Staff in our English department were already familiar with Smart Skills Builder Reading and Writing (Years 7-9) which we frequently used and were extremely impressed with. Due to this resource’s seamless incorporation into lessons, we felt confident that Progress in AFs would do the same.

Immediately you can see that teachers have contributed significantly to the content of Progress in AFs; you can easily ascertain how the objectives tie into the national curriculum and also into the APP sheets. The resource is intuitive and assists teachers in delivering what could be deemed a complex and challenging form of assessment. The style of Progress in AFs is in a language that teachers can easily comprehend.

The students love Progress in AFs and find it truly appealing. With all texts provided in a colourful student-friendly magazine-style format, I needn’t make additional copies of texts, making this a cost-effective solution. The attractive aesthetics of the Student’s Book are able to engage and motivate learners. Another plus point is that the activities are confined to just the Teacher’s Book, allowing flexibility of delivery. Content is always topical, age-appropriate and varied, and includes appealing texts from contemporary writers, as well as multicultural texts which learners can really relate to and engage in.

Progress in AFs is perfect for target setting and the student friendly grids are particularly effective in allowing identification of what needs to be done to progress. A clear and concise insight into how they can improve is invaluable and means that students take hold of their learning experience which improves their motivation. I’ve so far seen the resources support students in achieving their full potential across all AFs, and am pleased with how they can flexibly be used to address individual needs.

Progress in AFs is a cost-effective and good-quality resource which supports teachers well in the implementation of this new form of assessment and facilitates the teacher in ensuring this can be delivered positively. I would certainly recommend this resource to other teachers; particularly those who are looking for a structured approach to APP. In terms of my future plans for the resource, I will continue to use it on a regular basis across Key Stage 3, hoping to help students make two levels of progress.

Five years have passed since the publication of the excellent Smart Skills Builder series and in the five years the government has moved on with yet more assessment initiatives. Assessment Focuses are now the required thing and they are designed to 'formalise student assessment into level judgements'. Go to www.dcsf.gov.uk if you really want to know more. Smart Learning has moved on to address these with this comprehensive series.

Unlike the previous series all the texts are gathered into one Student's Book. This is a good idea in that the year groups are not identified so a teacher would be free to use material from anywhere in the book. Some of the material (about a third as far as I can tell) is repeated from the Student's Books of the earlier series. This is not necessarily a bad thing but a purchaser should be aware of this. The rest of the material has been updated to take account of new people and events that have happened in the second half of the decade. Part of President Obama's inaugural speech is an example of this.

So the large Student's Book is the base text. Then there is a Teacher's Book for each Assessment Focus except AF1 (which is simply decoding text). I like the Teacher's Books for several reasons. Firstly, there is a Student self-assessment page in each book which is easy to understand and moves from Level 3 to Level 7 with clear indications of what is needed to achieve each stage. Then there are some lesson plans to use in conjunction with the Student's Book. These are followed by a progress check and excellent model answers which say why certain responses would be Level 3 rather than Level 4 or Level 6 rather than Level 7 etc. I have used these for the lower levels and found them very helpful.

There are editable lesson plans in the more expensive Editable Teacher's Books if you want them (with worksheets, Progress checks and model answers as PDFs).

If I have a reservation, it is that in aiming to put so much material in the Student's Book, some of the extracts aimed at the Level 3 students are overlong and have very small fonts. However, the range of texts is excellent and they're designed to appeal to even the most reluctant teenagers. The series will hold appeal for both experienced and novice teachers. If a school is found to have a weakness in a specific area then this series will help staff be very focused in addressing it. If you're hard pressed for cash, or just looking for new material just buy the Student's Books.

Review published by NATE in Spring 2010.