Reflections from the Rethinking School Policy Seminar with AQA – June 2025
A unique gathering of school leaders, policy influencers, researchers, and system stakeholders came together for a policy seminar hosted by AQA, Big Education and Rethinking Assessment.
Although a seemingly unlikely collaboration of organisation, what emerged was a mutual understanding on the need to push the assessment conversation forward, from parties who might differ on the ‘how’, but are united in the desire to shape the assessment system to support young people in a rapidly changing educational environment.
The event marked the culmination of three years of the Rethinking School programme – a bold and collaborative journey that has brought together over 30 schools from across the independent and state sectors to rethink what is possible in curriculum, assessment, leadership, and pedagogy. Framed by the national conversation around the Curriculum and Assessment Review, the seminar explored the learning from this innovation programme and considered its implications for policy and practice, now and into the future.
Innovation in Context: Disciplined, Collaborative and Pragmatic
Kicking off the morning, which was hosted by the King Alfred School, Sarah Seleznyov, Big Education, shared the principles underpinning the Rethinking School project. This was not innovation for innovation’s sake. Instead, it was a systematic, pragmatic and collaborative approach to change, what the team called “disciplined innovation.” Across four key areas, leadership, curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment, schools were supported to experiment thoughtfully, build on existing knowledge, and share what they were learning in real time.
Importantly, this work happened in the real world of stretched budgets, intense accountability, and complex local contexts. And yet, with the right conditions – trust, structure, and community – these schools showed that meaningful innovation is not only possible, it’s necessary.
Four Key Insights: From Practice to Policy
Throughout the seminar, a number of shared insights emerged from the collective experience of the schools:
- Innovation needs structure and community
Creativity flourishes when it's grounded in process and shared learning. The programme demonstrated the power of a supportive network where challenge and encouragement go hand in hand. - Tools and frameworks matter
From assessment rubrics to reflective journals and curriculum design, well-crafted tools helped turn ideas into actions and enabled consistent evaluation of impact. - A broader curriculum / broader assessment
As some schools deepened their curriculum offer to include real-world skills, creative inquiry, and dispositions like collaboration and curiosity, they look to partner exams with additional methods. One inspiring example from the RS programme: a curriculum-embedded mini-EPQ for pupils aged 9–11, assessing research, communication and creativity (the Primary Extended Project Award). - Collaboration across the network
The growing network of schools, spanning phase, sector and geography, reflects a wider mood from some schools across the sector. There are gaps in the hedges of the current system, and within those spaces, real change is taking root.
Shaping the Future: Discussion and Policy Implications
The seminar included a roundtable discussion on how these insights might translate into system-level change, with a particular focus on the role of assessment in a future-fit education system. Participants reflected on how to support equity, student wellbeing, and widening definitions of success.
Discussion explored the idea of rebalancing towards a mixed-methods approach to assessment – one that balances a reduced number of high-quality exams whilst incorporating more future focus methods such as Project Qualifications, digital tools, and technology-enhanced solutions to enable reliable, scalable assessment of broader skills and competencies. Digital assessment is on the near horizon, and offers the possibility of open discussions around the operational aspects of a huge national assessment (from tens of thousands of papers and infrastructure needed), which in turn can create space to think differently about the remodelling of the system.
"The Rethinking Schools Programme offers a valuable space for schools and system leaders to explore what’s possible when innovation is grounded in collaboration and real-world context. The learning from the programme is a thoughtful contribution to the wider conversation about the future of education and assessment, something we’re delighted at AQA to be able to support. Working together to tackle big questions around curriculum and assessment felt like a meaningful step forward in deciding what we should prioritise – and what we might scale back – to better serve our children and young people."
- Anna Trethewey, Executive Director of Corporate Affairs and Strategy, AQA
Next Steps: Collaboration Across the Sector
The work is far from done. But as Liz Robinson, CEO of Big Education, reflected in closing, the programme shows what is possible when schools are given space to lead, and when the system listens.
“The Big Education and Rethinking Assessment seminar reminded us that as a profession, when we collaborate with purpose we can build and create change across the sector. At the Chartered College of Teaching, we see professional learning as a shared responsibility and we are eager to see the developments in assessment to support all learners and educators.”
- Lily Wheeler, Events and Engagement Manager, Chartered College of Teaching
Rethinking School is not about a blueprint, but a growing evidence base and community of practice showing what thoughtful, learner-centred, future-facing education can look like. As the Curriculum and Assessment Review continues, this work offers both inspiration and a roadmap.
