Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her policy is on assessment of children in their reception year.

On 7 April 2016 we announced that we will not be using the results of the reception baseline assessment carried out in 2015-16 as the starting point for measuring progress in the accountability system. When this year’s reception classes leave primary school in 2022, we will continue to use Key Stage 1 (KS1) as the starting point from which to measure pupils’ progress to Key Stage 2 (KS2). The link to the announcement can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/reception-baseline-comparability-study-published

As announced in March 2014, the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile – an assessment at the end of Reception – will no longer be compulsory from September 2016. The Early Years Foundation Stage will continue to be statutory; supporting children to experience a broad and engaging programme of learning in reception.

We know that assessment in reception is essential. Early years are critical to a child’s development and we want to ensure that teachers are able to identify where pupils may need additional support as early as possible. We remain committed to assessment in reception and that is why we are giving schools the option to use the baseline assessments as on-entry assessments in academic year 2016-17. The outcomes from these assessments will not be used for school accountability.

We remain committed to the assessment of pupils through primary school. Over the coming months we will be looking at assessment arrangements in reception beyond 2016-17 and will engage stakeholders in that work.