Teachers call to scrap tests of 4-5 year olds in England

Teachers unanimously agree that tests of English and Maths skills of the youngest school children can be better assessed with class-based observations.

This is according to research undertaken by University of Northampton (UON) academic David Meechan.

School children receive the first statutory assessment in their formal education during their Reception year (aged 4-5). Traditionally, these assessments focused on class-based observations by teachers to give a baseline measure of a range of skills relating to speech, communication, personal social and emotional, physical development as well as their literacy and numeracy levels.

But currently, young children are taken out of class for more formal, up to 20-minute long English and mathematics testing, something teachers argue is of little or no value to the child, teachers, or parents as the results are not shared directly with them and have such a narrow focus.

David, a Senior Lecturer in Education, has completed research – with colleagues from the University of Birmingham and the University of Wolverhampton – exploring teachers’ perceptions of the current testing of reception years students.

He comments on the findings: “With any statutory assessments of educational performance, there are many issues at play. None more so than when we talk about tests for the youngest of school-age children. From a personal perspective, as a father to two young children, I saw my eldest child’s peers still holding on to their parent’s leg at the school door and crying, when these statutory tests were being administered in the first six weeks of the school year.

“Testing children at a very young age has and probably always will be a contentious issue. The minority of children who are ‘high-flyers’ may benefit from them, but most others won’t and could – on an unconscious level – face bias from otherwise totally well-meaning teachers.

“Teacher’s recommendations in this research are almost unequivocal. They suggest a preference for scrapping the current statutory assessment and instead the recognition of observational, class-based assessments or, if the system continues, to delay doing the tests until after the child’s first six-weeks of schooling.”

David and his colleagues are officially due to present the findings of the study at the annual British Early Childhood Education Research Association’s conference on Tuesday 21 February. An overview of the presentation can be found on BECERA’s blog page and the full academic paper is here.

David currently teaches on the MA in Education programme at the University and often draws on aspects of his research and findings.