What is Baseline Assessment?

Your child will be participating in the reception baseline assessment (RBA) within the first 6 weeks of starting reception class. The purpose of the assessment is to provide the starting point for a new measure that will help parents understand how well schools support their children to progress between reception and year 6.

The RBA is a short, interactive and practical assessment of your child’s early literacy, communication, language and mathematics skills when they begin school, using materials that most children of your child’s age will be familiar with. It became statutory for all schools from September 2021.

The RBA is not about judging or labelling your child or putting them under any pressure. Your child cannot ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ the assessment. Its main purpose is to create a starting point to measure the progress schools make with their pupils.