Statutory Moderation Guidance

Key Stage 2 moderation plan - 2025/26

Moderation manager: Nikki Tilson - Senior Advisor (Assessment) Contact: 07908 – 256018 nikki.tilson@southwark.gov.uk
Strategic Accountability: Assistant Director, School Partnership, Standards and Sustainability
This moderation plan sets out how we meet the statutory requirements in relation to moderation of KS2 teacher assessment. It is evaluated through consultation with moderators, advisers and consultants after the moderation window and through feedback from senior leaders and teachers on the moderation visit forms.

Action points from STA feedback:  No action points to address

Communication with stakeholders

• Details about moderation cycle, visits, mid-year meetings, support, data collection are communicated through termly assessment briefing powerpoints.
• Information is also published on the Learning and Achievement Team website, including the moderation plan, which is accessed by a wide range of stakeholders including teachers and senior leaders.
• All Y6 teachers are required to attend an LA run moderation session in the Spring term.
• Schools receiving a moderation visit are provided with additional written information about the moderation process and are offered an information sharing briefing in May.
• Moderation arrangements and aspects of the moderation plan are communicated through the local area agreement and are also included at assessment training events for teachers.
• The data collection team attend briefings for school administration officers to communicate key data submission messages as well as communicating through regular emails.

Moderators

Recruitment

• There is a team of 10 lead and pool moderators in the Y6 moderation team who are all qualified teachers with recent and relevant experience in KS2.
• Lead moderators are consultants who have passed the STA standardisation exercise who then train the team of pool moderators. 

• Pool moderators (school teachers/leaders) must also pass the STA standardisation exercise and then attend further moderation training in the summer term.  
• We have a paired moderation model and the Local Area Agreement details our rationale for maintaining this.

• Teachers who wish to join the moderation teams are invited to write an expression of interest and submit a video of leading a moderation session to become a moderator based on the TAG criteria following a senior advisor recommendation (e.g. from a lesson observation or from a previous moderation visit). 

Training and induction

• Moderators attend a half day training session in both January and April, and are also asked to participate in LA central moderation events for schools in the Spring term.
• The training in January is centred around STA standardisation training and task. In April, training includes discussion of the moderation visit process, as well as moderation of children’s work using the teacher assessment frameworks and STA exemplification materials.

• New moderators are paired with experienced moderators who will act as their mentor.

Quality Assurance

• New moderators are quality assured through discussions with consultant mentors and the moderation pairs quality assure each other on visits.
• The LA moderation manager also scrutinises written feedback from schools to quality assure the process and may drop in on moderation visits as well.

Planning and Preparation for the moderation cycle

Training and Mid-Year Moderation Meetings

• We offer statutory assessment training in the Autumn term for year 6 teachers.  
• We also run LA moderation agreement meetings during the Spring term that all teachers should attend. The focus of these meetings is to identify gaps in evidence towards meeting “pupils can” statements.
• Maintained schools are encouraged and facilitated to moderate in clusters with other schools throughout the year for year groups 2, 4 and 6. Academies are encouraged to moderate in their Trusts. 

Selection of schools for external moderation visits

• Schools are selected for an external moderation visit based on the recommended triggers outlined in the Teacher Assessment Guidance (TAG).
• At least 25% of Southwark schools (with a balance of maintained and academies) are externally moderated every year based on a four year cycle, excluding 2020 and 2021, and risk assessment triggers such as new HT/SLT/teaching staff or non-attendance at LA mid-year moderation meetings, concerns from LA, OFSTED or STA.
• Data anomalies are generally addressed in the year in which results are submitted through quality assurance processes but are a trigger for a visit if not.
• A comprehensive spreadsheet records the years that moderation and monitoring visits have been carried out for all Southwark schools.  This is coded to record reasons for visits.
• ECTs are supported at Spring term LA moderation agreement meetings.

Informing schools of external moderation visits

• Emailed letters and packs will be sent to schools notifying them of an external moderation visit on or just after Friday 15^th May 2025.
• Letters contain full details of the moderation visit, including the number and role of each moderator.
• Letters are followed up with a phone call from the lead moderator to answer any questions the school might have.
• Teachers are also invited to a familiarisation meeting in May in which teachers are briefed about the process of moderation and can ask any questions they might have. 
• The KS2 external moderation visit window will run from Monday 8^th June to Friday 19^th June and visits will take place within the school day.

External moderation visits

• We ask a senior leader to be present for professional discussion and welcome other members of staff if schools wish to release them if they can contribute to the moderation discussion (e.g. subject leaders, teaching assistants).
• Moderators do not visit schools where there may be a potential conflict of interest.

