Plan phase-aware assessment by specifying what has been taught, what the pupil is being asked to show and which support will remain available. A broad question can connect Reception, primary and secondary planning. Each phase still needs its own precise learning intention and evidence. Counting two sets, comparing two sums and justifying equivalent algebraic expressions assess different knowledge. Their outcomes cannot share a score.
This planning card is for teachers, assessment leads and SENCos in England. Its shared question is: do these representations describe the same quantity? The three routes below are wholly synthetic planning examples. They illustrate choices after relevant teaching; they aren't a validated instrument, a progression scale or a prescribed lesson sequence.
Write the precise intention before choosing a route
Ask the teacher what the next decision requires. Is the question about recognising equal collections, interpreting equality between calculations, or maintaining equivalence when changing an expression? Those distinctions determine the task and what a response can support. A shared heading on a spreadsheet cannot do that work for us.
Development Matters, England's non-statutory early years guidance, supports proportionate assessment and depth before moving through broad age bands. Its Reception mathematics guidance includes comparing differently arranged collections and exploring small numbers. The mathematics programme of study includes Year 2 number representations and addition facts, then KS3 manipulation of algebraic expressions while maintaining equivalence. The example prompts are editorial choices; neither document prescribes them.
Phase provides curriculum context. Check the individual's prior teaching and evidence before selecting the task. An older pupil may need earlier mathematical content with age-respectful materials. A communication aid, concrete equipment or a scribe doesn't determine the level of mathematics being assessed.
Three planning cards, three different claims
These cards are alternatives for different taught intentions. They aren't three stations through which each pupil should pass. Each teacher keeps the task version, source and date, observed response, available support and any adult contribution with the sample.
Reception: compare collections after counting
Reviewer and review: Mrs Green, the fictional Reception teacher, keeps this card provisional and reviews another play opportunity by 6 November 2026. Purpose and task: decide whether to offer further experiences comparing small collections. After familiar counting opportunities, show four counters close together and four spread apart. Invite the child to find out whether the collections contain the same number. Accept counting, matching, gesture or an established communication response.
Prior evidence and support: a dated play observation records accurate counting of a line of objects, with no comparison recorded. Keep the usual communication board available. Record whether an adult rearranges or matches objects, supplies number words or models the answer. The EEF early mathematics guidance recommends building on children's existing knowledge and connecting representations to ideas.
Uncertainty and next step: correct counting alone leaves the comparison uncertain. If the child indicates equality after matching, offer another ordinary play opportunity with a different arrangement. If no response is observed, retain that gap and check the interaction and access conditions. For detailed prompting, use the separate listen, prompt, pause example.
Year 2: decide whether two addition expressions have equal totals
Reviewer and review: Mr Ali, the fictional Year 2 teacher, keeps this card provisional and reviews a further statement by 6 November 2026. Purpose and task: decide whether to revisit the meaning of equality in addition. After teaching addition facts and reading the equals sign, present 7 + 5 = 6 + 6. Ask the pupil to decide whether the statement is true and show how they know. This is a teacher-designed extension using taught facts, not a statutory Year 2 assessment item.
Prior evidence and support: earlier work shows accurate totals with an answer box after the equals sign. It leaves interpreting expressions on both sides untested. Offer familiar counters or a number line and the usual response support. Attribute a scribed explanation to the pupil only after checking its meaning with them.
Uncertainty and next step: two correct calculations may support this particular comparison. They don't establish a general understanding of equality. Revisit another suitable statement and ask what each side represents. If the notation is unfamiliar, teach its meaning before using later evidence to judge that intention. Dylan Wiliam's 1999 rich-questioning paper explains how correct responses can fit unintended conceptions. It supplies historical questioning analysis, not validation of these cards.
KS3: justify equivalence when expanding a bracket
Reviewer and review: Ms Shah, the fictional mathematics teacher, keeps this card provisional for review on 6 November 2026. Purpose and task: decide whether to extend work on distributivity. Following teaching of multiplication over a bracket, compare 3(x + 2) with 3x + 6. Ask why they remain equal for any value of x. An explanation using three groups of x + 2 can connect the representation to the symbolic transformation.
Prior evidence and support: previous substitution work shows matching values for one chosen x. Keep an established visual model or communication aid available, recording any cue that supplies the expansion. The EEF KS2 and KS3 guidance recommends purposeful representations and assessment that informs teaching.
Uncertainty and next step: agreement for selected values cannot establish an identity. Look for a structural explanation that distributes the multiplier to both terms. If that explanation remains missing, plan further teaching and another expression; preserve the original numerical checks as evidence of what was actually demonstrated.
Carry context into the next task
In the synthetic KS3 record, the first symbolic response is unfinished. Ms Shah, the fictional mathematics teacher, checks the curriculum log: the class met expansion last week. Attendance shows a missed lesson, while the teaching log identifies that lesson's content. The response note also says the pupil's usual visual model was unavailable. Neither attendance nor the missing adjustment explains the response by itself.
Ms Shah's question becomes: what evidence appears after the missed teaching is restored and usual support is available? She arranges that teaching, records the task and prompts, and reviews a further sample on 6 November 2026 with the mathematics lead. This is an invented review date, not a national deadline. The pupil can correct her account in class; a parent can contact her with relevant context; the SENCo can challenge the support record.
For all three cards, pupils can correct the account with Mrs Green, Mr Ali or Ms Shah; parents can contact that teacher, and the phase lead or SENCo can challenge the evidence. Record the response and whether the card remains provisional or has been reviewed. Apply that review contract to each card: the class or subject teacher owns the decision; agree a review point before collecting more evidence. Record who observed what, when, under which task version and conditions. Keep missing evidence visible. Retain the initial interpretation and add corrections with author, date and reason. Further evidence, an overlooked prompt or a pupil correction can change the judgement. For inherited records, start with the transition evidence check.
These classroom tasks cannot diagnose, infer ability or effort, assign a fixed label, automatically group pupils, trigger a referral, calculate risk or justify a high-stakes recommendation. Later improvement cannot prove that an adjustment, teacher or product caused it. Teaching exposure, practice, maturation, task differences, measurement error and missingness remain relevant. Cross-phase results cannot rank pupils. Small-cohort patterns can be unstable and identifiable; suppress or aggregate reporting and avoid precise percentages that imply generalisation.
Ordinary classroom adjustments and formal access arrangements for regulated assessments have separate purposes and rules. These cards confer no formal entitlement or statutory judgement. Keep records within authorised school access and retention arrangements.
Where enabled and authorised, Student Radar's EYFS Assessment lets staff record and review observations. Assessment Reports presents recorded assessments with coverage. These views don't make different tasks an equivalent measure or complete this planning record automatically. The teacher retains the interpretation. Bring one intention, one dated sample and one unresolved question to the next planning discussion.
Sources and further reading
- Development Matters, Department for Education; published 3 September 2020, updated 4 September 2023. Non-statutory guidance for England.
- National curriculum in England: mathematics programmes of study, Department for Education; published 11 September 2013, updated 28 September 2021. Year 2 number and addition, and KS3 algebra sections.
- Improving Mathematics in the Early Years and Key Stage 1, Education Endowment Foundation; first edition 24 January 2020. Existing knowledge and representations.
- Improving Mathematics in Key Stages 2 and 3, Education Endowment Foundation; first edition 3 November 2017, report design updated November 2022. Assessment and purposeful representations.
- Formative Assessment in Mathematics Part 1: Rich questioning, Dylan Wiliam, Equals: Mathematics and Special Educational Needs, spring 1999, 5(2), pages 15 to 18. Original author paper held by UCL Discovery. Sources checked 3 November 2026.