I don’t want to get into a debate about which the most important subjects are in education - lots of subjects are important for different reasons - but at the same time, I think it’s pretty clear that science is really important! At secondary, around 93% of students are entered for at least two sciences¹. For context, outside of Maths and English, no other subject is above 50%².

At primary however, science can be treated like a second class citizen. I think many schools want to give it more prominence, but are unsure how to go about it. So I caught up with Dave Locke, Head of Data and Science at Acorn Education Trust, to discuss how his MAT has used Smartgrade and our partner HeadStart Primary's summer science assessments to address this challenge. 

Here’s how Dave describes the state we’re in:

“It is generally accepted that the quality of science teaching in primaries has decreased since the demise of KS2 Science SATs. You see that in the PISA data³- and we see it too in the average performance of 11-year-olds entering our secondaries. Our view was that part of this problem was linked to not having a formal assessment in place for science at the end of the primary phase, requiring pupils to bring together their accumulated disciplinary and substantive knowledge.“

So what should we do about it?

Well, since Science is such a knowledge-heavy subject, one solution is to get better at measuring performance. There is a statutory requirement to report whether students are “working at” or “has not met” in relation to the “expected standard” in year 6, but in Dave’s view, that is not useful. For a start, the assessment point comes too late to act, once children are about to leave your school. But more importantly, teachers have no common assessment to base this grade on, so they resort to making highly subjective judgments with reference to the national curriculum programme of study:

“Schools have a whole bunch of descriptors they could evaluate, but what are you even deciding? Do you decide that providing the area is not colour-coded red then they’re 'met'? Then how do you add all these judgments up to form a single grade?”

This reminded me of Daisy Christodoulou’s excellent blog, Problems with Performance Descriptors, which is persuasive on how this kind of criterion-referenced assessment is inherently unreliable. She includes this quote from Tim Oates, which sums it up nicely:

“Even a well-crafted statement [...] can be loaded with subjectivity – even in subjects such as science. It’s genuinely hard to know how difficult a specific exam is.”

Dave decided that assessment could be part of the solution:

“We believe science is important, so we wanted to raise the profile and ensure schools give it sufficient time. Also, because science has such a knowledge-based curriculum, we thought it was important to help students to learn the foundations of their secondary science education. That’s why we looked to use HeadStart’s Science assessments within Smartgrade: there’s ample evidence that assessment drives attainment, and the process of retrieving information in a test is in itself part of the learning process.”

How can Smartgrade help?

Smartgrade’s partnership with HeadStart Primary means we offer standardised end-of-year Science assessments for years 1 to 6, which map carefully to the national curriculum expectations for the relevant year. Question complexity is also tailored to the age of the student, with more multiple choice / checkbox questions in earlier years. 

Here are a couple of sample questions relating to Animals, Including Humans for years 2 and 6:

‍

Dave liked how the assessments were carefully tailored to the needs of their children:

“We were very impressed by the standard of the assessments. They were very age-appropriate and helped us see the best in our children so they could demonstrate what they can do, not just what they can’t do.”

And because this is Smartgrade, we don’t just offer question, topic and whole grade analysis at the school level; MATs can also see aggregated results across all these areas for all schools in the trust.

Dave found these MAT features particularly powerful:

“Smartgrade gave much deeper insight into where curriculum strengths lie and where there’s work still to be done. What’s more, that information can be accessed on the system by the following year’s teacher so that gaps can be addressed. In a trust of 16 schools, without this kind of standardised assessment, it’s very difficult to understand what’s happening, both collectively and also at an individual school level.”

Best of all, it’s very cost-effective to take part: packages start at £145 and a full two form entry primary would pay just £340 for access to the assessments in pdf format for all year groups, along with all the analysis options that Smartgrade provides. (Printed papers can also be ordered from us.) There are also discounts for schools buying science alongside our other packages, which include practice SATs and maths, reading and GPS assessments. 

Get in touch

Discover how better Primary Science Assessments can help with science outcomes in your school.

References

1. The Ofqual subject combinations charts show that 452,140 students took Combined Science in year 11 and around 170,000 students took at least two individual sciences, meaning that around 622,000 students achieved at least two science qualifications. 667,340 year 11 students took GCSEs in 2024, meaning that approximately 93% of of students achieved at least two science qualifications.
2. The highest number of entries outside of Maths, English and Science is History, with 303,690 year 11 students - a 46% entry rate.
3. England’s PISA score in Science dropped from 516 in 2012 to 503 in 2022. This is described as a significant decline in the DfE’s National PISA report for England.

‍