BERA President Dominic Wyse is one of the co-signatories to an open letter that calls upon the Government to abandon its plan to introduce the reception baseline assessment into primary schools in England this coming autumn. Organised by the More than a Score campaign with whom BERA has worked closely, the letter has also been signed by Gemma Moss, convenor of our expert panel on assessment.

On top of the existing arguments against the assessment that were outlined in the work of our expert panel in 2018 and published in their report ‘A baseline without basis: The validity and utility of the proposed reception baseline assessment in England’ signatories to this letter outline that the ongoing disruption to schooling due to COVID-19 meant that this assessment would be unfair on children who may well have missed out on a significant amount of preschool and nursery as well as a proper transition to starting full-time education. It will also be a distraction for teachers whose “main focus should be building relationships and giving children the opportunity to catch up on the many learning opportunities they will have missed.”

The letter has already generated coverage in TES.

There is now a petition in support of the letter. If any BERA members wished to sign this, it can be found here.