Professor Hayward's Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment - public consultation

successful learner - attainment and achievement information from all areas of the curriculum. This would include extra-curricular activities as well e.g. coaching certificates, Duke of Edinburgh Award etc. The information gathered should highlight key skills e.g. problem solving.
There is a wide range of information that could be gathered - summative assessment data, project work, oral presentations, digital content.

confident individual - participation in group activities, extra-curricular and curricular e.g. drama, Duke of Edinburgh Award, volunteering (in and out of school), recording of any leadership roles undertaken within school, local community, or nationally

effective contributor - ability to work independently, ability to teach others/ explain concepts to peers. Presentations/projects/contributions, where pupils are able to articulate their views appropriately and effectively e.g. local radio station or as part of an online forum. Initiating projects and seeing them through to a conclusion e.g Young enterprise type activities.

responsible citizen - volunteering (in and out of school), participation in environmental work (Learning for Sustainability), supporting peers e.g. in class,

As much information as possible should be gathered from these sources. This is important as some pupils thrive in these environments as compared to school and therefore their achievements should be given equal 'weighting' to those achieved in school. It would also mean that the fullest possible picture of that pupil can be given at their point of exit i.e. it is all in one place, which would be beneficial to employers, colleges, higher education etc.
if pupils could see that such achievements are being 'valued' in this way it might inspire them to participate more, contribute more, see the value in doing it and therefore not only do the benefit but so do their local communities (and possibly beyond).

One thing to acknowledge is that devising any kind of graded system of skills that can be moderated across the country in order to try and have consistency is potentially not only extremely complex but also potentially flawed and 'missing the point' (measuring something that is very difficult to measure, or should not be measured).
In terms of whatever our National Qualifications look like in the future, the key skills and competences inherent within them could be identified and therefore a pupils gaining that qualifications would have this acknowledged as part of the qualification.
Outside of the 'formal' qualifications pupils could have their skill and competencies acknowledged through their additional activities and contributions e.g. a pupil who volunteers as a coach could be accredited for skills/ competences such as communication, working as part of a team and resilience (without entering a minefield of it being "bronze level" resilience!

Fundamentally I think the system should be as flexible as possible and external assessment episodes restricted. We absolutely need to move away from a high-stakes external assessment system. There is a strong argument for only sitting such assessments at the point of exit and only if it is appropriate for that individual.
Some form of 'computer games' style assessment structure would be a huge step forward - where pupils gather their 'gems' as they move through their schooling and at the point of exit, those 'gems' are pulled together into their leaving certificate, which would detail their achievements, the level of them, the skills they have demonstrated etc. The gems would be broad mixture of open-ended research tasks, work produced within school (under timed or untimed conditions), contributions to wider school life etc, etc.
They would allow a pupil, say in S2, producing what would currently be regarded as a level 5 piece of writing, to have that banked/ acknowledged (without it becoming an explicit aim of their S2) and it would therefore go on to form part of their final leaving certificate.

It would be a very good idea to introduce ana ward at the end of the BGE and long as we do not become obsessed with trying to moderate and regulate their achievements nationally.
It would have to be driven by professional judgement of staff and not create another opportunity for 'competition' between schools and/ or parents and carers - "our BGE certificates are better than yours" or heaven forbid a league table comparing schools.
It would be great to have it start in primary school and therefore become a natural pert of a pupil's transition.

I have covered this in previous responses.
It would be potentially very worthwhile as long as we do not start trying to measure or grade things that shouldn't be measured or graded.

We should absolutely embrace the use of digital technologies in this context.
Universities are already using open-book, online assessments extensively and this should form a part of what we do.
The possibility of using things like simulations to assess a pupil's ability to apply their knowledge and skills would be brilliant as compared to the regurgitation of knowledge in a 3 hour exam.
Such technologies and models would offer greater flexibility in terms of when pupils take their assessments too.

In terms of barriers such as disabilities, the much wider adoption of digital technologies and the broadening of the types of evidence that would be accepted, would go a long way to addressing such issues.

In terms of the poverty related attainment gap, the key thing is to eliminate poverty! Schools can't do this but in all seriousness it is the nettle we need to grasp if we genuinely want to address it. Coming up with new assessment systems and policies will help but will not solve it.
Having said this, a move away from the current model to a more flexible model, incorporating a range of assessment tools and approaches will help to close the gap.