CENTURY Baseline Assessments

CENTURY Baseline Assessments give you a clear, data-driven picture of every student's starting point at the beginning of the year, or whenever a new class or cohort arrives. They're available now with your existing CENTURY subscription via your usual logins, and are already in your account, ready to assign.

Table of Contents

• What are CENTURY Baseline Assessments?
• Primary Baseline Assessments
• Secondary Baseline Assessments
• Why set Baseline Assessments?
• Understanding your reports
• Getting started

What are CENTURY Baseline Assessments?

CENTURY's Baseline Assessments are a digital alternative to the paper-based baselines many schools already run at the start of a year. They're sat in a single, formal sitting like any other baseline, but everything downstream of the test itself works differently: questions are delivered and auto-marked in CENTURY, so there's no marking to do and no waiting for results.

Every result also comes with a report that goes beyond a raw score. Alongside a topic-by-topic breakdown of strengths and gaps, students get personalised next steps linked directly to CENTURY content, so the data feeds straight into what happens next in the classroom rather than sitting in a spreadsheet.

For Year 5 and 6, this now includes standardised scores benchmarked against a national sample, with more year groups being added as we complete standardisation.

How are Baseline Assessments different from a diagnostic?

Diagnostics target specific topics, run informally alongside day-to-day teaching, and feed a student's ongoing Recommended Pathway, whereas Baseline Assessments are the wider, whole-subject snapshot taken at the start of a year or transition point.

Primary Baseline Assessments

Baseline Assessments are available for Years 3 to 6:

Each assessment aligns to the English National Curriculum. Most students complete a baseline in around 30 minutes, but we'd recommend leaving up to 45 minutes.

Secondary Baseline Assessments

Baseline Assessments are available for Years 7 to 10:

The Year 7 Baseline Assessments are designed for a smooth start into KS3. The Maths Baseline focuses on the foundational Number, Geometry, Measures, and Statistics knowledge students need for a confident start to Year 7. The Science Baseline draws on the KS2 content most relevant to the KS3 curriculum.

The Year 8 and 9 assessments check that this KS3 knowledge is bedding in year-on-year, so gaps are caught early rather than compounding.

The Year 10 assessment is a GCSE Readiness test. Rather than looking ahead to GCSE content, it looks back, quickly checking an overview of how much of the KS3 maths curriculum has actually stuck by the time students start their GCSE course.

All secondary assessments include a broad range of question difficulties, so they're accessible for lower-attaining students while still challenging the most able, and each is timed within a single 50-minute lesson.

Why set Baseline Assessments?

• Know where every student stands, from day one. Rather than relying on a data handover from a previous school or year group, get an instant, reliable read on each student's strengths and gaps.
• Inform planning straight away. Use the results to shape your scheme of work and target early interventions while there's still time to act.
• No marking required. Assessments are auto-marked, so results are ready as soon as students finish.
• Personalised next steps for students. Every student gets recommendations linked directly to CENTURY nuggets, so gaps start closing as soon as term begins.
• Set up in 2 minutes. Baseline Assessments are already in your account and ready to assign to your classes today.
• Keep guardians in the loop. Every student gets a report with recommended nuggets that can be shared with parents and guardians, giving them insights into their child’s performance at school from the start of term.

Understanding your reports

CENTURY automatically generates a report, both for each individual student and for the cohort as a whole. At a glance, you can see how students performed by topic, where the strengths and gaps are, and which CENTURY resources to assign next, all without any marking on your part.

For Year 5 and Year 6 assessments, reports also include standardised scores, so you can see how a student or cohort compares to a national sample, not just to the rest of your class.

We have a dedicated help page covering how to read and interpret your reports in more detail, including what each section means and how to use it to inform planning.

Getting started

For step-by-step instructions on setting up assessments, see this help page for more information.