Section 1: Introduction
About the 2016 KS1 ARA and how to use the new manuals format
This guidance details the statutory requirements for key stage 1 (KS1) national curriculum assessment and reporting for the 2015 to 2016 academic year. It is produced by the Standards and Testing Agency (STA), an executive agency of the Department for Education (DfE).
The assessment and reporting arrangements apply to maintained schools, including maintained special schools, academies, including free schools, Service Children’s Education (SCE) schools and participating independent schools with pupils in KS1. Full details of how the ARA applies to different types of schools are included in section 11.2.
The new national curriculum has been taught in all local authority maintained primary schools, and some academies, in England since September 2014. Those pupils who are at the end of KS1 in May 2016 will be the first to be assessed against the new national curriculum.
This guidance details the key changes for the 2015 to 2016 assessments and the updated reporting and assessment arrangements for the period.
You can search this guidance by:
- selecting ‘open all’
- pressing Ctrl+f on your keyboard if you’re using a PC or ⌘+f if you’re using a Mac
- typing the word or search term that you’re looking for
A downloadable PDF version will be published alongside this version in October 2015, for anybody who chooses to print out a complete version.