In the rapidly evolving world of modern education, high-quality assessment has never been more essential for schools to monitor understanding, identify gaps, and ensure that no child is left behind on their learning journey.
A new generation of assessments, Advancing Primary Reading and Advancing Primary Mathematics (with Advancing Primary Science on the way) from Hachette Learning, empower teachers to adapt and respond to the needs of their leaners. Developed in collaboration with schools around the world, these assessment resources do more than test the curriculum; they reflect modern classrooms in their content, track incremental steps in progress, and provide teachers with actionable insights to drive meaningful improvement.
The need for better-aligned primary assessments in international schools has been clear for some time. Despite well-established print and digital offerings, English-language assessments have historically failed to reflect the needs of many, delivering real-time insights that allow teachers to respond to gaps when it matters while meeting the demands of classrooms’ linguistic diversity and various cultural contexts.
When we spoke to classroom teachers and school leaders around the world, they made it clear what they needed: assessment that is curriculum-relevant, contextualised for multilingual learners, affordable, and accompanied by meaningful professional support.
Why Assessment Matters in Primary Learning
The importance of assessment at the primary level cannot be overstated. These early years build strong foundations for future learning, shape children’s academic confidence and influence their long-term attainment. But assessment in international contexts can carry additional layers of complexity for resources to meet:
- Curriculum variation: while Advancing Primary assessments are tailored to the Cambridge Primary curriculum for Mathematics and English, local adaptation to national curricula is common.
- Multilingualism: with a growing number of learners speaking two or more languages, many schools can be using English-language resources with early-stage English learners.
- High mobility: it’s common for schools to experience high turnover, requiring frequent benchmarking of new joiners.
- Parent expectations: many parents expect clarity and transparency from schools about their child’s attainment and the progress they’re making.
With this range of demands in mind, the solution must offer assessments that are not only accurate and reliable but flexible and accessible.
“The need for better-aligned primary assessments in international schools has been clear for some time.”
Developing Solutions: What Teachers Told Us
Hachette Learning commissioned significant discovery work, including interviews, mapping exercises and local distributor consultations, to understand what primary teachers in international schools value most. Here’s what we found:
Demand for bilingual-friendly assessments
Teachers asked for more accessible language, clearer phrasing and cultural neutrality. Many assessment resources fail to separate English-language proficiency from conceptual understanding, especially in mathematics. This often prevents a fair assessment of learners’ true abilities.
Need for more regular progress tracking
Schools want to check in on learners at multiple points in the year, not just annually. Teachers emphasised the need for “close monitoring” and stronger visibility on how new joiners progress throughout the year.
Reporting tools that are easy to use and instantly actionable
Teachers overwhelmingly favoured individual gap analysis reporting, along with parent-friendly visual reports. They required clear, visual, instantly interpretable insights that reduce workload and accelerate decision-making.
Delivering Solutions: Assessment Resources
The Advancing Primary Reading and Mathematics assessment suit is built specifically against the Cambridge Primary curriculum across Stages 1–6, working alongside existing Learner Books, Teacher Guides and Workbooks available from Hachette Learning. This allows schools to confidently test the right content at the right time.
These assessments have been intentionally developed for modern, international learners. This means reading texts are designed to suit and engage a wide range of children, including a rich and diverse mix of geographical, cultural and social contexts.
Reviewed by an international panel of classroom teachers and ESL experts to ensure the greatest accessibility for bilingual and multilingual learners, while maintaining the validity of the assessment outcomes.
With a choice of printed test papers on interactive online assessments, schools can administer assessments in the best way to suit them. Both options support free and instant reporting in Boost Insights (Hachette Learning’s complementary reporting platform), generating individual learner summary reports and question-level analysis reports for individuals, groups or whole years. This allows teachers to effectively plan their lessons and target their teaching to address gaps in real time, with three assessments each year to track progress.
“When we listen to teachers and work with subject and language experts, assessment can become a transformative force in teaching and learning.”
Why This Matters for International Primary Education
At its core, assessment is a driver of equity. When assessments are not aligned, accessible or culturally relevant, they can generate misleading data, leaving learners behind from their peers, creating barriers to unlocking their full potential, and place unfair workload burden on teachers to find suitable solutions.
The Advancing Primary suite is designed to empower schools through assessment:
- For teachers, it reduces admin workload, increases clarity and supports responsive teaching.
- For students, it provides fair, engaging, confidence-building assessment experiences.
- For schools, it provides cohesion across curriculum and assessment.
- For parents, it offers transparency and reassurance grounded in curriculum expectations.
To meet the needs of modern learners and academic expectations, schools need assessments that truly reflect their students, curricula and contexts. When we listen to teachers and work with subject and language experts, assessment can become a transformative force in teaching and learning.
Visit hachettelearning.com/advancing-primary to learn more about our assessment resources and supporting teaching and revision resources. Speak to your local consultant to discuss how we can meet your needs and tailor solutions to your school. Together, we unlock every learner’s unique potential.
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