Assessing Writing in Scotland provides you with a standardised Comparative Judgement writing assessment for P4 & P7. You'll also get access to all our writing resources and quizzes.
Why are schools using us?
Speed
Our judging is a collaborative process which involves all teachers at a school participating in the judging of every year group. Working in this way, a typical primary school can judge an entire year group and create whole class feedback for that year group within an hour.
Accuracy
Using Comparative Judgement, teachers agree on primary writing grades 86% of the time, compared to 66% of the time when using a typical writing rubric.
Validity
As all moderation judging is done anonymously by teachers working at other schools there is no possibility for bias based on school or pupil characteristics. All schools and all pupils are on a level playing field.
Comparative Judgement in 4 easy steps!
1We set the task, so everyone is writing against the same prompt.
2Upload your pupils’ scripts on our specially coded paper.
3Judge writing, comparing two pieces of writing on screen, side-by-side to determine which is best.
4Benchmark attainment and progress across your school, and nationally, with the information and statistics in your school’s individual report.
Here’s a summary of how it works
- The project takes place in April, and provides you with a writing assessment for P4 and P7. View the full calendar here.
- We have been working with schools in Scottish Borders for two years. This is our first project that is open to all schools in Scotland and features a dedicated Scottish standardisation.
- We will set the stimulus for the writing so that the conditions are standardised for all pupils.
- The stimulus will be an image that prompts students to write a narrative.
- You'll judge the work of your pupils as well as the work of pupils across the country. You never directly compare the results of your pupils with pupils from other schools. Rather, every 5th judgement is a moderation judgement where you compare the work of pupils from other schools.
- Once all the judging is complete, you will get a full PDF report. Each pupil will get three key pieces of information: a scaled score, a writing age, and an indicative SNSA grade. We provide you with full analysis of your school's results and the national picture, including breakdowns by gender and pupil premium.
Creative Writing Stimulus
Commissioned illustrations that bring out the best in children’s writing.
Your subscription includes
We support you every step of the way. We are online and happy to chat on the site or to talk you through any questions you have. Our dedicated support team will check all the writing you submit to ensure the process is smooth, secure and time efficient.
Benefits of Assessing Primary Writing
Standardised results
The results will be standardised across all the participating schools, and we'll provide you with indicative SNSA grades.
High quality tasks
Our fiction tasks are commissioned illustrations that bring out the best in children's writing.
Granular measures of performance
We'll provide you with a scaled score and an indicative SNSA grade.
State of the art software
The leading Comparative Judgement platform worldwide combined with Optical Character Recognition sheets for pupils to write on. When you upload scanned sheets the pupil names magically disappear, but they will still be matched to your data.
Data you can trust
Every judge's performance is recorded, and decisions made by inconsistent judges are removed from the results.
High quality reporting
A full PDF report showing all of your data and how it compares the project data.
Technical support
Technical support and training via chat 24 hours per day.
Professional development
After the assessment, we provide you with exemplar scripts from students across the project, which can be used in lessons or for CPD. You will also have full access to all our CPD and lesson resources.