What is Embedding Formative Assessment (EFA)?

Embedding Formative Assessment (EFA) is the single most effective intervention that a teacher can make to drive up the quality and rate of learning in their classroom. It’s about understanding where each student is at in their learning journey and where they need to go to next. Teachers can use the outcomes of formative assessment to differentiate their teaching – to better meet the diverse needs of their learners.

EFA is a two-year professional development pack for schools and colleges that contains everything you need for a professional development day, together with a complete set of materials for running 18 monthly follow-up workshops.

Changing teacher practice is complex, and these training materials are designed to help you address this challenge and create a supportive environment for teachers to develop together.

Additional consultancy is available to support the school lead to deliver the programme – this could be online or face-to-face.

What do the materials cover?

  • An introduction to formative assessment.
  • Teacher learning communities (TLC): everything you need to maintain and support TLCs within your school or college across 18 monthly workshops. These include notes for TLC workshop leaders.
  • Core materials: all of the resources required for each year of operation. This includes sheets for peer lesson observation and personal action planning.
  • Assessment for learning (AfL): in-school footage explains the features of the AfL, what it looks like in the classroom, and how this has impacted teachers’ and students’ practice and learning.