Terms of reference: grants for moderating and monitoring primary assessments
Information about grants paid by the Standards and Testing Agency (STA) to local authorities and academies.
Applies to England
Purpose
STA pays grants to local authorities and academies to support them in undertaking:
- moderation of teacher assessment at key stage 2
- monitoring of the phonics screening check
STA pays these grants retrospectively to:
- local authorities once every academic year
- academies on a 4-year cycle
This is an annual activity required by the amended Education (National Curriculum) (Key Stage 2 Assessment Arrangements) (England) Order 2003 and the amended Education (National Curriculum) (Key Stage 1 Assessment Arrangements) (England) Order 2004.
Conditions
Funding from this grant is non-ringfenced, but local authorities and academies must ensure that statutory moderation takes place at least every 4 years.
Local authorities are required to moderate at least:
- 25% of maintained schools withing their geographic area each year
- 25% of academies that have selected the local authority to moderate them in that academic year and are due statutory moderation
Local authorities must also ensure that statutory monitoring visits for the phonics screening check take place every year. Each academic year, local authorities are required to monitor at least:
- 10% of maintained schools that are administering the phonics screening check within their geographic area
- 10% of academies that have chosen the local authority for monitoring
Allocation
Funding for local authorities is allocated annually and is based on:
- the number of maintained schools within their geographic area, using spring census data
- a ratio of expected visits in the academic year
Funding for academies is allocated on a 4-year cycle, based on the year they opened.
Grant payment amounts are based on the Department for Education’s (DfE) Quality Assurance Framework. DfE introduced the calculation for this grant in 2012.
Payment schedules
STA makes payments in:
- August to local authorities
- September to the relevant academies
These payments cover the costs incurred for the previous academic year, between 1 September and 31 August.
Updates to this page
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Added clarification on the requirements for monitoring and moderation, and updated the payment schedules.
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First published.