As many of you will know, for the past few years AlphaPlus has been working with the Welsh Government to develop national personalised adaptive assessments for all schoolchildren aged 7 to 14 in Wales. These assessments are formative, and have been designed to identify areas where children and teachers need to focus their efforts in order to make progress.

We are delighted to announce that we have won the Best Use of Formative Assessment award for our work on the Welsh assessments at this year’s e-Assessment Awards, hosted by the e-Assessment Association. This award acknowledges “assessment product, which brings clearly identifiable benefits to formative assessment in a specific field(s)”.

The e-Assessment Association aims to communicate the positive contributions that technology makes to all forms of assessment, and the awards showcase the very best practice, research and innovation taking place from organisations, institutions and individuals working across this field. This year was the fourth annual e-Assessment Awards. Previously, the awards have been held in an evening following the e-Assessment Question conference, but due to Covid-19, this year’s awards were streamed via Youtube.

Sarah Maughan, Director of Assessment at AlphaPlus, says, “We are delighted that the work of our team has been recognised by this award.  AlphaPlus, and our partners Acumina, BTL and WJEC, have worked very closely with Welsh Government to ensure that the assessments are designed to effectively support teaching and learning in schools.  The feedback that we provide for learners, their teachers and for parents, has been a key focus of our development effort.  We are really pleased that the value of the assessments as a formative tool is what has been rewarded.”

To learn more about the Welsh national personalised assessments, read our case study.