In a recent white paper, 'The Importance of Teaching', the Government sets out the agenda for educational reform in England. The document ignores a fundamental and powerful tool that is available but is still used by teachers and that is Assessment for Learning. Not only does the report fail to recognize this effective teaching tool, it also states that teachers no longer need to develop a written lesson plan (UK Department of Education 2010). This concern was also echoed by Lucey (Lucey 2011) in his article on the importance of AfL in schools and how the government has failed to recognize the potential it has on pupils' learning. However, the Government says it will allow the practitioner to decide how to assess learning based on the pupil's particular needs. The aim of this essay is to examine a Year 7 mathematical scheme of work to demonstrate that an active approach to AfL has benefits for both the teacher and the pupil they teach. This article will focus on AfL and not on summative assessment, which is an assessment given to pupils at the end of the module or at the end of year examination which has benefits for pupils but not for ongoing learning. In their article 'Inside the Black Box', Black and Wiliam (1998) sought to answer three questions relating to raising standards through the use of formative assessment and their conclusion was that the evidence provided in literature supported the premise that formative assessment raises standards. Readers of Black and William's article agree that there are benefits to better teaching practice and that the ideas in the article establish a sound assessment for learning strategies that strengthen learning for pupils or groups of pupils... half of the article... ...s White Paper, Norwich: TSO.Hattie, J. and Timperley, H. (2007) 'The Power of Feedback', Review of Educational Research, 77 (1), 81-112.Johnston-Wilder, S. (2011) Learning to teach mathematics in secondary schools: a companion to school experience, 3rd ed. ed., London: Routledge.Lucey, C. (2011) 'Why AfL is not a fad.', Times Educational Suppliment, TesPro,Ofsted (2007) The Annual Report of Her Majestys Chief Inspector 2006-07,' SoW', (2011) available: http://www.kangaroomaths.com/free_resources/ks3/ks3_sow_stage_3.doc [accessed 2 November 2011].Threlfall, J. (2005) 'The Formative Use of Assessment Information in Planning: The Notion of Contingent Planning', British Journal of Educational Studies, 53(1), 54-65. Wragg, E.C. and Brown, G. (2001) Questioning in the Secondary School, [New rev. ed.] ed., London: Routledge/Falmer.