Reception Baseline Assessment

[JellySlice]

Do 4y olds really need formal testing within weeks of starting in a new setting? Do they need their futures to be defined so early? Do their teachers need their abilities judged, and do their schools need their success judged, by such criteria?

Is the value of such assessment well-evidenced?

<a class="break-all" href="http://go.mumsnet.com/?xs=1&id=470X1554755&url=morethanascore.org.uk/oppose-baseline/" target="_blank">https://morethanascore.org.uk/oppose-baseline/

Didn't think this happens anymore? Dd1 did the national monitoring 2 years ago but dd2 didn't this year.

It's not formal testing per se. They just observe and build up a picture of each child's starting point. It is absolutely not a definition of a child's future!

If the teachers don't know where the children are, how can they plan appropriate learning for them?

I’m a Reception teacher and we assess the children through observation already. That’s part of our job. Now they want children to sit down and do a tablet based test in their first few weeks of school. This formal way of assessing them is the problem.

From the pamphlet:

I dont know. Not sure about ipads. But from experience yr r didnt assess dd very well on entry, she could read cvc words already. But still had to read about 6m of every letter of alphabet in yr r before moving on. But that will depend on the school at the moment.
Though tbh im not sure how much the data would mean as it will show SB are 'behind ' which is already known. Also a lot of kids will be able to know the sounds but maybe not blend or. Count but not add, and it does nt mean a lot as you cant predict how easily they will learn the next bit. Or they learn to read easily but cant do comprehension.

But that will depend on the school at the moment

Isn't that the theory, the idea of this testing, and the phonics screening check, and the KS1 SATS and the new times tables tests is because too much of this depends on the school, and the bad schools who do a bad job need to either be forced towards best practice, or get the evidence to enable outside interventions.

As far as I'm aware, the results of the new baseline assessment will not actually be available for Reception class teachers. They will only be used when the children reach year 6 to measure the progress between Reception and Year 6.

This means that teachers will still do their current observation based assessments to help them find out about the children.

The statutory, IT based assessment will just be an add-on.

they're not determining their future, they are checking where they stand. Some kids start from zero, others can read fluently, of course I expect teachers to sit down 1-1 with my child at the beginning of the year to check what they can already do and plan targets accordingly!