

The DCSF presented the AfL information pack to all local authorities in January 2009. You can access a copy of the presentation by clicking on the link below:

Assessment for Learning information pack

Part of the programme also includes developing a member of the senior management team to take the lead on developing strong assessment systems in the school. As part of this work, the CIEA are supporting the programme with tools and resources including an Assessment Policy tool that can be accessed here:

Assessment Policy Tool.

Commenting on the plan David Wright, Chief Executive of the CIEA said' The programme gives schools an opportunity to develop more robust and reliable assessment systems with the support of DCSF and the National Strategies, in order to enable every student to reach his or her potential'.

Visit the DCSF website 

Assessment for Learning E-Bulletin

The new Assessment for Learning E-Bulletin is a regular newsletter to update, inform and support colleagues in schools and local authorities who use assessment when judging pupils' progress.  The bulletin will be published every term and can be accessed through the National Strategies websites.

Assessment for Learning E-Bulletin