Secondary Learning Coherence Pathway

Supporting schools to prepare for a changing assessment landscape

Today’s Year 9 learners will be among the first students to experience a new assessment system as they move into Year 11 in 2028.

Schools should now be working to ensure their teaching, assessment, and reporting practices are aligned to support these learners, not just in theory, but in practice as the system continues to evolve.

A structured 3-year pathway to assessment coherence 

Through the Secondary Learning Coherence Pathway, we work alongside secondary schools and kura, supporting them to strengthen coherence across Years 9–11 by:

• aligning assessment and reporting expectations

• improving clarity for students, staff, and community

• building confidence in tracking and reporting progress

• strengthening consistency across teaching, assessment, and learning.

We aim to support schools to build clear, connected systems that improve outcomes for learners over time.

What this looks like in practice

The Secondary Assessment Coherence Pathway is designed across three stages:

Year 1 – Establish and Prepare

Support your school to:

• understand what is changing and when

• evaluate how well current practice supports today’s Year 9 learners

• define a clear direction for teaching, assessment, and reporting

• identify strengths, gaps, and priorities using a structured alignment framework.

Year 2 – Implement and refine in real time

Support your school to:

• implement coherent approaches as the first cohort enters the new qualification expectations

• strengthen consistency across departments and teams

• evaluate what is working well and what requires adjustment.

• refine teaching, assessment, and reporting practices based on emerging evidence and student experience.

Year 3 – Consolidate and strengthen sustainability

Support your school to:

• strengthen systems and practices based on real implementation experience

• build sustainable leadership capability across your school

• refine long-term approaches to teaching, assessment, and reporting

• support continued coherence as the wider qualification landscape evolves.

Example pathway structure 

• This visual illustrates an example of how a three-year Secondary Learning Coherence pathway may be structured, including weighted support across each year.

• Support is intentionally stronger at the beginning of the pathway to help schools plan, prepare, and establish coherent systems with confidence. As capability, alignment, and systems strengthen over time, support gradually tapers to reflect growing internal ownership and sustainability.

• Pathways are structured as annual partnerships, providing schools and boards with clarity around support, planning, and investment across each year.

• Annual review points allow schools to reflect on progress, refine priorities, and adjust the pathway as needed over time.

• Pathways are scaled to reflect the size and complexity of your school, ensuring depth of impact across leadership, departments, and systems.

Strengthening alignment across your system 

A core part of the Secondary Learning Coherence Pathway is the use of a structured alignment framework designed specifically for secondary schools.

This supports schools to:

• evaluate current assessment, teaching, and reporting practices

• identify clear next steps for strengthening coherence

• track progress over time across departments and teams

• build shared understanding of what quality looks like in your context.

Working alongside your leadership team

Evaluation Associates works alongside your leadership team to ensure the pathway is practical, manageable, and responsive to your context.

We support you to:

• plan with clarity through a co-designed roadmap

• coordinate practices across departments and teams

• strengthen leadership capability in assessment and reporting

• build shared expectations of quality assessment practices

• use a structured alignment framework to guide planning, progress and evaluation.

This ensures the changes you invest in lead to meaningful, lasting improvement.

What changes for your school 

Through the pathway, schools can build:

• greater consistency of teaching expectations across subjects and year levels

• effective and sustainable assessment and reporting practices

• align between teaching and assessment practices that support learning progress

• shared understanding of policy and practice across leaders, teachers, students, and community

• internal capability to sustain the work overtime.

Practical supports

• Alignment with teacher-only days to reduce reliever costs

• Hybrid delivery to minimise travel costs

• Resources, strategies, and leadership support shared across your staff

• A structured three-year partnership providing clarity and direction over time

• Built in review points each year to reflect on progress and refine next steps

• Flexibility to adapt the pathway as your context and priorities evolve

• Schools retain flexibility to review and continue the pathway annually in line with their context and priorities

Who we work with

• Secondary schools and kura seeking to strengthen consistency across teaching, assessment, and reporting in Years 9–11

• Leadership teams (SLT, HODs, curriculum leaders) aligning expectations and practice across departments

• Schools building coherent, sustainable systems for assessment and reporting

Ready to explore what this could look like for your school?

Get in touch to discuss how the Secondary Learning Coherence Pathway could be designed for your context.