This year saw the ‘SummerSchool’ and ‘Input CBBC’ projects quoted in a chapter written by Professor Stephen Heppell in Whither Assessment?, a QCA publication addressing how the educational community could improve the ways in which it assesses students. An extract coving the creative wins from SummerSchool:
Here is an extract:
LESSONS LEARNED:
This annual feast of creativity confirms several key lessons for assessment. Firstly, it is clear that the entirely new tasks set annually do not map easily, if indeed at all, onto any pretence of criterion referencing. There is not even an existing genre to pastiche; this is entirely new work, yet technology has allowed the summer school students into the domain of experts very early in their learning lives. It is also clear and valid judgements about quality to the extent of being clear about what is ‘good enough’. Beyond that , however, the key feedback from students reporting their processes (for example in the formal interview and ‘crit’ that is a part of their V&A show) is criical to injecting any granularity of judgement beyond that ‘good enough’ hurdle. The product in every case was engaging, but the reported processes offered a fresh perspective, often stunning, always moving our understandings forwards.
Describing the construction of the final pieces enabled the deconstruction and critiquing to be a much more subtle affair. Finally, the clear sense of impending audience served not only as a prime motivator, but was a useful adjunct to the learning process. (page 111)

Whither Assessment? (Chapter 9) ~ Assessment and new technology: new straitjackets or new opportunities? ~ Professor Stephen Heppell
ISBN 1858385016, Paperback 176 pages (January 31, 2003)
Publisher: Qualifications & Curriculum Authority