Almost 200 schools drop out of Baseline pilot

Hundreds of thousands of four-year-olds are taking part in the pilot of the the new Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) this term, ahead of it becoming statutory next year.

The figures come from a response from the Department for Education to a Freedom of Information request by Tes.

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The DfE confirmed that as of 8 August 9,483 schools were taking part in the pilot of the Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA), which starts this term.

Earlier this year the Government announced that 9,612 primary and infant schools had signed up to take part in the pilot.

The response to the FOI request reveals that 178 have withdrawn from the pilot since May.

Earlier this month, research commissioned by campaign group More than A Score found that 86 per cent of primary headteachers surveyed are critical of the RBA.

Comments from some of the almost 200 teachers surveyed said it was 'totally unnecessary' and 'one of the most poorly conceived ideas I have experienced in my 30+ years of teaching’.

Meanwhile, DfE analysis of the Key Stage 1 results of 67,000 pupils that took part in the Reception baseline pilot run by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) in 2015 has found a clear association between attainment at the age of four and age seven across reading, writing and maths at Key Stage 1.

The DfE said that the analysis shows that children’s chances of reaching the expected standard in Key Stage 1 assessments increased with their RBA mark, clearly demonstrating the baseline assessment’s validity as an appropriate starting point to measure pupil progress.

School standards minister Nick Gibb has said that the baseline assessment will be a quick check of a child’s early language and maths skills and will give teachers more valuable one-to-one time with pupils in the first few weeks of school.