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Reception Baseline Assessment

What is the Reception Baseline Assessment? 

The Reception Baseline Assessment is a statutory assessment that all schools are required to perform with pupils within the first six weeks of them starting reception. It is a standardised assessment that assesses pupils language, communication, literacy and mathematics skills. 

How is the assessment carried out?

The assessment takes roughly 20 minutes to complete with each child and is carried out with a trained member of staff. The children are given tasks to complete using practical resources that the child can manipulate. The assessment is carried out on a 1:1 basis in a quiet area of school. 

How are the assessments used?

The assessments are not designed to label or track individual pupils. The data that the assessments collect creates a school-level progress measure which will show the progress pupils make from reception until the end of key stage 2. Teachers will receive a series of short, narrative statements that tell them how their pupils performed in the assessment. These can be used to inform teaching within the first term. We will place these in the children's learning journeys for parents and carers to see if they wish. 

Where can I find out more information?

Please click the link below or download the leaflet on this page to find out more information. Alternatively you can speak to a member of the reception team.

Reception Baseline Gov website