Summative Assessment

There is no longer a whole school project to be completed. This has been replaced by the summative assessment. 

The summative assessment task consists of a written response to a school/setting-based case study.  Assessment will take place over an 8-day window, communicated at the start of your programme.

For the summative assessment, you will be given a case study of approximately 2,000 words and you will write a 1,500 word max response.

• Leaders constantly assess and respond to challenges and problems. They need to analyse a range of data, and to weigh up and identify key priorities. And they need to make decisions about what actions to take based on the best possible evidence and their experience.
• The NPQ summative assessment requires programme members to do just that.

The case study will contain information about a fictional trust, and/or school/setting such as pupil performance data, excerpts from Ofsted reports, feedback from staff and pupils etc.
You'll be asked to apply the knowledge gained on your NPQ to analyse the information in the case study and answer a question.

It’s designed to give you the opportunity to demonstrate the ability to:

• Identify the problem(s)
• Identify the solution(s) and set out a rationale for the solution(s) proposed
• Detail how implementation should be approached and why

It’s an open-book approach. This means you can, and should, refer back to any relevant online modules, notes from seminars and conferences to reference the evidence base when writing the response.

The case study will not be aligned to your specific phase, it will be either primary or secondary for everyone, except for NPQEYL. 

“The frameworks allow participants to apply knowledge, learnt throughout the qualification, to schools which may be different from their own, ensuring a qualification which is recognised throughout the school system and which demonstrates participants’ ability to work in a range of roles and contexts at that level. 

(DfE, 2022)

When will I get my results?

You will receive a pass or fail 3 months after the summative assessment window. 

The responses are marked by comparative judgement. No feedback is provided by the assessors. However, the Teaching School Hub will work with anyone who does fail to ensure that they understand their result, and prepare them if they wish to sit a second summative assessment.

There is no resubmission if the assessment is not passed. However, programme members have one opportunity for a further attempt by joining the next assessment window which will have a new case study.