What’s the problem with the reception baseline assessment?

What is the Reception Baseline Assessment? 

The Reception Baseline Assessment is a statutory assessment (meaning every child has to undertake it) within the first 6 weeks of them beginning Reception Class – the first year of formal schooling. It consists of two components. One for early mathematics and one for early literacy, communication and language.

What is the Reception Baseline Assessment for?

The Reception Baseline Assessment is used as a baseline measurement. The Reception Baseline Assessment results will only be used at the end of year 6 to calculate how much progress a school has made with its pupils compared to other schools nationally. The Reception Baseline Assessment is designed to capture the wide range of attainment of children when they begin formal schooling and to allow progress within the school to be measured more accurately.

The key issues that have informed campaigns to scrap the Reception Baseline Assessment are:

• It is unnecessary because schools already assess children when they start reception and use this information to plan their teaching and support which provides more meaningful and valuable assessment.
• It is unreliable because it is based on a snapshot of children’s performance in a narrow range of areas. It is also conducted in a new and unfamiliar environment which may not reflect a child’s true abilities or potential.
• It is unfair because it will create a baseline that does not take into account the different starting points, backgrounds and experiences of children, and will be used to judge schools without considering the context and challenges they face.
• It is harmful because it will put pressure on children, parents and teachers to prepare for the assessment, which may narrow the curriculum and reduce the opportunities for play-based learning in the early years.

A parent’s experience of the reception baseline assessment

From my experience, most parents are unaware that their child will be undertaking a formal assessment within the first six weeks of school. As I was aware and unhappy with the nature of the assessment I requested that my son be withdrawn from the assessment, but my request was refused by the Local authority and therefore the school.

Research into the reception baseline assessment

As an academic I decided to undertake some research exploring teachers’ perceptions of the reception baseline assessment. Overall, the findings were of dissatisfaction with the assessment as it removes teachers from classrooms at a crucial stage of the year when they should be forming attachments with their new classes.

Moving forward with the reception baseline assessment

As it is a statutory assessment, teachers still have to undertake it each year. From my research I found the following examples of how teachers were intending to navigate this challenge:

• Plan time accordingly to account for the time that I will take to undertake the Reception Baseline Assessment
• Ensure that additional support and cover is provided when a teacher is out of the classroom administering the Reception Baseline Assessment
• Some teachers are going to focus on getting to know their children in the first few weeks before undertaking the Reception Baseline Assessment
• Some teachers are planning to make their own notes during the Reception Baseline Assessment to inform their own internal baseline and to avoid repetition.
• One teacher commented that their Senior Leadership Team was planning to help administer the Reception Baseline Assessment to minimise the amount of time that the class teacher spends out of the classroom.