Reception baseline tests ‘unfair’, report finds

Ministers are set to abandon controversial plans to judge primary schools according to new baseline tests for four-year-olds after a government-commissioned report found the move to be ‘inappropriate and unfair’.

The U-turn comes after the study found the tests offered by three different providers could not be reliably compared. The plans were initially met with much opposition by numerous teachers’ unions, including the National Union of Teachers (NUT), which threatened to boycott all primary school tests.

The baseline tests were part of the government’s wider plan to measure pupil progress between reception class and leaving primary school aged 11.

Nonetheless, a study commissioned by the government found the three different assessments were not ‘sufficiently comparable to create a fair starting point from which to measure pupils’ progress’. As a result, ministers have been forced to abandon the measure.

Commenting on the government’s U-turn, Christine Blower, general secretary of the NUT, said: “The NUT, campaigning alongside a wide range of early years professionals in their organisations, has made the government come to its senses and realise that baseline assessment was never a good idea in the first place. We need the government to discuss with us what appropriate assessment in Early Years education looks like.”