The primary objective of this test is to assess fundamental skills necessary for
success in KS4 mathematics.
Assessment style
Focus on Fundamental Skills: The intention is to support teachers in identifying whether students know core KS3 concepts that are needed before developing a topic in KS4.
Target Audience: The test is primarily designed for lower to middle-attaining classes (Foundation or borderline classes aiming for grades 4 and 5) rather than higher- tier groups. It is assumed that higher-pathway students are already KS4-ready. However, some teachers of higher-tier classes may still wish to check these fundamentals. Teachers should discuss using the fluency test with their head of department if they are unsure.
Right or Wrong: All questions are designed to be marked as right or wrong to determine if students possess the fundamental skills required for KS4. For this reason each question is awarded only one mark regardless of the amount of working needed.
Ease of Marking: A right or wrong approach ensures the questions are easy to mark, allowing for self or peer assessment, if desired, to ease teacher workload.
Fix- up: Every student will be eligible for personalised fix- up work for any question that was not answered correctly. To access this feature, teachers will need to enter marks into Sparx Assessments and then turn on fix-up.
Reporting: National distributions will not be available but depending on the number of students sitting the fluency check we may be able to provide some feedback on which skills are most secure nationally.
Question Selection
Fundamental number and algebra skills included are:
Subtraction with exchange
Operations with negative numbers
Rounding
Multiplying decimals
Fraction calculations
Fractions and percentages of amounts
Manipulating algebra
Simplifying expressions
Solving equations
Some questions are designed to draw out key skills developed further in KS4:
Q5: checks conversion from a percentage to a decimal to support compound interest calculations and percentage increase/decrease with a calculator.
Q23: checks solving equations of the form required when teaching trigonometry.
Q34: checks basic understanding of circles, critical for arc, sectors and cylinder questions.
KS3 Focus with Confidence Building:
The test is intended to be KS3-focused. The inclusion of some KS2-level questions is deliberate (Q1-10), aiming to build confidence for lower-attaining students.
Excluded Topics
Certain KS3 topics are intentionally excluded from this fluency test, either because they are considered to be more aligned with KS4 expectations (particularly for the target audience) or because they are not fundamental skills that are built on at KS4:
Trigonometry
Pythagoras Theorem
Simultaneous equations
Transformations
Here is the PDF for the year 10 fluency check also known as the year 10 baseline paper