Buyer's guide · reviewed 2 August 2026
Choosing special-school assessment and evidence software
The difficult part is rarely finding a product that can record an assessment point or attach a photograph. The difficult part is deciding which school workflow the software should hold together—and what staff will still need to duplicate elsewhere.
Start with the job, not the feature list
Assessment content
Do you need a supplier's established frameworks, your own curriculum, statutory models, or a mixture? Check licensing as well as technical support.
Evidence in context
Test how a staff member captures a real learning event, links it to relevant planning and later finds it for moderation or review.
Whole-pupil planning
Decide whether EHCP outcomes, goals, targets, profiles and forms belong in this system or in separate tools—and what duplication that creates.
People and governance
Map drafts, approvals, moderation, family access, external professionals, retention and export before being persuaded by a polished capture app.
Products schools often consider
These products overlap, but their histories and centre of gravity differ. The summaries below are orientation, not rankings.
B Squared Connecting Steps and Evisense
An established combination of SEND assessment frameworks, progress reporting, evidence capture and parent communication.
Read more →Evidence for Learning
A rich evidence, assessment and collaboration platform built around the whole team and an inquiry-led picture of learning.
Read more →Earwig Academic
A broad special-school package covering evidence, assessment, tracking, reporting, analytics and parent engagement.
Read more →Voyage for Schools
An evolving staff-facing platform joining pupil profiles, EHCP-linked planning, learning records, assessment, forms and staff workflow.
Read more →A sensible evaluation process
- 1
Observe the current work. Follow one recent pupil story from plan to classroom record to assessment and review. Count every hand-off and repeated entry.
- 2
Write realistic scenarios. Ask every supplier to demonstrate the same five tasks with the roles and safeguards your school actually uses.
- 3
Include the people doing the work. Leaders need oversight, but teaching assistants, teachers, therapists and administrators expose different friction.
- 4
Inspect data and exit routes. Ask about UK GDPR roles, hosting locations, security, backups, retention, media handling and a usable full export.
- 5
Pilot narrowly. Define what better looks like, establish a baseline and test whether the software reduces workload without weakening professional judgement.