Commenting on the decision to suspend the
reception baseline assessment until September 2021, Geoff Barton,
General Secretary of the Association of School and College
Leaders, said:
“We support the decision to suspend the reception baseline
assessment for 12 months as a sensible and pragmatic response to
the disruption caused by the coronavirus emergency. We understand
that schools which wish to become early adopters of the
assessment can still do so.
“This is not the time to introduce a new national
assessment when teachers have to be able to focus on
reintegrating children back into schools, and we are pleased this
has been recognised by the government.
“However, the government must also undertake a review of
Key Stage 2 tests due to be taken next May as a matter of
urgency.
“There may be merit in allowing schools to run them for
their own checks and to support children’s transition to
secondary education.
“But it would be wrong to use them for school performance
tables after so much disruption and as schools focus on helping
children catch-up.
“In the longer term, we support the introduction of
reception baseline assessment because it better recognises the
vital importance of early years education than the current system
which measures progress only from Key Stage 1 assessments when
the child is already halfway through their primary
education.
“But we still need to see Key Stage 2 tests reformed to
make them fairer on children and fairer on schools.”
