A quick guide to assessment in Science

Science lessons can sometimes feel like a struggle – planning engaging investigations, ensuring you’ve taught the required scientific knowledge and skills, or worrying whether you’ve defined new vocabulary correctly. Assessment can feel like yet one more thing. We’ve put time and effort into developing assessment opportunities across our resources so you don’t have to. 
 
When we think about assessment, we may automatically understand it as a way to measure attainment at the end of a unit, but when used effectively, assessment can also inform our planning, support progression, and ensure that pupils develop secure scientific understanding.  

But where do we begin? 

Pre-unit assessments can be a great starting place. They help teachers to understand what pupils already know, whether they have secure prior learning, or even highlight misconceptions. Perhaps you’re about to explore vertebrates and invertebrates, but the pre-unit assessment highlights that some children aren’t yet confident describing the different animal groups. This would be your ideal opportunity for a quick reminder.  

Which then leads on to the post-unit assessments. You’ve taught the lessons, carried out the investigations, and now you need to evaluate pupil understanding of the unit. Much like our pre-unit assessments, these assessments are linked to the National Curriculum objectives so that you can be confident that children’s learning aligns with expectations. We’ve purposely used a variety of different question styles but made sure not to overload. We’ve also limited these assessments to either one or two pages. No one needs to be printing and sticking in hundreds of sheets! 

But it doesn’t stop there. Our science lessons and investigations each contain a pre- and post-lesson quiz. We’ve used a mix of question styles, including multiple choice, meaning we can purposefully include misconceptions. The design of these quizzes supports retrieval practice and provides teachers with a quick snapshot of pupil understanding. And for the children – engaging questions that will jump-start their scientific thinking.  

In their latest science subject report (2023), Ofsted outlined the importance of securing knowledge before moving on to new content, as well as the need for teachers to connect new learning to what they’ve previously learned. If we’re honest, knowing the objectives for our own year group can sometimes feel like a lot. Do we know what they’ve previously learnt or what they will go on to learn in the future? Hats off to those that do. We’ve taken the time to put together unit plans that carefully lay out prior and future learning. That way our Year One teachers can confidently see how EYFS ‘Understanding the World’ links to ‘Animals including Humans’, and how this will link to subsequent objectives in Year 3. Our unit plans also outline the area of scientific enquiry linked to each lesson, ensuring a range of enquiry types and skills across each year group.  

Finally, assessment doesn’t have to mean a list of questions. Perhaps you want to combine oracy with science, or assess understanding without children feeling pressured. Our concept cartoons are an inclusive way of encouraging scientific discussion allowing children to explain their reasoning to support their answer. And the best thing? They can be used before, during or after the unit.