SIR – We’re pleased to hear the DfE has decided to do the right thing and postpone the baseline testing for four-year-olds.
We now urge government to scrap it altogether. In the most educationally successful countries in the world, children do not start school until seven, so the idea of testing our children from well before then is ludicrous.
Covid-19 has starkly highlighted how difficult it is to find a one-size-fits-all approach to education. There is no standardised way or consensus about how we can safely return to nursery, and yet we expect a diverse cohort of wonderfully unique children, to take standardised tests as soon as they start school to track their development. It seems absurd, even without a pandemic thrown into the mix.
We will continue campaigning against baseline testing and hope the government will see sense before September 2021.
Barbara Isaacs
Global Ambassador at The Montessori Group, London
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