Education (Assessment Arrangements for Key Stage 3) Order (Northern Ireland) 1996

Made: 6th August 1996

Coming into operation in accordance with Article 1

The Department of Education, in exercise of the powers conferred on it by Article 7(1)(b), (2)(a)(ii) and (6) of the Education Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 1989[^f00001] and of every other power enabling it in that behalf, hereby makes the following Order:

Citation and commencement

1

• (1) This Order may be cited as the Education (Assessment Arrangements for Key Stage 3) Order (Northern Ireland) 1996 and, subject to paragraph (2), shall come into operation on 1st September 1996.

• (2) This Order shall not take effect until 1st August 1997 insofar as it applies to pupils who are in an Irish speaking school.

Application

2

• (1) Subject to paragraph (2) the provisions of this Order shall apply in respect of pupils in grant-aided schools who are in the third year of the third key stage.

• (2) This Order shall not have effect in relation to a pupil in respect of whom a board is maintaining a statement of special educational needs under Article 31 of the 1986 Order and who, on the making of an assessment of his special educational needs, has been assessed by that board under Article 29 of that Order as having severe learning difficulties.

Interpretation

3

In this Order—

• “assessment unit” means a piece of work provided by the Council to be carried out by a pupil for the purpose of assisting a teacher to ascertain what the pupil has achieved in relation to one or more attainment targets in a relevant subject;

• “attainment target” means an attainment target in a relevant subject specified in an Order listed in Part 1 of the Schedule;

• “the Assessment Document” means the document published by Her Majesty’s Stationery Office entitled “Assessment Arrangements” in Key Stage 3[^f00002];

• “the Council” means the Northern Ireland Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment[^f00003];

• “level descriptions” in relation to an attainment target specified for a relevant subject means the levels set out in the Document published by Her Majesty’s Stationery Office in respect of that subject and listed in Part 2 of the Schedule;

• “relevant subject” means English, Mathematics or Science;

• “the 1986 Order” means the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1986[^f00004];

• “the 1989 Order” means the Education Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 1989.

Duty to carry out assessment

4

• (1) It shall be the duty of the principal of the school to make arrangements for an assessment of each pupil’s attainment in the relevant subjects specified in paragraph (2) to be carried out in accordance with the provisions of this Order.

• (2) Each pupil shall be assessed in English, Mathematics and Science at or near the end of the third key stage for the purpose of ascertaining what he has achieved in relation to the attainment targets for that key stage.

Assessment by teachers

5

• (1) In relation to each relevant subject, each pupil shall be assessed by a teacher in accordance with this Article in the period commencing on 1st January and ending on a date in the same school year specified in the Assessment Document (both dates inclusive) and a record of the results shall be made by that teacher not later than a date specified in the Assessment Document.

• (2) Subject to paragraph (5) the teacher shall determine each pupil’s level of attainment achieved in relation to each attainment target in each relevant subject by reference to the level descriptions for each attainment target specified for that subject.

• (3) The teacher shall administer to each pupil the assessment units specified in the Assessment Document in relation to the third key stage during the period mentioned in paragraph (1) and shall mark the assessment units in accordance with a marking scheme provided by the Council.

• (4) The record of results made under paragraph (1) for each pupil shall consist of a statement of the level of attainment achieved in relation to each attainment target as determined under paragraph (2) and a statement of the level of attainment achieved consequent upon the marking of assessment units under paragraph (3).

• (5) In making an assessment of a pupil under this Article a teacher shall take into account the results of assessment units taken by that pupil under paragraph (3) and may also take into account the results of any other assessment units taken by that pupil other than those taken under that paragraph and any previous assessment of that pupil (whether or not made by that teacher).

Information to be provided to the Council

6

It shall be the duty of the principal of the school, in respect of each pupil, to send notification to the Council comprising the information, in the form and by the dates, specified in the Assessment Document.

Calculation of pupils' levels of attainment

7

• (1) Subject to paragraph (2) each pupil’s level of attainment in each relevant subject shall be calculated in accordance with the arrangements specified in the Assessment Document and the Council shall send notification to the school comprising the following information—

• (a) each pupil’s subject level;

• (b) the percentage of pupils at the school in the third year of the third key stage achieving each level of attainment; and

• (c) the percentage of all pupils in Northern Ireland in the third year of the third key stage achieving each level of attainment.

• (2) Subject to Article 10, a pupil’s subject level in English and Mathematics shall be the average of his level of attainment achieved in relation to all the attainment targets for that subject determined under Article 5(2) and a pupil’s subject level in Science shall be determined by weighting the levels in each attainment target in the following ratio—

• (3) Where the average calculated under paragraph (2) is not a whole number it shall be rounded to the nearest whole number, the fraction of one half being rounded upwards to the next whole number.

Arrangements for review

8

• (1) The Council shall set in place arrangements to review the information sent to the Council under Article 6.

• (2) The Council shall set in place the arrangements specified in the Assessment Document—

• (a) to determine whether the standards of assessment in a school are appropriate; and

• (b) to review the marking of assessment units.

External tests

9

• (1) Subject to Article 10(4) and (5) it shall be the duty of the principal of the school to make arrangements for each pupil to take tests set by the Council in each relevant subject at a date and time and in accordance with arrangements specified in the Assessment Document.

