DfE invites bids to develop and run £10m Reception baseline

The new Reception baseline assessment will be statutory for all pupils in England from September 2020.

The move follows the Government’s response to the Primary Assessment review, which proposed the introduction of a new assessment in reception, just two years after it scrapped a previous baseline pilot because the three assessments were found not to be comparable.

The new assessment will be used to establish pupils’ prior attainment as the starting point for calculating school level progress measures when pupils reach the end of key stage 2 (KS2).

Key Stage 1 tests will effectively be scrapped and made non-statutory from 2023.

As stated already, the new baseline will not be an observational assessment carried out over time, like the EYFS Profile. It will be carried out  and mediated by the pupil’s usual teacher or teaching assistant.

The £9.8m contract will run from 30 March 2018 until 31 August 2022. The DfE has previously said it will be looking for one supplier.

The assessment should include an age-appropriate assessment of communication, language and literacy as well as maths and be clearly linked to the learning and development requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage.

The DfE is also asking potential suppliers ‘to explore ways in which it would be possible to assess some form of “self regulation” in their bids, for example persistence with a task or following multi-step instructions.’

The DfE tender notice says that suppliers may plan to adapt an existing assessment or develop an entirely new one as long as they can meet the delivery timeline requirements.