Assessment Advisory Team

Maddy Barnes, Assisstant Head teacher at Sacred Heart Catholic School

Maddy Barnes is an experienced primary school teacher and senior leader who is currently a full-time English Advisor. She offers bespoke training to support schools locally, nationally and internationally. Maddy still regularly teaches in the classroom and includes live-teaching sessions in most of her training. Maddy is an established educational author, writer, blogger and series editor for a range of educational publishers. She is a DfE QA proofer for grammar and reading and works within test development. Maddy is a KS2 Writing Moderator and blogs regularly for a range of educational settings. Passionate about ‘getting it right’ for children, Maddy is a published author and has written the Skills Builders Grammar and Punctuation series for Rising Stars and NTS Assessment for RS Assessment. 
Twitter: @moonmaddy

 

Shareen Wilkinson is a primary English adviser and experienced primary teacher. She has a proven and extensive track record of raising standards in English and has worked with schools and LAs across the country. She advises at national level and is currently a DfE (Department for Education) subject specialist for reading and grammar (KS1 and KS2). For seven years, she was a part of the STA expert review team. Shareen is an established educational author and has written the KS2 Rising Stars New Curriculum Spelling Test books and co-authored the Achieve Reading books and the Reading Planet KS2 teacher guidance. In addition, she is series editor of the NTS Assessments for reading at KS2.  

Twitter: @ShareenAdvice 

Colin McCarty, Director at Test and Evaluation Consortium 

Colin McCarty was a teacher for 25 years before taking on the role of Project Director of National Curriculum test development for KS2 and KS3 from their inception. He has written a wide range of standardised assessments covering reading, writing, SPAG, mathematics and science. He is passionate about providing high quality, diagnostic information that assists teachers and supports children’s learning. Colin believes that summative and diagnostic information leads to data richness, which underpins assessment. Colin is test developer for PIRA, PUMA and GAPS among other test series.

Kate Ruttle, Early Years and KS1 Literacy Consultant 

Kate Ruttle has over 30 years’ experience as a primary teacher, SENCO and deputy head. She has also worked for local authorities as an advisory teacher and consultant for literacy and inclusion. Kate has over 25 years’ experience of writing for schools and the Department for Education. She has been involved in reading and test development and writing for the National Tests, and also has curriculum development experience. Alongside qualifications such as: MEd in educational research (Cambridge); NPQH; CCET (certificate of competence in educational testing); Level 7 in Assessing and Teaching Specific Learning Difficulties, Kate is also a school improvement coach and Chair of Governors for KS1. Kate is author of PIRA and Cracking Comprehension among other series.

AlphaPlus Consultancy Ltd, Leading experts in assessment design and development 

AlphaPlus is a company with experience in planning, developing, delivering and evaluating assessments. It has experience of developing high-stakes on-paper and on-screen assessments for the government organisations of all four UK countries, as well as for many public and private sector awarding bodies and professional certification agencies. Visit AlphaPlus. AlphaPlus worked on NTS Assessments among other projects.  

SchoolDash 

SchoolDash helps people and organisations to understand education through data. RS Assessment have worked closely with SchoolDash to develop White Papers and will be launching MARK Plus to help schools analyse their assessment data. 

Visit https://www.schooldash.com/