Explanatory note

This Order prescribes the arrangements for the assessment of pupils in English, Mathematics and Science in key stage 3. The Order comes into operation on 1st September 1996 but shall not apply to Irish medium secondary schools until 1st August 1997.

The Order applies to pupils in grant-aided schools who are in the third year of the third key stage, but does not apply to pupils who have been assessed by an education and library board as having severe learning difficulties. (Article 2). Article 4 places a duty on principals to make arrangements for the carrying out of the assessment of pupils and Article 5 requires such assessments to be carried out between 1st January of the year in which a pupil is due to complete the third key stage and a date later in that school year specified in a document, entitled “Assessment Arrangements in Key Stage 3” and referred to in the Order as the Assessment Document, published by Her Majesty’s Stationery Office (HMSO), 16 Arthur Street, Belfast, BT1 4GD. Teachers are required to determine each pupil’s level of attainment in each attainment target in each assessed subject, taking account of the results of assessment units taken by each pupil, and to make a record of those results. Article 6 requires school principals to notify the Northern Ireland Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (the Council) of those results and Article 7 requires each pupil’s subject levels to be calculated and requires the Council to notify schools of those levels and certain other information.

Article 8 requires the Council to set in place arrangements to determine whether standards of assessment in a school are appropriate and to review the information sent to it by schools and the schools' marking of assessment units.

Article 9 requires schools to make arrangements for pupils to take tests set by the Council, requires the Council to make arrangements for the tests to be marked and to notify the results of the tests to schools.

Article 10 provides for exemptions in relation to attainment targets and tests in specified circumstances.

The Order also provides for other matters of detail of the assessment arrangements to be specified in the Assessment Document. The matters to be set out in this Document will include the assessment units to be administered in each subject (Article 5), the arrangements for the submission of information to the Council (Article 6), the arrangements for the review of assessments (Article 8) and the arrangements for the tests (Article 9).