It seems that the UK are becoming more and more concerned about how our children are achieving in academic terms. The government wants to know that schools are giving the children the best education possible and that students are achieving well. This is often measured by exams such as GCSE’s and SATS but recently there have been many more exams introduced that some teachers and parents are not entirely happy with.
A relatively new assessment that has come in for reception classes is baseline assessment. Although this is not mandatory at this time, many schools have agreed to do it in order to track the progress of their students. A baseline has been created for where it is believe children should be academically in terms of their age. This baseline checklist is then used when they first start school to see if they are average, below average or above average for their year. The students’ progress is then tracked throughout key stage one and two and checked to see if they are still doing as they were expected to do.