Effective approaches to assessment in the classroom have long been debated at national, regional and local levels. The Department for Education has embarked upon numerous curricular reforms that will have an impact upon the assessment arrangements for our current and future learners. However, many of these educational transformations impacting upon assessment appear to be focused on the ways in which our learners will be tested at the end of their learning journey. This type of assessment is often described as summative and is assumed to be an assessment of the learning that has taken place over a period of time, such as a key stage, an academic year or even school term. In this article, the authors look at evidence from educational research, which suggests that, if the changes are motivated by raising standards, then they should be carefully considering how to ensure the focus does not reside totally with summative (or concluding) assessments and appropriately emphasises formative strategies.