Ofqual announces next National reference test in 2019

Schools will be invited to take part in the NRT from this week.

Ofqual has today (10 September 2018) announced that the next annual National Reference Test will be held between 25 February and 8 March 2019.

Our supplier of the test, the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), is contacting about 350 schools that have been selected to take part in 2019, to make arrangements.

The first test was held in February and March 2017, and it was run again earlier this year. Each year a sample of GCSE students will take largely the same test so it will show, over time, if there is any change in how students perform at a national level. Results from the test will only be used to measure changes in performance nationally. There will be no results for individual students or schools.

Sally Collier, Ofqual’s Chief Regulator said:

Thank you again to all the schools and students who took part in the test earlier this year. We have completed the analysis of this year’s test and we are satisfied with the quality of the information that it has provided. To those schools which have been invited to take part in 2019, thank you in advance for your support.

The test questions will remain largely the same over time, so the overall performance of each cohort taking the test can be compared to others that have sat the test previously. We continue to prepare with exam boards for the potential use of information from the test, which will, at the earliest, be during GCSE awarding in 2019.

For more information about the test, please visit the National Reference Test document collection.

For more information about the National Foundation for Educational Research please visit the NFER website.