Testing of four-year-olds facing family action over fears it will ‘harm’ pupils

Children in Reception could be left feeling ‘anxious and stressed’ by assessment, parents say

Children as young as four are set to be tested in the first few weeks of primary school (PA)

Families are set to challenge the government in court over its controversial test for four-year-olds in the first few weeks of primary school as they worry the assessment will “harm” pupils.

Parents claim the baseline assessment – which is due to be piloted in thousands of schools from September – could cause distress to children in Reception, making them anxious and stressed.

The 20-minute test, which will assess children’s communication, language, literacy and mathematics skills, is due to be rolled out across all primary schools in England in 2020.

Families will be asking a high court judge on Wednesday to allow a judicial review against the government’s pilot scheme of the tests before the national roll-out next year.

Lawyers, acting on behalf of the three families from the North West, say they are worried about the longer-term impact of the test feedback being used to label children at a young age.

Lisa Richardson, of law firm Irwin Mitchell, which is representing the families, said parents are concerned that “going through the assessment process could put their children at risk of harm.”

She added: “They are worried about the immediate distress experienced by some children in the assessment process itself, and the longer-term impact on their education of schools potentially using the feedback they will get from the assessment to label or stream children at such a young age.

“They are concerned that being asked to complete tasks that are unfamiliar or too difficult could cause children to feel anxious and stressed and to associate that feeling with being at school and learning.”

Families are also worried that the feedback the government will provide to schools about how their children perform in the assessment could be used to group them by ability in maths and literacy.

The parents are calling on the education secretary not to proceed with the baseline assessment pilot scheme until the families’ concerns have been properly considered and addressed.

A Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson said the assessments would not be used to “judge or label individual pupils”.

They added: “To suggest that the reception baseline assessment could cause harm to children is nothing more than scaremongering.

“This sort of alarmist language describing an assessment that children should not even realise is taking place, is extremely unhelpful.

“The reception baseline assessment is a quick check of a child’s early language and ability to count when they start school to help inform teachers – nine in ten schools already carry out on-entry checks.”