An update on the Reception Baseline Assessment 

What is the Reception Baseline Assessment

The Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) is a short and simple check of a child’s early literacy, communication, language and maths skills when they begin primary school. The assessment will be age-appropriate and there will be no need for children to prepare for it, either at home or in school.

The RBA can be used to complement other on-entry assessments you may already conduct with your reception pupils. It can also provide teachers and teaching assistants with a useful opportunity to have some one-to-one time with individual children, when they first start school.

Full rollout 

Yesterday, we confirmed that all new primary school pupils will take the RBA from September 2020. The assessments will eventually replace key stage 1 SATs, which are intended to be discontinued from the 2022/23 academic year.

Some of you will have participated in the successful pilot programme in which schools across England trialled the assessment with their reception pupils. We have also published new research into the RBA which found that it "provides an accurate starting point to measure pupils’ progress".

What are the next steps for my school?

The Standards and Testing Agency (STA) will send out a survey to all primary schools in the first week of March to confirm your school’s details.

To help support you in implementing the assessments, we are currently developing a series of case studies featuring pilot schools who have administered the RBA effectively. We will aim to share these case studies with you by the summer term.

We would also like to draw your attention to our RBA campaign page and explainer video, which provide parents with information on what the assessment involves, how it will be carried out and how the results are used. You may wish to point your incoming reception parents towards these resources over the coming months.

Find out more information on the RBA >>