CYP Now - Calls to scrap Reception Baseline Assessments due to pandemic

Almost 100,000 parents and professionals have called on the government to scrap formal assessments of four-and five-year-olds impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tests could impact children's self-esteem, campaigners have warned. Picture: Adobe Stock

Some 95,312 people have signed a petition urging ministers to pause the introduction of Reception Baseline Assessments in 2021 due to the crisis.

The assessments in English and Maths were set to be introduced in September 2020 but pushed back until 2021 due to coronavirus.

In a letter to schools minister Nick Gibb, campaign group, More Than A Score, states that the data collected during the first six weeks of school in September “will be utterly meaningless”.

“Only half of our youngest children are currently attending nursery and at least half are predicted to be "not school ready" in September. Introducing these tests during a pandemic is not just absurd, but immoral. It shows a government more wedded to data collection than children's wellbeing,” it adds.

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