While it’s very unlikely that any school currently feels like things are “back to normal”, the Department for Education is certainly planning on that basis when it comes to primary assessments.

Starting with the phonics checks happening in Year 2 next half-term, the current academic year will see the return of statutory assessments in Years 1, 2, 4 and 6 - as well as the new arrangements in early years.

Earlier this month, schools were treated to the latest iterations of the Assessment and Reporting Arrangements (ARA) documents for key stages 1 and key stages 2.

Much of the content is the same as previously, but even that will be a distant memory for many - and, indeed, there will be many new school leaders and teachers who have no experience with the tests, which haven’t happened for over two years now.

Primary school assessment: what’s completely new?

After several false starts, the DfE again intends for the new multiplication tables check to be statutory for all Year 4 pupils this year, two years later than intended.

These must take place in June for all pupils in Year 4, with the exception of those who are working at such an early stage of mathematics that they won’t be able to answer any questions on the test.

Another delayed change is the introduction of the new “engagement model” for assessing those pupils with special educational needs who are not yet working on a subject-specific curriculum. These descriptors replace the old P scales at P1 to P4.

The higher P scales were replaced on 2019 with the pre-key stage standards. The change this year means that P scales will no longer be used for any pupils.

Any other changes?

Last year the DfE proposed making the grammar test optional in Year 6 (as it already is in Year 2) as an acknowledgement of the time lost due to Covid.

Of course, in the end the tests didn’t occur at all and yet more time was lost.

However, this year it seems that Year 6 pupils must sit the grammar and spelling tests anyway. It remains optional in key stage 1.

This year should also have seen the next in the biennial series of science sampling, following the cancellation of the 2020 series.

However, presumably in light of the pandemic, these are not planned to take place this year. It’s not clear yet whether they’re postponed to 2023 or just scrapped until 2024.

Moderation for teacher assessment will be back, as will visits during the various tests weeks. However, for the first time this year, the Standards and Testing Agency has also abandoned its centralised training for local authority moderations.

Who will see the results?

As previously, key stage 1 data will be based on teacher assessment, with no requirement to share the statutory test scores with anyone other than parents if they request it. No school-level data will be published, but national figures will be made available.

The department has already announced that performance tables will not be published for primary schools using key stage 2 data this year, making it the third consecutive year where this will be the case.

Data will still be available, however, for schools and individuals in July, which must be reported to parents.

This will include the scaled scores and overall outcomes, as previously. This data will also be accessible through Analyse School Performance and shared with Ofsted and local authorities.

So it will be time to start downloading the inspection data summary report again next autumn!

Will we still be able to ‘remove’ pupils’ data?

The ARA does make reference to the checking exercise, so presumably there will still be an opportunity to mark those pupils whose data shouldn’t be included (such as those who are new to the English language and education system).

What has changed, though, is the removal of the old “D” code. This used to be a matter of great confusion, because of its label of “Disapplied”.

This was intended to mark those pupils for whom the national curriculum had been disapplied - a very rare circumstance, usually relating to significant special educational needs.

However, it was often used, mistakenly, for those pupils for whom schools had decided they should not take the tests due to low ability. In this case, the “B” code should be used, and teacher assessment will still be needed.

What about progress measures?

Well, that’s the million-dollar question. With the new-style tests and assessment introduced in 2016, new progress measures for key stage 2 should have been introduced in 2020, when the cohort who first started the new curriculum in Year 1 in 2014 reached Year 6.

The pandemic put paid to that - arguably buying the DfE a bit of time to work out what the new system would be.

However, nothing has been published as yet, so it’s not clear whether anything will be shared this year with schools or whether the whole thing will just be delayed another year.

The trouble with that is by 2024 we’ll be facing a new problem, as the children who missed their Year 2 assessments because of the pandemic reach Year 6.

Maybe the DfE will just abandon all such measures until the first Reception baseline cohort reach Year 6 - in 2028.

Michael Tidd is headteacher at East Preston Junior School, in West Sussex