Assessment Saturday
Ninety candidates are sitting assessments for Year 7 entry. Some need extra time, one needs a separate room, a few are sitting online from overseas. The registrar builds the timetable in a spreadsheet, prints name labels, and sends letters with times. On the day, a candidate arrives who was never allocated to a session.
Afterwards, marks for the English and maths papers come back from the heads of department in their own spreadsheets. Interview notes are on paper forms. Reference comments from current schools are in the admissions inbox. The panel meeting is the following Thursday, and the registrar spends three days assembling a summary for each child.
Assessment information comes from everywhere
The assessment process draws on many people: markers, interviewers, the learning support team, the current school. Each produces a piece of information in their own format. Planning the day is also a scheduling puzzle with rooms, invigilators and access arrangements, usually done in a spreadsheet that is rebuilt from scratch every year.
- Candidates are allocated to sessions by hand.
- Access arrangements are noted in emails and easily missed.
- Marks come back in different spreadsheets from different departments.
- Interview notes are handwritten.
- References are read from the inbox and summarised by hand.
What piecing it together costs
Days of registrar time between the assessment and the panel. Errors in transcription that affect how a child is seen. Candidates whose access arrangements were not in place, which is unfair to them and uncomfortable for the school. And panels that have less time to discuss borderline candidates because the paperwork arrived late.
How candidates are assessed and selected is entirely the school's academic judgement. The job here is to get the information in front of the panel accurately.
Assessment planning and results we build
- Registered candidates for an entry point are listed from the admissions record, with any access arrangements already noted.
- Sessions, rooms and invigilators are set up, and candidates are allocated, with access needs placed in suitable rooms and times.
- Families receive their session details and any instructions by email from the same record.
- Registers and name labels are printed from the plan; attendance is marked on a tablet on the day.
- Markers enter scores through a simple form, or upload a spreadsheet in a set format, against each candidate.
- Interviewers record notes on a tablet or form against the candidate.
- Reference responses are attached to the candidate's record when they arrive.
- The panel sees one summary per candidate, with scores, notes, references and registration details in one place.
| Information | Who provides it | Where it lands |
|---|---|---|
| Session and room | Registrar | Assessment plan |
| Access arrangements | Learning support, family | Plan and candidate record |
| Paper scores | Markers | Candidate record |
| Interview notes | Interviewers | Candidate record |
| Reference | Current school | Candidate record |
If your school uses an online assessment provider, its results can be imported into the same record.
A panel meeting with everything on the table
Assessment Saturday runs from a plan everyone can see. Every candidate has a session, every access need has a room. Marks come in the day after, and by Tuesday the panel summaries are ready without anyone retyping. The panel spends its time on decisions.
The awkward cases are handled rather than improvised. A candidate who falls ill on the day is moved to the catch-up session with one change, and the family is told. A sibling sitting for a different entry point on the same morning is shown on both plans so the family is not asked to be in two places at once. A marker who is off sick can have her papers reassigned without anyone losing track of which scripts are done. And the plan from this year becomes the starting template for next year, so nobody builds it from a blank spreadsheet again.
Signs your assessments need this
- Assessment timetables are rebuilt in a spreadsheet each year.
- Access arrangements have been missed on the day.
- Marks arrive in several department spreadsheets.
- Interview notes are on paper.
- Panel summaries take days to prepare.