As school life begins for four-year-olds, 130 early years experts have written to the Department for Education calling for an urgent review of the Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA), including its recent digitisation.
Representatives from Early Education, the National Education Union, UCL Institute of Education and TACTYC are urging new Education Secretary Lucy Powell to follow the government’s own guidance to parents and early years providers for under-fives.
Parents are advised that children should spend a maximum of one hour a day looking at screens, at home or in school while advice to practitioners states that “pre-reception assessments should not involve asking a child to do activities on a screen…but should be based on observation and…professional judgement.” The RBA, which must be completed in the first six weeks of school, is a 20-minute test with a significant digital element.
The screen-based RBA was introduced in September 2025. Since its introduction, new in-classroom research from Leeds Beckett University has revealed distressed children, struggling to understand the technology and teachers unable to deviate from the standardised script to assist them.
Meanwhile two-thirds (66%) of Reception teachers surveyed by the National Education Union agreed that the increase in screen time was not good for their classes, while a similar figure (67%) said the assessment has not been improved by being digitised. Overall, 80% of teachers believe that the test does not provide accurate information about a child’s abilities.
Beatrice Merrick, chief executive, Early Education, comments, “Early years experts have long-argued that the first priority in the early weeks of reception should be children’s wellbeing – creating a safe and settled environment to begin learning. The digital RBA goes against all of that as well as the government’s own advice on screen time.”
The coalition of early years experts is calling on the government to review the RBA, its impact on reception classes, and its move to digital delivery.
Dr Mandy Pierlejewski, a researcher at Leeds Beckett University comments, “In our research we saw distressed children unable to complete the test because they didn’t understand the technology and teachers who could not assist even when the children asked for reassurance. The test is stressful, inaccurate and requires a level of digital literacy which 4-years-olds do not and should not possess.”
Alison Ali, spokesperson for the More Than A Score campaign group, comments, “Adding a digital element to this pointless test for four-year-olds further undermines its credibility as a starting point to measure progress in primary. In 2028, the RBA results will be used as a measure of progress to year 6 SATs. We are still waiting for the government to explain how a 20-minute test taken at the age of four will be compared to four days of maths and English tests. Perhaps Lucy Powell will be the first Education Secretary to listen to those who know young children best and put an end to this waste of classroom time.”
Research:
Leeds Beckett University, The reception baseline assessment does not align with screen guidance, Dr Mandy Pierlejewski
National Education Union Survey, October 2025, 970 reception teachers