Selecting the sample to be moderated

• Schools must provide details of all pupils in each class, categorised by the standard awarded. 
• In KS2, the moderators select at least 15% of pupils above the pre-key stage standard in a cohort or a minimum of 5 pupils in the case of a single class across the attainment range for writing from class assessments at the start of the moderation visit.
• Moderators can and do ask to see more samples of work and different pupils if they consider it appropriate to gain a more comprehensive view of a school’s accuracy. This is recorded with due regard to teacher assessment guidance.

Validating teacher assessment judgements

• The focus of the visit is to validate the judgements against the “pupil can” statements in the TAF through evidence based professional discussion with teachers.
• Moderators and teachers discuss the evidence for each of the selected children. This usually takes about an hour to an hour-and-a-half per teacher.
• They use the “pupil can” statements from the teacher assessment framework and refer to STA exemplification if relevant to validate each moderation judgement.
• Although teachers are not required to provide additional information on statements from any preceding standards, the moderators must be assured that they have also been met.
• Moderators reserve the right to request further evidence or expand the sample of children if needed.
• Outcomes of each discussion are recorded on the visit summary form.

Suitable evidence

• Reliable and demonstrable evidence must be independent work from day-to-day teaching. 
• The nature of support a pupil has received should be clearly identified (e.g. use of classroom resources, frameworks, sentence starters, success criteria etc.).
• Evidence is considered to be independent if it arises from pupils’ own ideas and choices or it is redrafted by the child in response to self, peer or group evaluation. 
• Work is NOT be considered to be independent if it is modelled, heavily scaffolded, copied or paraphrased, or supported by over detailed success criteria or where the teacher has directed the pupil to change specific words or punctuation.
• Teachers are encouraged to talk from a broad range of evidence which may include samples from other curriculum areas.

Signing off

• The moderation visit summary form records participation in training, internal and external moderation, and records pre-validated TA data, the agreed validated judgements with reasons for any revisions, any moderation decisions the school intends to appeal and any concerns that require further action.
• Changes expected for pupils outside the moderation sample are also recorded.
• If moderators and teachers agree that a child may be able to consistently demonstrate meeting the criteria in next standard before data submission, additional evidence can be scrutinised by a re-moderation panel on 23^rd June. Schools should be aware that re-moderation does not automatically mean that the standard is met, even with further evidence.
• If a school’s judgements were accepted in full, they can internally re-moderate additional evidence and inform the LA of changes to the moderated data. 
• If awarded judgements cannot be validated due to insufficient evidence or inaccurate judgement, the moderator will record this and the reason for it on the visit summary form.
• If judgements cannot be validated on the arranged day of the visit, a further visit may have to be arranged.
• If a school’s judgements cannot be validated due to a systemic lack of evidence, the school will be referred to STA.
• The HT or SLT representative of the HT and moderator agree and sign off the moderation summary.
• Headteachers are reminded about the appeals policy should they want to use it.

Appeals

• There is an appeals policy which is updated annually and is sent to all schools receiving a moderation visit. It is also on the Learning and Achievement Team website.
• It is referred to on moderation visits before HT/SLT sign off. Schools wishing to appeal a validated moderation decision will be asked to record details on the moderation visit summary form and copy the moderated evidence for this at the time of the visit.
• The appeals panel for KS2 are on Tuesday 23^rd June 2026.

Data submission and quality assurance

Moderator Recruitment 2024 ^{(docx, 17kb)}

Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage Two moderation

On this page you will find our Local Area Agreement and the moderation plan for KS2

KS2 Moderation Plan 2024 ^{(pdf, 167kb)}

Local Area Agreement 2023-24 ^{(pdf, 130kb)}

The moderation teams are led by Nikki Tilson, Senior Adviser (Assessment) in partnership with expert consultants Di (Count-on-me Consultancy) and Lynn and Anthony (The Literacy Tree), a team of Senior Advisors and our teacher moderators.

KS2 moderators have received training via STA training materials and have successfully completed standardisation tests. Moderation training materials can be found via the Primary Assessment Gateway 

KS2 Teacher Assessment / Download Moderation Materials

Moderators are recruited for all key stages following a recommendation from a senior advisor and subject consultant. They are invited to write an expression of interest using STA moderator requirements and are required to pass a standardisation test in order to be part of the  KS2 moderation team. We particularly value the input that teacher moderators make to our moderation teams

Data submission dates

Feedback from schools is always overwhlemingly positive.

Here are just a few of your feedback comments from moderation visits: 

“Very fair process, felt that I really gained a lot from the experience...I have a better understanding of how we can help year 6 children."

“It was particularly helpful to discuss the borderline children which gave us confidence with our judgements across the class."

“We found the moderating process extremely supportive, thank you very much!”

“The whole process felt supportive. It was helpful to have the professional dialogue around target children which incorporated the child's whole learning experience.”

“Really helpful to have a year 2 teacher on the moderating team.”