Baseline assessments: informing parents?

[Ginmummy1]

Have any primary schools shared the results of baseline assessments with parents? I mean for individual children, not the whole class/school.

Would any Reception teachers care to comment on how the process went, and whether they felt it was useful to them/school in any way?

I’m just interested/nosy.

We have not shared details. During parents evening we have explained to parents where their child is now and what we need to work on. We always did that as we had our own form of baseline before.

For us,mother process went very smoothly. We used the time as part of a 1:1 transition/getting to know your child time and it has led to a nice, easy start to the year.

Useful? It confirmed what we have been saying from our own baseline assessments but others were saying we were wrong and that couldn't be possible.

Overall, we would be happy to use the system we used (CEM). Staff were non stressed, children were non stressed and it gave us some vital 1:1 time that has led to a better start to the year.

But, the key is HOW the testing was organised!

At the training I went the lady in charge said not to share the information. She said this is because they were unsure how the information would be used and in reality what it is going to mean at the very new point. She said just share information as your school normally would.

Sorry I didn't read that before I posted.... Hope that you can make sense!

Parent of reception child here. I wasn't told specifically how she performed in the baseline assessment.

Truth be told I would have loved to have asked what her score was and where that placed her in relation to the rest of the class, but there's no way I was going to be labelled as that parent

But under the Data Protection Act, parents have a right to access their child's School Record.

ico.org.uk/for-the-public/schools/pupils-info/

Tbh, I cannot see any justification for schools withholding this information from parents.

Data is still not valid and does not hold any correlation yet to how they may perform in the future. At this age, children are at different stages of development. I have parents panic if their child is on the lower end and get over confident if they are on the upper end. The information SHOULD be used to identify (or help to identify) starting points.

I spent an hour this week calming a mother down because she was sure her 5 yr old was dyslexic because he is not in line with what the government says her child should be at that age!

Our biggest problem is that what is developmentally appropriate and what governments says our children should be at certain ages are REALLY NOT in line!

Let the teacher tell you what are next steps and work on little chunks. Much better for the child!

MM5 parents have a right to come to their own conclusions concerning this information, concerning their child though. Why is keeping parents in the dark "much better for the child"? It is wrong and prejudiced to make the assumption that all parents panic at being given information held about their child and teachers need to take it upon themselves protect against this.

If learning difficulties have been suspected for a while, these results might help parents secure support.

If children are already receiving additional support, from pre-school age, it can help gage progress. Added to this these results can help ascertain how much a child has progressed from reception further along in their school careers.

So, that is me told off!

Seriously,mid SENTENCE is an issue, the school will be on it. At least my school is as we do have very good communication with parents. Because, if they have concerns, then we are notified during home/nursery visits in the summer before.

But, of course, I am in my place now.

Darn self correct.... If SEN is an issue... Not mid sentence... How odd!

Communication cuts both ways. It is not just about parents telling schools about their concerns, it is about schools being completely transparent concerning assessments.

I am pleased you acknowledge good home school communication is a good thing, *MM5, however just because a few parents panic or become complacent on being given assessment results this does not mean information should be concealed or 'dumbed down'. A better approach, IMO, would be to inform parents how this data should be interpreted.

there are three very different baseline testing providers (approved by the DfE) using very different assessments which will somehow be used to create national data. Most schools (1300+ of the 17000 settings) have chosen the EExBA which looks at things like wellbeing, Base from CEM centre and NfER which are both test based. Schools had to submit raw data by the end of October so it's unlikely they are in a position to provide you with the information you want.

www.cem.org/reception-baseline-assessment

www.nfer.ac.uk/schools/baseline-assessment/how-it-works.cfm

earlyexcellence.com/eexba/