Baseline assessments - what is expected of children starting reception?

[temperato]

DD starts reception in September, she will be 4.6.

We've been told that they will be doing baseline assessments in the first couple of weeks, but no idea what that will consist of and whether DD will meet whatever the expected standard is.

At the moment she can:

Write her first name
Knows all letters and numbers
Doesn't know any phonics (I've deliberately kept away from them for fear of getting it wrong) she can however recognise quite a lot of random words, around 100 I'd estimate. But not reading at all.
Can draw a face but nothing else
Can count to 20 herself and further with prompting
Can do some simple arithmetic
Knows shapes, days of the week, months of the year, colours.

Does that sound okay? We think she's quite a bright child but deliberately haven't hothoused her with things like phonics and writing - partly because haven't wanted to introduce them the wrong way, and just really felt what was the point - she'll be taught it at school.

But now I'm starting to worry that she'll be assessed as being behind...what if she is tired / distracted / feeling shy when they do the assessment? I assume that can be seen beyond? What if other children have all been taught phonics at home?

[gatorgolf]

Ds started reception last year, they really vary and from what u say I think your dd will be at least average if not above. It doesn't really matter Anyway if they are accessed as weak As it just means they get extra help, ds struggled with his writing and got extra writing practise couple of times a week

[DialsMavis]

My DD can't do anywhere near that much. Nor could my DS at that ageand he is now in the top set for everything at high school, got level 6 in all his year 6 sats and has always been on the G&T register. I don't think you need to worry

[temperato]

Thanks. She's a PFB and I don't really have any friends with children the same age, so not entirely sure what would be average for her age tbh. You read a lot on MN about 3 year olds being fluent readers which might be panicking me a little!

[Finola1step]

She sounds ready for school. At this stage, that's what you want.

[suitcaseofdreams]

Hi there,

my (March born) twin boys can do most of what you mention above but to be honest I'm not paying too much attention to all that anyway - they are young and there is plenty of time to learn the "academic" stuff - I'm focusing more on whether they can dress/undress, share nicely, sit quietly, take turns, ask for help etc...all the things they need to be able to settle in well at school and interact with the teachers and other kids :-)

The way our school explained it, the baseline assessment is a new government initiative designed primarily to monitor schools to see if pupils are making expected progress between starting primary school and leaving in Y6. This year is a trial year, the assessments become required from next Sept (2016) - schools can choose this year whether to participate in the trial or not. The results of the government required baseline assessment are not shared with parents - the school will do their own early assessment of the children over a number of weeks which will look at potentially different criteria and will help the school plan for each child for the coming year.

I'm not sure if I've explained it very well but basically no child will be assessed as 'behind' based on the baseline assessment - the data will simply be sent off and in 7 yrs time they'll look to see how that cohort of children has progressed through primary - and this information will be used to measure the performance of the school - so it's more about the school than the child. So really nothing to worry about :-)

[louisejxxx]

That all sounds fine to me..only thing you haven't said about that is equally important is:

• is she able to fully look after her own toileting needs, hand washing etc?
  
• can she dress herself and do her own tights, shoes and put her coat on?

[Dinosaursdontgrowontrees]

Reception teacher here.. Can she dress herself? Wipe her own bottom? Put on and do up her coat? These are the sort of things i am hoping for when they start school! Any number, letter recognition is a bonus.
The baseline assessments are literally to see where your child is at.. No pressure. (From what you say she will do well though.)

[temperato]

Thanks, yes she's fine with the toilet, dressing etc.

Apparently the school will discuss the assessment results with us in October....I'll try not to worry about it then!