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Hello and welcome to Little Learners. In today's video I'm going to be talking to
you about baseline tests. Before we get started don't forget to hit that
subscribe button and hit the bell so you get a notification every time I post a
new video and do give this video a like if you find it helpful or enjoyable or
any of those nice positive things. Okay, so for those of you who aren't aware the
baseline test is something that has caused a lot of controversy in the past
so many years, five years, probably longer to be honest with you, um, but certainly
it's got a lot more controversial, um, since I've been teaching and the reason
for this is that many, I would probably even say most, earliest practitioners do
not believe that standardised testing for four-year-olds is a good idea.
Now the government want to bring in the baseline test again they are going to be
trying it and for those of you who are teachers in reception or where teachers
in reception a couple years ago you will know that the government did do a trial
and I was in a school that took part in this trial schools were encouraged to
take part and you got to choose which company you wanted to take the baseline
test from then you do a trial and then the government would ask you what you
thought and then the best one or the best couple would be chosen and so I was
in a school that did that trial and I mean we weren't really happy about it we
weren't happy about the fact that we were going to have to do this
standardized baseline, but we also thought that if this was going to happen
then we should be in on the trial and kind of have a voice in what was going
to happen. The baseline test that I was a part of was all on computer so the
children would come and sit with me and - one at a time - and we would go through
the baseline test there was a literacy, communication and language component and
a maths component and it was awful. It was awful and I will tell
you why so first of all the test itself it didn't really work for all children
the fact that it was on computer, the fact that it was quite formal even
though it was just me and the child they didn't know me that well yet because a
baseline test starts right at the beginning of Reception because it's a
baseline. So when you have the children come in at the beginning of Reception
you are really focusing on classroom routines and getting used to going to
school and really helping them to settle into Reception
school life before you even do anything else. So the fact that we then had to
immediately get these children to start doing these tests which I think were
about 20 minutes or half an hour maybe I can't quite remember but it was quite
long per child, it really meant that this whole settling in period was completely
disrupted and the other thing was that it meant that I as the classroom teacher
was not in the classroom. It was just a disaster
so I would have to come out of the classroom go to where our computer room
was because we needed a quiet area and I would take one child out at a time go
through this baseline test, believe me by the time you've been through five it's
really annoying and extremely repetitive and it was... anyway so I would be out of
the classroom, my teaching assistant would be in the classroom, I only had a
teaching assistant in the mornings which meant we could only do these baseline
tests in the mornings and it just meant that it took so long to get them all
done. Now you may be wondering why schools don't always have baseline tests
surely we need to assess how children are doing and what level they're at when
they come into Reception and yes of course we do,
which is why teachers do their own baseline tests anyway. So at the school I
was teaching at we had our own tests we kind of reviewed them every year they
weren't really tests though there were more like activities
that the children would do and we would assess them you know on the side. So we
would have some phonics stuff going on to see if they knew any of the sounds
yet. We would have a writing component to see if they could hold a pencil, see if
they could write any words or any letters yet, could they write their name?
We would have a maths component where we kind of went through to see if they
could recognise any numerals yet, if they could count yet, just things that we
needed as a baseline but these baseline assessments that we did were in the
classroom, we could be around the other children and it wasn't so formal it was
just part of the activities we were doing during the day and the children
would just kind of come and go we wouldn't do the whole thing all at once
so we do a bit of writing and then we'd do a maths one another time, it was a lot
more relaxed and it also meant that teachers were able to design the
assessments and who would do the assessments in the classroom and it meant that I was
always there and I was able to continue making sure that these routines were
being put in place and children were settling in and I could be in there with
my teaching assistant and I could do them in the afternoon when my teaching
assistant wasn't there. So I think one of the big things for me with the baseline
standardised testing, and with a lot of standardised testing actually is that it
feels as though the government does not trust teachers' judgment and what I mean
by that is that teachers train for a long time to become teachers, you know we
usually spend four years at university learning to either become teachers or
learning to get a degree and then doing a year of a PGCE to become teachers.
