Number of schools wanting to pilot Reception Baseline Assessments 'embarrassingly low'

Almost 10,000 schools have signed up to pilot the Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) – a 20-minute test aimed at giving a snapshot of a four-year-old’s development when they start school - but campaigners say the take up is "embarrassingly low".

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Just over half of primary schools (9,600) will be participating in the RBA pilot but more than 7,000 schools have said no to taking part. Some 16,834 schools were invited to take part this September. In 2018, 16,766 primary schools piloted the assessment.

Pilots for the RBA will take place in schools from this September in the first half term and the RBA is scheduled to be rolled out across England from September 2020.

School Standards Minister Nick Gibb said: “Just like checking a child’s teeth or their eyesight, the reception baseline assessment is a quick check of a child’s early language and ability to count when they start school.

“It will provide the baseline of primary school progress which is an important check of our school system, providing important information on schools’ performance to make sure all children reach their potential.

“The assessment will lighten the load for schools, which will no longer have to carry out whole-class assessments at the end of year 2 or deal with the test papers and administration that comes with that, while also being stress-free for children.”

'Embarrassingly low'

Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, called it "a significant setback for the Government’s test-driven approach to primary education".

She added: "In 2015, more than 80 per cent of schools signed up for the DfE’s baseline assessment pilot. This time round, that figure has fallen to 57 per cent.

"There is evidently a widespread scepticism in primary schools about the value of baseline, and a concern for its impact on pupils and on the Early Years curriculum. Educators do not want new tests in primary schools - they want an end to the current system of primary assessment.”

Nancy Stewart from anti-RBA campaign group 'More Than A Score' and TACTYC, the Association for Professional Development in Early Years, said: "The number of participants is embarrassingly low for the government and demonstrates the level of opposition to the scheme among heads and teachers.

“In many schools, we know that schools have signed up to ensure that feedback represents the views of all those across the sector, or to get advance sight of what they will have to deal with in 2020. In other cases, heads have signed up to the baseline pilot against the better judgement of the reception teacher."

She added: “It’s worth remembering that the majority of primary schools participated in the last failed attempt to introduce this plan just four years ago. They discovered its fundamental flaws and this must have contributed to the low take-up of participants in the pilot."

The baseline assessments will see children assessed orally through practical tasks during the 20-minute assessment. This could include counting or describing pictures, activities that take place in reception classrooms and some which parents teach their children at home.

The Department said there is no reason for teachers to prepare children ahead of the assessment and if carried out in the right way ‘children should not be aware an assessment is taking place’.

The DfE has said schools will not receive individual scores for the assessment, instead getting short statements that will say how each child performed which they can use to inform teaching in the first term.

Progress data from the assessments will be shared with schools following children’s completion of Key Stage 2 tests at the end of primary school, the DfE said to prevent ‘labelling or grouping of pupils’.

However, campaigner, Ms Stewart, said: “We’re confident that schools participating this time around will also very quickly become aware of how unreliable, unfair and useless such a scheme will be.”

More Than A Score has gathered over 70,500 signatures to date calling on Schools Minister Nick Gibb to cancel Reception Baseline Assessments.

To sign the More Than A Score petition click here