Teacher Assessment and Mderation 2026 to 2027

Thank you for all your hard work in supporting the administration and moderation of teacher assessment in the academic year 2025 to 2026. We recognise the challenges faced by local authorities and will continue to review these and work to minimise their occurrence in future test cycles. We would also like to thank you for your patience, understanding and continued support throughout the transition to the National Curriculum Assessments Portal (NCA Portal), which has been greatly appreciated.

Standardisation exercises for the academic year 2026 to 2027

For the academic years 2026 to 2027 and 2027 to 2028, standardisation for key stage 2 (KS2) English writing moderation will continue to use 3 exercises. The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) will produce standardisation exercise 1 for the academic year 2026 to 2027, as before. Following a pilot exercise in the academic year 2025 to 2026, standardisation exercises 2 and 3 will be developed by STA with support from large language models (LLMs).

As in previous years, all participating moderators will have the opportunity to provide feedback on each standardisation exercise. We are particularly interested in your views on the accuracy of the LLM-generated materials and your confidence in awarding standards.

As part of the quality-assurance process, we will invite moderation managers to review and provide feedback on these exercises before they are finalised. This will help ensure the materials are robust, consistent and reflective of the relevant standards. We will provide more information in a separate email during July.

Future dates

In preparation for the new academic year, please find below some important dates for 2026 to 2027. Please note that these are subject to change, and we will confirm the full arrangements and dates for the academic year 2026 to 2027 in the autumn, when we update the KS2 teacher assessment guidance and the teacher assessment moderation: standardisation and training process guidance.

2026:

Monday 28 September – statutory KS2 teacher assessment guidance and optional key stage 1 teacher assessment guidance for 2026 to 2027 published on GOV.UK
Monday 12 October – forms available on the NCA Portal to confirm monitoring and moderation agreements for academies and independent schools
Monday 2 November to Friday 13 November – KS2 standardisation exercise 1 available to complete on the NCA Portal
From Monday 16 November – KS2 standardisation exercise 1 commentaries available on the NCA Portal
Friday 4 December – deadline for independent schools to confirm their local authority for monitoring and moderation on the NCA Portal

2027:

Friday 8 January – deadline for academies to confirm their local authority for monitoring and moderation on the NCA Portal
Monday 11 January to Friday 22 January – KS2 standardisation exercise 2 available to complete on the NCA Portal
From Monday 25 January – KS2 standardisation exercise 2 commentaries available on the NCA Portal
Monday 8 February to Friday 26 February – KS2 standardisation exercise 3 available to complete on the NCA Portal
From Monday 1 March – KS2 standardisation exercise 3 commentaries available on the NCA Portal
Friday 14 May – local authorities begin informing schools if they will receive an external moderation visit for teacher assessment
Monday 17 May – teacher assessment data submission form available on the NCA Portal
June – local authorities undertake external moderation of KS2 English writing teacher assessment*

*We are still reviewing the moderation arrangements and timelines for the academic year 2026 to 2027. As part of this process, we are considering the impact of the Spring Bank Holiday on Monday 31 May 2027, which may result in a slightly shorter moderation period than in previous years. We recognise the importance of providing local authorities with sufficient time to plan and deliver moderation activities and will carefully consider operational requirements before finalising the moderation schedule. We will confirm further details, including final dates and any associated guidance, as early as possible in the new test cycle to support effective planning and preparation.

If you have any questions or concerns in the meantime, please email the STA teacher assessment team.