Overview
Flexi Assessments allow you to create fully customised assessments aligned to the NSW K–10 Syllabus for Mathematics and English. You can select your own syllabus outcomes, content and year level or stage to design assessments that align with your scope and sequence, units of work or teaching priorities, rather than using Essential Assessment's pre-built assessments (NSW Common Grade and Focus Area Assessments).
This guide will walk you through creating a Flexi Assessment, managing it within your school's flexi assessment library, assigning it to a class, and understanding how reporting and non-reporting assessments behave.
Finding Flexi Assessments
Tap on your class, tap on Manage Class Assessments here select the Flexi tab, which sits beside K-10 and units of work.
If there are no Flexi Assessments in this view, you’ll see a placeholder screen.
Select Manage from Flexi Library to browse existing Flexis or create a new one.
The School Flexi Library
The School Flexi Library contains all Flexi Assessments created across your school.
You can quickly find existing assessments using the Year, Strand, Topic and Status filters, or by searching for an assessment name in the search field.
From the library, you can:
Select +Create New Flexi to build a new custom assessment.
Select Add to Class next to an existing Flexi Assessment to assign it to your class.
Creating a New Flexi Assessment
Step 1 – Assessment setup
Configure the key details for your Flexi Assessment.
Select the learning area of Mathematics or English
If selecting Mathematics, select either a single content strand or multiple content strands (Number & Algebra , Measurement & Space and Statistics & Probability).
Select up to 3 consecutive stages (for example, Stage 1, 2 and 3). Non-consecutive stages cannot be selected. (for example Stage 2 and Stage 4)
Choose whether the assessment results will be reported:
(NOTE: You can change this option later. Please check the section in this article: Managing a Flexi in the Library.)Reporting – results contribute to student, class and school reports and viewable as whole school data..
Non-Reporting – used for checking student understanding only and will not affect reports, averages or whole school data.
Enter an assessment name. The assessment name is visible to students, so use a clear, short and meaningful assessment name. Schools are encouraged to establish a consistent naming convention to make assessments easier for teachers to manage and locate within the school’s flexi library.
Step 2 – Add content
Filter syllabus content groups and content indicators using the options available such as Content Strand and Focus Area filters, then select the indicators you would like to include.
Selected content groups or indicators will appear in the panel on the right, grouped by year level. Review your selections and remove any indicators if required before saving.
Select Preview Questions at any point to see exactly what students will see, including images, audio support and the sketch pad.
Step 3 – Review & save
Review the assessment summary – strand, year level, question count and reporting status. You can go back and edit (if needed), preview the questions again, or select Save to Library and Exit.
Once saved, the new Flexi appears in the School Flexi Library alongside your other assessments, ready to add to a class.
Assessment Naming Convention
The assessment name you enter will be visible to students. Using a clear and descriptive name also makes it easier for teachers to locate and manage assessments within the school's Flexi Library.
Best practice
Use short, descriptive names that include:
Subject or learning area
Topic or unit
Year level or stage (if applicable)
Assessment type or term (where helpful)
Paper-based Flexi Assessments
You can print your flexi-assessment by navigating to Manage Class Assessments and loading the relevant assessment to your main view by clicking on the name of the assessment.
Then select Assessment Actions, followed by Enter Paper Results:
Then select Download PDF, Questions or Answers:
You can see our guide here on how you can upload your students paper-based assessment results back into Essential Assessment: Paper-based assessment on Essential Assessment.
Managing a Flexi in the Library
Flexi assessments can be edited using the three-dot Quick actions menu.
A Flexi assessment can be fully edited (including its strands, year levels, content, name, and reporting status) as long as no students in any class have started it.
Once a Flexi is active, it’s locked: Once a student in any class has begun a Flexi Assessment, it cannot be edited by teachers. However, from that point, the EA school administrator can make changes; the only allowed change is to override the reporting or non-reporting status and assessment name
Use the Status filter to see, at a glance, which Flexis are Not Yet added to class, Added to Class, or Assessment in Use. This is relevant only to your class. You won’t be able to see if assessments have been in use by other classes.
Adding a Flexi to the Class Dashboard
Select Add to Class from the library to add a Flexi to your class. A confirmation message appears at the bottom of the screen confirming the Flexi has been added.
The assessment then appears on the Manage Class Assessments, Flexi Assessments tab and is ready to be set for students.
Removing a Flexi from a Class
A Flexi Assessment can be removed from your class by selecting Remove from Class or choosing Remove from Class from the Quick Actions menu.
An assessment can only be removed if students have not yet started it and no student results have been recorded.
Important note: Once a student has begun the assessment, “Remove from Class” is no longer available. You will need to clear students data to remove the Flexi-assessment from your class.
