As part of the Improving Science Education round, the EEF partnered with Wellcome to test projects that aimed to improve science attainment. Focus4TAPS was funded as part of that round.

Wider evidence demonstrates the importance of formative use of assessment, an area that teachers find difficult to implement. The Teacher Assessment in Primary Science (TAPS) team had developed and piloted the resources and approach over several years, putting into practice a ​‘formative to summative’ model of assessment originally proposed by the Nuffield Foundation. TAPS research and development was funded by the Primary Science Teaching Trust. That development included qualitative research that suggested teachers did effectively improve their assessments following TAPS training, and increased their use of practical activities in science.

This efficacy trial found that children in Focus4TAPS schools made, on average, the equivalent of two additional months’ progress in science compared to children in other schools. This result has a high security rating: 4 out of 5 on the EEF padlock scale. The evaluation also found a similar positive effect for children eligible for free school meals.

The process evaluation found that the programme ran as expected, with 80% of teachers attending the minimum number of training sessions and 63% of teachers conducting at least 4 ​‘Focused Assessment’ lessons using Focus4TAPS materials. Greater compliance with the programme (for example, attending more training sessions and conducting more lessons) was associated with higher science test scores The teachers in the intervention group reported, on average, higher confidence than those in the control group for many aspects of teaching and assessing science.

This project and its evaluation were affected by the 2020 and 2021 partial school closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The trial originally started in 2019/20 but had to stop due to partial school closures, and was restarted with a new cohort of pupils in 2020/2021.

As a result of these encouraging results, the EEF is exploring whether to conduct a larger trial of Focus4TAPS.

• There were 121 schools involved in the trial.
• The intervention was open to all Year 5 teachers and science subject leaders in the following regions: Birmingham, Coventry, North West London, Plymouth, Reading, Somerset, and Swindon.
• 54% of schools were Local Authority maintained schools.
• 75% of schools were in an urban location.
• 75% of schools had an Ofsted rating of ​‘Good’.
• Schools involved had, on average, 20% of pupils eligible for Free School Meals.

• Typically the programme involves three days of CPD, with in-school tasks in between, over the course of an academic year. Teachers meet in groups for the CPD days. For this trial, due to COVID-19, the training was delivered remotely in six sessions spread over the year.
• Teachers are provided with example plans and activities for use in their classrooms. They are expected to select five TAPS plans from the bank of over 40 to carry out as gap tasks during the year, using largely everyday materials which will be found in school.
• The approach is implemented within the normal class science lessons. Since the approach is designed to modify teaching practice within lessons, this should not result in significant changes in the amount of science taught, unless the school is currently teaching less than the recommended two hours per week.
• The open-access resources are available from the PSTT website: https://pstt.org.uk/resources/curriculum-materials/assessment