Baseline tests for 4 yr olds

[Busbusbusbus]

I’ve just realised there’s going to be a new test introduced at reception level next year. It seems completely ridiculous to be testing so young and makes me feel really sad that this is an introduction into school for these children. Please have a look at this petition and sign if you agree:
www.morethanascore.org.uk/what-we-do/baseline/

www.morethanascore.org.uk/what-we-do/baseline/

To be fair, there have been baseline assessments for years and years. I’m not sure if people just didn’t know about them or if this one is really different?

Baselines have always been done...and mostly through observation. They have trialled new ones over the last few years and found that they are very difficult to compare in the same way as they would compare a SATs test.

I don't agree with testing but the Reception teachers always used to moan that testing only at the end of the year against the Early Years goals meant any progress the child made in Reception wasn't recorded.

And in some ways if they are going to compare the start of Reception with the end of Y6 it'll show how much progress the child has made and be less crippling (the cross over from Reception to National Curriculum is a nightmare as the systems measure completely different things...but SATs end points are still measure based on end of Reception.)

What PPs said, reception baseline testing is not new. The Government has been pissing about with it for years - using one test, then saying you can use one of a number of approved schemes etc and finally gone back to a single standard scheme.

To be honest, it is important to have an idea of where children are when they arrive at school. What would make more sense, given the natural break between the Early Years curriculum in reception and the National curriculum in Y1, would be for reception to be a continuation of nursery/Playgroup/preschool and the school proper to start in Y1.