All teachers are responsible for assessing the children they teach, and the outcomes of any assessment are important for individual learners, schools and wider education systems.

Designed as a pragmatic guide for new teachers and those training to teach, this book is your one-stop-shop for understanding assessment in schools. It covers formative and summative approaches used across primary and secondary education, supporting a balanced overview with policy examples drawn from the UK, Ireland and wider international contexts.

This updated second edition reflects recent trends in assessment and includes:

• more balanced coverage across primary and secondary age phases with a broader range of examples across curriculum subject areas


• a new chapter on the potential of digital assessment for both formative and summative purposes


• the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on assessment in general, and examinations in particular

Damian Murchan is Associate Professor in the School of Education at Trinity College Dublin.

Gerry Shiel is a Research Fellow at the Educational Research Centre, Dublin, Ireland.