BESA CORNER


This month in our ongoing feature highlighting the work of the UK education suppliers’ trade body BESA, we hear from Deesha and White Rose Education.


Beyond the spreadsheet: smarter ways to harness assessment data Any teacher who’s ever juggled GL, CEM, and classroom data knows the


frustration: vital insights buried in disconnected spreadsheets, while the clock ticks on lesson planning. For schools navigating multiple curricula— whether IB, GCSE, or international frameworks—this challenge multiplies. But what if analysing assessment data could actually save time instead of consuming it?


When data tells the full story


Picture this: A Year 4 teacher spots a telling gap between her class’s strong PUMA reasoning scores and their struggle with applied problems. With this insight, she pivots to targeted small-group work on real- world applications. Eight weeks later, both test scores and classroom performance have improved.


This isn’t magic – it’s what happens when we move from collecting data to connecting it. Schools using integrated analysis systems report teachers gaining back 3-5 hours per week previously spent cross- referencing spreadsheets. That’s time better spent on what matters: teaching.


Three time-saving shifts: 1. The curriculum compass. See which test metrics truly predict classroom success across IB, GCSE or other frameworks. Identify where different curricula expectations align or diverge. Real example: A primary school mapped PIRA reading ages to their international curriculum benchmarks, revealing where their reading scheme needed adjustment. 2. Precision support. Distinguish content gaps from assessment mismatches in seconds. Discover hidden strengths traditional tests might overlook.Try this: Compare your ‘lower ability’ students’ spatial reasoning scores with their written work; you might find untapped potential. 3. Progress that informs practice. Track growth across GL, CEM and classroom assessments in unified dashboards. Get early warnings for students at risk of slipping through curricular gaps


Making It work – without the headache


This is where solutions like Deesha come in – not as another platform to learn, but as a way to: • Flag inconsistencies between test performance and classroom work


Book your demo here: https://www.deesha.ai/demo


• Visualise assessment trends alongside attendance and wellbeing markers


• Help you prepare for your Ofstead inspections • Help you flag inconsistencies in your data input practices • Create personalised ‘cheat sheets’ showing each student’s unique assessment profile


The key difference? Teachers at partner schools report spending 60% less time on data collation while:


• Identifying intervention needs three weeks faster on average • Reducing unnecessary assessments by focusing on quality insights • Having more confident conversations with parents about student progress


First steps


You don’t need a data science degree to start working smarter: • Pick one assessment combo. Start simple: compare your last PUMA/ PIRA results with classroom books.


• Look for the story behind the numbers. Are there students whose test performance doesn’t match their classwork? Why might that be?


• Try one small adjustment. Even changing your questioning technique based on these insights can yield results.


The team behind Deesha built this platform after years watching great teachers drown in data. Our solution cuts through the noise by integrating seamlessly with existing assessment systems; presenting insights in teacher-friendly formats; saving the average teacher eight hours per data cycle.


Because when assessment analysis actually serves teaching rather than distracting from it, everyone wins – especially your students. Ready to see the difference? Try this tomorrow: Pick three students and compare their latest test scores with your classroom observations. That’s where the real insights begin.


Infinite questions, endless possibilities


Maths teachers need a large number of fluency questions to boost confidence and understanding in their classes. White Rose Infinity provides exactly that, as St James’ Primary School in Leeds found out.


The school is part of the Sphere Federation formed nearly 10 years ago, currently providing education to local children aged 3+ in Nursery, to age 11 in Year 6. Already subscribed to our White Rose Maths primary resources, St James’ were looking for a quick and easy way for teachers to provide additional questions linked to our small steps. They didn’t want this to be a manual process that added to teachers’ workloads. Having previously tried AI-based products, they found the examples provided weren’t accurate and didn’t include representations that aligned with the White Rose schemes of learning.


The school turned to White Rose Infinity and have been using the product for the last three months. They used Infinity in a range of different ways across the school, including as a front of class resource, for teaching assistants to use for interventions, and for independent work for pupils to check their understanding.


Infinity is being used across all KS2 classes and will now be used in KS1 too, following the release of KS1 content.


Using Infinity has allowed teachers at St James’ to generate additional practise questions in little to no time, meaning teachers can easily adapt


20 www.education-today.co.uk their teaching in lessons when needed.


Teachers have also been able to provide really specific focus questions to TAs to use for interventions, in response to assessment of the learning on the same day, meaning that targeted support is provided quickly where needed.


It’s fair to say, in terms of overall impact, the school is delighted with Infinity. One of the teacher’s favourite features is that they can select the year group and specific small steps they need to easily add questions to a quiz.


Infinity has helped St James’ to reduce teacher workload, easily and quickly create extra fluency questions for their classes, and provide children with high-quality support, targeted to their needs. They rated Infinity 5/5 for design, quality, price, range of questions, value for money and ease of use by staff, whilst also sharing these kind words:


Rachael Poole, Year 4 Teacher at St James’ Primary School, said: “Overall, our school couldn’t be happier with White Rose Infinity, with it becoming a daily part of our teachers’ and pupils’ maths learning. We love how it’s aligned to the White Rose schemes and has been a great help in reducing teacher workload, whilst enabling the children to receive high-quality, targeted practise. Without a doubt, I would recommend White Rose Infinity to anyone!”


https://whiteroseeducation.com/ June 2025


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