How do school test/assess ability when reception start

[sunshinedaises]

My ds is starting reception in September. Do schools normally carry out some sort of test/assessment to determine where they are development wise or do they just pick it up as they spend time with them? My ds has speech delay and is very behind his peers in all arears so I want to ensure he gets all the support he needs when he starts and wondering how this will look

Is he at nuresery or anything? Our nursery sumbit a report to the school about children who are joining reception so they know what to expect. The teacher alos does a home visit and tehy do a bseline assessment once they start school. Ours usually does a parents meeting around now and talk about the Sendco and any additional support so perhaps call the school and ask to speak to them?

There’s a thing called ‘baseline’. It’s not a test as such - it’s done in the first term they start, largely through observation, maybe asking a few casual/ fun questions or asking the child ‘can you this?’ Then you get an assessment by the teacher of whether they’re at the expected standard for their age in the various areas of development. And they can know how best to help them / work with them from there and any additional help they might need.

Reception also is a continuation of the Early Years Foundation Stage. If dc attends a preschool or nursery they will already assess against the goals and may pass this information on. It is a process of continuous assessment over the Foundation years.

Baseline tests

In my experience they are quite harsh with their assessments so that when they leave in Year 6 the school can demonstrate that a child has particularly developed.

It's a crock of shit.

If he’s in a nursery setting he will have had ongoing assessment if his early learning goals tracked against the EYFS curriculum. You can ask his nursery what levels they have assessed him to be at.

As pp have said, they do a Baseline test to gauge understanding, language, communication, literacy and maths etc. This might be helpful

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reception-baseline-assessment-information-for-parents/reception-baseline-assessment-information-for-parents

So they will definitely pick up and issues and should work with you to support your DC.

As others have said, we do Baseline. It's not a test, but a serious of discussions and activities carried out 1-1 with the teacher. Teachers hate doing it, as we'd rather be getting to know our children in provision, but the children certainly don't feel like they're being 'tested'. The government baseline is actually pretty useless to us teachers. It's used as a measure of their progress from the start of Reception to the end of Year 6 (SATs) and is a way of holding the school accountable, rather than the child. A child deemed to be working at age related expectations at the start of Reception should still be there or better by the end of Year 6 (this takes no account of the fact all children are unique individuals and progress at their own rate).

As teachers, we carry out our own baselines too, based on observations we make of the children in provision in the first few weeks. We use this to gage who may require extra support in certain areas.

Is your child receiving Speech and Language therapy? If so, the school will already be aware and he'll be on the SEN register. If not, raise your concerns with the asap and they'll get their SENCO to carry out some assessments in order to gage what kind of support he may need in school.