Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason observational assessment is not part of the assessment criteria for the incoming early years baseline assessment.

The early years foundation stage profile (EYFSP) assessment is observational and gives a picture of each child’s development over the early years foundation stage. Observational assessment over longer periods of time is crucial to support effective teaching and learning, which is why it remains a vital part of the EYFSP.

The reception baseline assessment, however, has a different purpose. It will enable schools to focus on the progress made by each year group through all of their time at primary school from reception to the end of key stage 2. For this purpose, we require assessment data that correlates with key stage 2 assessment data and which can determine pupils’ differing starting points so that consistent like-for-like comparisons can be made. To achieve this, observational assessments would represent a greater burden for teachers due to the significant additional moderation requirements to provide the consistent baseline for comparing school-level progress nationally.