Steps taken to increase the dependability of teachers’ summative assessment for external purposes will inevitably improve their assessment for internal purposes. However, to avoid a negative impact on the formative use of assessment it is important that internal summative assessment is not carried out more often than is really required for reporting progress and achievement. Assessing pupils frequently in terms of levels or grades means that the feedback that they receive is predominantly judgmental, encouraging them to compare themselves with others. In such circumstances there is little attention by teachers or pupils to the formative use of assessment.