Early years heavyweights back campaign against baseline tests

From September this year, schools will be able to use new baseline assessments to test the knowledge and understanding of children as young as four in school reception classes at the beginning of the academic year.

The tests will replace the use of the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile, which monitors children’s progress at the age of five, in schools from 2016 as part of government efforts to improve the way primary schools are held to account for pupils’ learning and development.

But the plans have been rejected by many in the sector and a petition, launched at the beginning of January, urging Education Secretary Nicky Morgan to rethink the move has so far attracted 2,086 signatures from early years experts, providers and parents.

The campaign, launched by Early Education, The British Association for Early Childhood in Education, warns that the arrangements could harm children’s development and that those who perform less well could be “stigmatised and labelled as failing” within weeks of starting school.