GL Assessment has been delivering well-established solutions to schools across the UK and abroad for over 30 years, and our portfolio comprises assessments such as the Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT4) - UK's most widely used test of reasoning abilities. Other popular assessments include Progress Test Series and the third edition of the best selling Group Reading Test, New Group Reading Test.

Primary Schools

Exciting new editions to our portfolio are the Diagnostic Test of Word Reading Processes - the only standardised test in the UK that assesses regular words, exception words and non-words, thus providing diagnostic information to guide intervention, and the Sandwell Early Numeracy Test – Revised (SENT-R) - a standardised assessment that provides a baseline of a pupil’s number skills, which can be particularly useful in helping identify targets for pupils with additional educational needs.

Secondary Schools

Teachers and other educational professionals in secondary schools have been using resources and services from GL Assessment for over 30 years. Today, we lead literacy, numeracy and ability testing in UK schools and have delivered over 4 million online tests to date.

York Assessment of Reading for Comprehension (YARC): Passage Reading Secondary is especially well suited to this purpose, whilst also providing evidence in applications for GCE/GCSE Access Arrangements.

Our portfolio has broadened over the years to encompass other areas, including pupil attitudes, pupil mental health and wellbeing, and special educational needs. Our Pupil Attitudes to Self and School (PASS), an all age attitudinal survey has proven increasingly popular particularly as tackling behaviour is one of the top priorities in schools today.

SENCOs and Special Schools

For many years, SENCOs and teachers in special schools have relied on our assessments to help identify and adequately meet the needs of pupils who may have a specific learning difficulty. Using the correct tools and having the right processes in place to build appropriate intervention and support programmes is essential to meeting the needs of pupils with learning disabilities.

Our popular, fully standardised Dyslexia Screener and Dyscalculia Screener are important first stage assets to any SENCO or learning support teacher who has concerns about a pupil. An ideal follow-up to the Dyslexia Screener is the Dyslexia Portfolio, an in-depth, individual assessment that provides a comprehensive overview of a pupil’s difficulties to inform intervention.

Local Authorities

Our flexible and customisable resources and services are ideal for implementation at local authority level, enabling authorities to gather and analyse authority-wide data and to benefit from our group rates.
Shaped by the changing needs of local authorities and schools, our high-quality portfolio fulfils a wide variety of local authority needs.  

• Our Kirkland Rowell Surveys not only provide individual schools with a cost-effective and easy-to-manage way of monitoring the changing perceptions of parents, pupils and staff, they also give groups of schools the opportunity to combine reports. This enables schools within a local authority to clearly pinpoint strengths and weaknesses and share best practice accordingly.

Professional Education Associations

We works with numerous distinguished educational organisations to ensure we continue to make the necessary changes and enhancements to our portfolio, in order to keep it relevant and valid. Maintaining close links with such organisations also helps us to create resources that incorporate the very latest thinking and research.

Our partners include:

• The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL)
• The National Association of Headteachers (NAHT)
• The National College
• Bath Spa University
• The Schools Network
• SCHOOLS NorthEast.

Our Kirkland Rowell Surveys are recommended by ASCL and NAHT. Members discounts are available, please contact us for more information.

Xavier Project

We are proud to be supporters of Xavier Project, an educational charity that works with schools in Africa to increase access to education and learning for refugee children.

Founded in 2006, the Xavier Project works mainly in Kenya and Uganda and has so far provided scholarships and support to over 1,000 pupils, worked to increase the capacity of schools and teachers to understand refugee issues and, through its Tamuka project, has set up multiple hubs to provide increased access to vocational training through ICT.

GL Assessment supports the Xavier Project as a sponsor and provides the Xavier Project with an assessment platform to help find candidates for scholarships. We are also sponsors of the 2016 London Xavier Ball.

More information on Xavier Project can be found on their website.

School Governors

In schools today, the role of the school governing body is one of great responsibility and importance. It is therefore essential that school governors have at their disposal the right tools, information and data to help them in their decision-making – as well as the necessary training to ensure their skills and knowledge are kept up-to-date and relevant in a continually changing educational landscape.


Up-to-date and high quality data is also key for effective decision-making. In this instance, our Kirkland Rowell Surveys provide schools with a cost-effective and easy-to-manage way of monitoring the changing perceptions of parents, pupils and staff, helping SLTs and governing bodies pinpoint where improvements are most needed.

Speech and Language Therapists

Educational and Clinical Psychologists