Reception Baseline Assessment

In September 2017 the Department for Education announced that a new assessment in Reception would be introduced as a baseline measure to track pupils’ progress during primary school. The government said the proposed Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) would be developed in conjunction with the teaching profession, and would be 'teacher-mediated', meaning it would be administered by a teacher or teaching assistant.

The focus of the RBA will be on communication, language and literacy, and maths. It will take around 15 minutes. The RBA data will be used to judge how much progress children have made by the end of KS2. There will be no "pass" or "fail" or numerical score, and the results of the RBA will not be used to track individual pupils or to judge schools' Foundation Stage performance. Teachers will administer the assessment and record their results electronically.

The RBA will be interactive and practical, and the DfE suggests that "in most cases pupils should not be aware that they are being assessed". Children will be asked to answer questions verbally or by pointing at or moving objects. If children need a break during the assessment, the teacher will be able to pause at any time.

For more information about the Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) please read the DFE parent guide.