Deleting a Flexi Assessment from the School Flexi Library
An assessment can be deleted from the school’s Flexi Library only if it has not been started by students. If student data has been recorded against the assessment, all student data must be cleared before the assessment can be permanently deleted.
To delete a Flexi Assessment:
Select Delete from Library from the Quick Actions menu
A confirmation message will appear, outlining:
The assessment being deleted.
That the assessment will no longer be accessible to staff or students through the school’s Flexi Library.
That this action cannot be undone.
Select No, Keep Assessment to cancel, or Yes, Delete Permanently to proceed.
Delete with care: Deleting a Flexi Assessment is permanent and removes it from the school’s Flexi Library for all staff and students. Before deleting an assessment, check with your team to ensure it is no longer required or being used elsewhere. This is especially important for assessments that are part of a shared naming convention, scope and sequence, or whole-school assessment approach.
Reporting vs Non-Reporting: what to know
Reporting and Non-Reporting assessments can be assigned to students in the same way.
Reporting and Non-Reporting Flexi Assessments behave differently once results start coming in.
The table below summarises the difference.
Non-Reporting Flexi Assessments results are only visible on the student profile page and the Markbook and are differentiated from the Reporting ones by the label “Non-Reporting Flexi”
On the Markbook, Non-Reporting Flexi label is displayed above the column heading of the relevant Flexi Assessments.
On the Student profile page, Non-Reporting Flexi label is displayed next to the assessment name.
On the Manage Class Assessments, Non-Reporting Flexi label is displayed below the relevant assessment name:
On the Class View Non-Reporting Flexi label is displayed in the Assessment column (next to the assessment name):
Import and Export Flexi Assessments
School Admins have full access to sharing flexi-assessments. If your school does not have an Admin account, all teachers can access Flexi Sharing — but other School Configuration settings will be locked until an Admin account is set up.
Exporting Flexis
Complete the following steps when you want to share your school's Flexi Assessments with another school.
Go to Settings >School Configuration.
Under Flexi Sharing, click Export Flexis.
A list of your Flexis will then appear. Use the search bar to filter by name or strand, or scroll through the list.
Tick the Flexis you want to export, or click Select All.
Click Export Selected. The file will download to your device. You can then share the downloaded file with the other school (e.g. via email).
Note: The file name includes your curriculum, number of Flexis and today's date, e.g. ENA_VC - 3 flexi assessments - 13-04-26.flexi
Importing Flexis
Use this when another school has shared a Flexi file with you.
Go to School Configuration from the Settings menu.
Under Flexi Sharing, click Import Flexis.
A file management window with only .FLEXI files will appear. Select the Flexi file you wish to import and click Open.
Click Import. A list of Flexis will appear. You can use the search bar to filter by name or strand. Tick the Flexis you want to import, or click Select All.
Good to Know
Duplicate names
If an imported Flexi has the same name as one you already have, it will be renamed automatically with a number at the end — e.g. Term 1 Mathematics (1). You will see this noted in the import screen.
Exact duplicates
If a Flexi in the file is identical in content to one you already have, it will be unticked by default. You can still choose to import it if you want.
File errors
If you see an error message when importing, check that:
The file is a valid Flexi file (not a renamed spreadsheet or other document)
The file was exported from a school with the same curriculum subscription as yours
Rollover Flexi Assessments
Instead of re-creating Flexi assessments over again, you can use the ones you created last.
Flexi Assessments from the previous year can be easily moved to the current academic year by clicking on the Rollover Flexi button.
Flexi Assessments can be moved to the current academic year School Flexi Library by clicking on the Move to 2026 button. The assessment will be removed from the previous year's library and added to this academic year's School Flexi Library. A confirmation message will notify you that the assessment was successfully moved.
Before you move the assessment, from the Quick Actions menu, you can:
View assessment details by selecting View details.
Check questions by selecting Preview Questions.
To go back to the current School flexi Library, click the Exit Rollover button.
A Caution About Content Coverage
When creating a Flexi assessment that is for reporting use (the Reporting option is selected in the first step), if the number of indicators in the assessment doesn't meet the recommended criteria, a notification message will be displayed to inform you that the assessment might not have enough coverage to be used for reporting. You'll then be offered the choice to:
Tick a box to change the assessment to Non-Reporting instead, since it may be better suited to checking student understanding rather than formal reporting, or
Leave the box unchecked to keep your current settings and save the assessment as-is.
The recommended coverage for reporting Flexi assessment is at least 6 questions in total, with at least 3 per year level.
These recommendations do not apply to Non-reporting Flexi assessments because they are used only for student checks and won’t affect in any class or school reports.
Good to know: This choice isn't locked in. Reporting status can always be changed later by editing the assessment, up until a class or student has started it.
Need help? Reach out to our team at [email protected]