There are lots of different routes into teaching but you know four years is
probably the kind of period you're looking at and so to go through all that
training and then to have lots of experience you know as teachers have
been teaching for a long time they gain so much experience they are the ones who
are trained and who are capable of assessing a child and so coming into
Reception they know exactly how to assess a child, what is going to be best
for that child and how to monitor that child's progress. They are able to use
the assessment criteria that they have decided on to give a child kind of a
level at the beginning of the year so that they can monitor their progress
towards the end of the year and of course the school can monitor the
progress throughout the child's whole school life. So it's really honestly
sometimes it feels a bit insulting when teachers' judgment is not taken into
account and that aspect of assessment is being taken away piece by piece at lots
of different levels of education. I see it happening a lot and it's almost like,
why are we training teachers then if you don't trust them to do their job? It's
really, I don't want to get into this a lot because it really does make me quite
cross but I mean I totally understand the point of standardised testing to
be able to give everyone the same opportunity and same conditions as each
other and it means that you can compare data across schools and across the
country. So I completely understand that. However there is a big difference
between standardised tests for a 15 or 16 year old and standardised testing for
a four-year-old. They are not ready for that and I think that was proven by the fact
that when we did the baseline test in my school before, before we even got to the
end of the year where we would have to start looking at doing more testing the
government had decided to stop the baseline testing because it just wasn't
working and we were glad about that, that they had decided to scrap it but also it
was quite frustrating because we had wasted so much time at the beginning of
the year because not only did we do the standardised baseline test which wasn't
very good we also did our own baseline testing because that was going to give
us the information that we actually needed. So I am really interested to know
what your thoughts on baseline tests are if you are a teacher or if you are a
parent. Are you aware of baseline testing? Are
you aware that the government wants to bring it in again? What do you think? Now
the National Education Union is not for these baseline tests they are against it
and they are supporting any teachers and schools who decide to not take part in
this trial and I do think there's going to be a very limited uptake in this
trial this time after the last one was so horrendous. The Union of Head Teachers
is apparently for it but only if it's good which I mean makes sense I suppose.
So the whole point of baseline tests is not to benefit the child. It is to
monitor how schools are doing from Reception to Year 2 or Year 6 depending on
if it's an Infant or a full-through Primary school so it's only for school
data and for the government to monitor how schools are doing. That in itself
causes a lot of controversy because surely we should be finding ways to
monitor school progress without it being to the detriment of the children and I
really do strongly feel that at the moment the baseline test that I have
seen and I have been a part of are not good for the children. Now of course I am
making this video with a very negative view of baseline testing and that is
just my opinion and I know I'm sure that there are those of you watching who
really like the idea of baseline testing and I would really be interested in
seeing your thoughts, hearing your thoughts let me know in the comments
below you can let me know on Instagram on Facebook and I love to hear what all
of you think and you know I'm not someone who's going to say that I will
never change my mind so you know if you think you can change
my mind please do try. But for me as a Reception class teacher I do not feel
that standardised baseline testing as it currently stands is to the benefit of
children and it is for that reason that I do not agree with it
because I honestly believe that anything we do in school should be to the benefit
of the children and if it isn't we really need to look
at why we are doing it because the reason we are here in school and
education as teachers as practitioners is to benefit the children and to make
their educational experience richer and better and happier so if there is
anything that we think is going against that we really need to review it and
think about how we can monitor data and do all of that stuff that schools need
to do without it being to the detriment of the children. So with all that being
said please do let me know in the comments below what you think of
baseline testing. Have you been teaching for a really long time and come from you
know baseline tests a really long time ago and then gone through the trial
again recently and what do you think? Do you think it works better with
standardised baseline testing or with schools doing their own baseline testing?
If you are in leadership how does it affect you when you have to look at your
data and report your data? Do you think that standardised testing is going to
make that easier for you? How would you propose to make standardised testing
work for four-year-olds so that they aren't negatively affected by it. Do let
me know in the comments below your thoughts, please do give this video a
like if you found it interesting. Join the Little Learners family by hitting
that subscribe button. Thank you so much for watching and I see you next time.
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