Baseline Boycott: Why we should take a stand!

Imagine a world where the actions of a 4-year-old go on to determine their worth for years to come.

I’d like you to picture Tom. Tom spent every day crawling on his hands and knees in a circle before he sat on the carpet. He liked to hide under chairs and had a fondness for running up behind people and sniffing them.
Tom did not like sitting still for very long; at 4 years old, why should he? Give him an adult led task and he would not give you his attention. Why? Because you’d stopped him from doing what he loved: being a dog.

Asking Tom to sit and answer test based questions on an iPad was an absolute waste of time. I knew that Tom could blend and segment simple CVC words and recognise most tricky words, I knew he could count to 50 and I knew he was starting to be able to write recognisable words. I did not need a baseline test on an iPad to tell me that. And neither did Tom.

Tom was exactly where he needed to be. He was making progress and was having a successful year in Reception.
Unfortunately, Tom was labelled a failure by the last set of baseline tests. This is wrong. This is disgusting and quite simply, this is immoral.

Baseline tests are damaging to our children.

They force our youngest pupils to attempt tasks they are not physically, emotionally or cognitively ready for. This is nothing short of child abuse.

Two years ago, the government announced their U-turn on baseline assessment. Teachers and early years professionals everywhere rejoiced! We had prevented a generation of children from being labelled as ‘failures’.

Our joy was short lived. The beast known as baseline has once again risen its ugly head - costing, according to the DfE, up to £10 million. School funding is in crisis; we don’t have enough money to buy basic resources such as rulers or felt tips. So where is the £10 million coming from? How can this be justified by our government? It is inherently wrong.

Baseline testing is part of a much wider issue - inappropriate curriculum, accountability, funding, assessment, child mental health. We know this. We need to put a stop to it.

Last week at the NEU (NUT Section’s) Annual Conference, delegates voted to encourage members to boycott the reintroduction of baseline in September 2019, using industrial action if needed.

We need to build for this boycott now. Our members do not want these tests; our children should not have these tests.

A successful stand against baseline can bring early years education back into the hands of the professionals. Ending the notion of formal, less play based learning as threatened by Bold Beginnings. Allowing us to teach children in the way we know they learn best. Allowing early years professionals to use our judgement and do the job we are trained to do, without interference from a government who do not understand the basics of child development.

A day of action is planned for Saturday 2nd June 2018.

So far we have events being set up in Stockton, Tyneside and Durham. Creative activities will be in place for children while we are on hand to speak to parents, grandparents, members of the public about why these tests are toxic and why boycotting them is a good idea.

Will you help? Either by holding an event or by attending one that is being set up in a neighbouring area.

We need our communities to understand the damage our government are about to inflict upon our children via these terrible tests. We need their support. Together, we can win this and change education for the better!

Merike is an early years teacher from Stockton.