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By the 1990s, not only was attendance at school compulsory for the majority of children from the age of 5 until the age of 16 but, for much of the time spent there, the content of the curriculum had also become compulsory – at least in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. By the year 2000, the majority of children in England aged between 5 and 11 were compelled to attend school, compelled to follow a defined curriculum and compelled to be taught for part of the daythrough a centrally determined method – the literacy and numeracy strategies. Those who were not compelled to attend school were nevertheless to be educated ‘otherwise’ (see below) and those attending private schools were not required to follow the National Curriculum or the national strategies.

What did you think when you read the word assessment in the title of this chapter? The word assessment often brings with it fairly negative and slightly fearsome connotations. It may remind people of unpleasant or stressful experiences they have had with assessment, for example an important test or examination or the feeling caused by a less than entirely positive comment about learning made by a teacher. We all have assessment memories and the power of these memories tells us how much assessment really matters. In this chapter we will take a step back to rethink what assessment is all about in primary schools and how it relates to curriculum and to pedagogy. Rather than seeing assessment as something rather intimidating to be kept at bay, we will begin to explore how assessment can be used to bring the curriculum to life, to enhance children and young people’s experiences in learning and to provide essential evidence for teachers to support them in their quest to enhance learning. We will also reflect, briefly, on wider uses of assessment information and explore the challenges we all face as we strive to keep a strong focus on what matters, on learning.