In this keynote Professor Martin Fautley will problematise notions of assessment and progression. Although these are both terminologies in daily usage in schools, nonetheless their meanings are not always transparent, and they each carry with them a lot of ‘baggage’ of assumptions and suppositions. This keynote will both present what these issues are, and how music teachers might go about thinking, and subsequently operationalising assessment and progression thinking in their own classrooms. We know that music educators often have a thorough grasp of formative assessment strategies, and so this aspect will run throughout the keynote.