Case Studies and Testimonials

Riverside Primary School - New PiRA and New PUMA

The assessments have helped us to track progress and support pupils in a year of uncertainty.

Lamberhurst St Mary’s Church of England Primary School - New PiRA and New PUMA

New PiRA and New PUMA give us robust, detailed diagnostics to complement teacher judgement.

All Saint's - New PiRA and New PUMA

The measures and reports make it easy for us to track pupils’ progress from term to term.

Griffydam Primary School - New PiRA and New PUMA

The children love the bright designs and the characters within the tests. They feel incredibly comfortable as the papers looks and feel familiar and use language that they are well used to.

Ivydale Primary - New PiRA and New PUMA

We cross reference with teacher assessments to ensure they are rigorous and to identify children who may be underachieving in class or not meeting their potential.

Tackley CE Primary School - New PiRA and New PUMA

They help to identify key areas that children are performing well in as well as those that they need extra help with. Results can be broken down per individual pupil or by class/group.

Griffin Park - New PiRA and New PUMA

I would recommend the tests to other schools are they are an effective way of measuring progress and attainment at pupil level, class level and school level. Plus, you can compare to national averages too.

Little London Community Primary School - PiRA and PUMA

If you want to invest in something that reduces teacher workload and improves overall outcomes for children, then the flexibility of this assessment system is something worth considering.

Long Crendon School - PiRA, PUMA and GAPS

The tests have been the most useful investment we’ve made, certainly in terms of assessment, in the eight years I’ve led the school.

High Street Primary School - PiRA, PUMA and GAPS

The standardised scores are very similar to the scaled score, and they correlate well with SATs outcomes. Generally, if they score 100 or higher in the spring they tend to achieve a scaled score of 100 or above in their SATs.

Firthmoor Primary School - PiRA, PUMA and GAPS

Mrs Dixon described the tests as attractive and child-friendly, but crucially, also well-matched to the layout of SATs papers. The school has used other assessment materials which lack the child-friendly layout of PiRA and PUMA, and pupils are turned off from the start. The PiRA tests offer a good range of texts and questions.

How Long Crendon School - PiRA

We can now make comparisons with the national picture and identify progress. Staff feel more secure in their judgements with the data to inform them.

Stanion Church of England Primary School - PiRA, PUMA and GAPS

Many of the pupils come from the adjacent town where there are high levels of social deprivation and complex socio-economic needs, so it’s important that there’s no pressure on the children. Because the tests are brightly coloured and child friendly, we find that many of the pupils get quite excited about doing them.

St Barnabas School - PiRA, PUMA and GAPS

The addition of the PiRA, PUMA and GAPS... allows us to compare pupil progress at both an individual level and also against a nationally referenced standard.

Melbury Primary School - PiRA, PUMA and GAPS

Like many schools, when the new National Curriculum was introduced, we were looking for a clear and straight forward way of showing pupil progress. Because the tests generate a standardised score, we would be able track this from test to test and immediately see whether the score was going up, down or staying the same. Because the tests have a consistent format, ensuring pupils have the same test ‘experience’ time on time, and the tests are internally consistent, each pupil should get approximately the same result in each test.

How ARK use standardised testing to support teacher understanding

Three times a year, each year group in key stage 1 and key stage 2 sit standardised reading (PIRA) and maths (PUMA) tests which are provided by RS Assessment from Hodder Education. The results are collected alongside a teacher-assessed writing task. These insights can then be used to design interventions and strategies to narrow the gaps in learning.

East Midlands Academy Trust - PiRA and PUMA

The tests have provided the framework around which the MAT has based their assessment strategy. And while Katy concedes that ‘there is no such thing as a perfect test’ they believe that, coupled with teacher observations and low stakes daily Assessment for Learning, they are able to create a holistic picture of pupils’ progress. Crucially, Ofsted supports this view.

Hiltop Primary Academy - PiRA and PUMA

We have recently become an academy and are working closely with our colleagues in the other schools within our new Trust to ensure that all children achieve their potential.

St Joseph's Catholic Primary School - PiRA

Chris Caffrey, Senior Teacher and Year 6 Teacher at St Joseph's Catholic Primary School in Birmingham, got in touch with us about how beneficial his school have found the PiRA tests.

Moortown Primary School - PiRA and GAPS

GAPS is particularly good for analysing individual and whole class performance against specific curriculum statements, so you can see where children are falling.

DSB International School, Mumbai, India - PiRA, PUMA and GAPS

"I think the diagnostic side is much more useful than a teacher written test or just a teacher’s judgment based on looking at the work. It’s very targeted and you get a very accurate idea without the test being overly judgmental."

Harrow International School Bangkok - PiRA and PUMA interactive

"You get absolutely everything that you would get from a written paper but the speed that you get that result is just on a different level."

The International School at Park City, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - PiRA and PUMA

"It’s not just an exam or a test, it goes much deeper than that. It’s ideal for any school that wants to have really relevant data to use to improve teaching and learning to raise standards."

Anglican International School, Jerusalem - PiRA, PUMA and GAPS

"We also like that we get simple data results from the tests and can compare how we’re doing to the average in the United Kingdom. This is really important for us as we’re one of the only British curriculum schools in the country and the tests really help us to compare and benchmark our progress with British Schools."