Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of reforming Statutory Assessments in primary schools.

Primary assessments play a crucial role in supporting pupils’ basic understanding of reading, writing and mathematics, and to prepare pupils for secondary school. They allow parents and schools to understand pupils’ achievements in relation to the age related attainment expectations outlined in the National Curriculum.

In 2017, the Department carried out a consultation into primary assessment in England, with the aim of creating a settled policy in this area. The consultation received over 4,000 responses from a diverse range of backgrounds and specialisms, providing a broad and informed range of views. The Rochford review consultation took place in parallel. In total it received 594 submissions. The Government response was published in September 2017, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/primary-school-pupil-assessment-rochford-review-recommendations.

The reform programme was designed to bring higher standards to primary assessment and to put in place an assessment system that helps teachers and head teachers help all children to succeed. The Department has reached the end of the programme of reform to the current primary assessment system that followed these consultations and has no current plans to undertake further major reform. The Department will continue to engage with schools, unions, and other stakeholders to understand their views on assessment.

The Department remains committed to producing and publishing school level accountability measures, using full cohort assessment data, which provide important information to support parents when choosing schools. The Department keeps all school performance measures under review and welcomes feedback on how they can be further improved.