• (2) The Council shall make arrangements for the tests to be marked and shall, by a date specified in the Assessment Document, send notification to the school comprising the following information—

• (a) each pupil’s subject level;

• (b) the percentage of pupils at the school in the third year of the third key stage achieving each level of attainment; and

• (c) the percentage of all pupils in Northern Ireland at the third key stage achieving each level of attainment.

Exemptions

10

• (1) Where, under Articles 14 (development work and experiments), 15 (exceptions by regulations), 16 (pupils with statements of special educational needs) or 17 (temporary exceptions for individual pupils) of the 1989 Order, a pupil has been exempted from one or more attainment targets in a relevant subject that pupil shall be assessed by a teacher in accordance with Article 5 only in relation to the remaining attainment targets in that subject and where a pupil has been exempted from a relevant subject as a whole Article 4 shall not apply in respect of that subject.

• (2) Where a pupil has been exempted as described in paragraph (1) from one attainment target in a relevant subject his level of attainment achieved in relation to that subject shall be the average of his levels of attainment achieved in relation to the remaining attainment targets in that subject.

• (3) Where a pupil has been exempted as described in paragraph (1) from two or more attainment targets in a relevant subject a level of attainment shall not be determined for that pupil in that subject and the school shall notify the Council accordingly.

• (4) Article 9 shall not require a pupil, in respect of whom a board is maintaining a statement of special educational needs under Article 31 of the 1986 Order and who, on the making of an assessment of his special educational needs, has been assessed by that board under Article 29 of that Order as having moderate learning difficulties, to take a test in a relevant subject.

• (5) Article 9 shall not require a pupil to take a test in a relevant subject if the pupil’s level of attainment in that subject, determined under Article 5, is below the level description specified for level 3 in relation to that subject.

SCHEDULE

Part 1

• English Key Stages 3 and 4 Programme of Study and Attainment Targets[^f00005]

• Mathematics Key Stages 3 and 4 Programme of Study and Attainment Targets[^f00006]

• Science Key Stages 3 and 4 Programmes of Study and Attainment Targets[^f00007]

Part 2

• The Curriculum (Programme of Study and Attainment Targets in English at Key Stages 3 and 4) Order (Northern Ireland) 1996[^f00008]

• The Curriculum (Programme of Study and Attainment Targets in Mathematics at Key Stages 3 and 4) Order (Northern Ireland) 1996[^f00009]

• The Curriculum (Programmes of Study and Attainment Targets in Science at Key Stages 3 and 4) Order (Northern Ireland) 1996[^f00010]

Signed

Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department of Education on 6th August 1996.

C. Jendoubi — Assistant Secretary

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Order.)

This Order prescribes the arrangements for the assessment of pupils in English, Mathematics and Science in key stage 3. The Order comes into operation on 1st September 1996 but shall not apply to Irish medium secondary schools until 1st August 1997.

The Order applies to pupils in grant-aided schools who are in the third year of the third key stage, but does not apply to pupils who have been assessed by an education and library board as having severe learning difficulties. (Article 2). Article 4 places a duty on principals to make arrangements for the carrying out of the assessment of pupils and Article 5 requires such assessments to be carried out between 1st January of the year in which a pupil is due to complete the third key stage and a date later in that school year specified in a document, entitled “Assessment Arrangements in Key Stage 3” and referred to in the Order as the Assessment Document, published by Her Majesty’s Stationery Office (HMSO), 16 Arthur Street, Belfast, BT1 4GD. Teachers are required to determine each pupil’s level of attainment in each attainment target in each assessed subject, taking account of the results of assessment units taken by each pupil, and to make a record of those results. Article 6 requires school principals to notify the Northern Ireland Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (the Council) of those results and Article 7 requires each pupil’s subject levels to be calculated and requires the Council to notify schools of those levels and certain other information.

Article 8 requires the Council to set in place arrangements to determine whether standards of assessment in a school are appropriate and to review the information sent to it by schools and the schools' marking of assessment units.

Article 9 requires schools to make arrangements for pupils to take tests set by the Council, requires the Council to make arrangements for the tests to be marked and to notify the results of the tests to schools.

Article 10 provides for exemptions in relation to attainment targets and tests in specified circumstances.

The Order also provides for other matters of detail of the assessment arrangements to be specified in the Assessment Document. The matters to be set out in this Document will include the assessment units to be administered in each subject (Article 5), the arrangements for the submission of information to the Council (Article 6), the arrangements for the review of assessments (Article 8) and the arrangements for the tests (Article 9).

Footnotes

[^f00001]: S.I. 1989/2406 (N.I. 20) as amended by S.I. 1996/274 (N.I. 1) Article 35(2)

[^f00002]: ISBN 0 337 04309 4

[^f00003]: Established under S.I. 1989/2406 (N.I. 20) Article 17A as inserted by S.I. 1993/2810 (N.I. 12) Article 34

[^f00004]: S.I. 1986/594 (N.I. 3)

[^f00005]: ISBN 0 337 04295 4

[^f00006]: ISBN 0 337 04294 2

[^f00007]: ISBN 0 337 04295 0

[^f00008]: S.R. 1996 No. 340

[^f00009]: S.R. 1996 No. 341

[^f00010]: S.R. 1996 No. 335