Alliance welcomes NUT plans to boycott
4th April 2015
Commenting on the news that the National Union of Teachers have voted to boycott on new reception baseline tests, Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, said:
“We are very pleased to hear that the NUT have voted in support of a boycott of reception baseline tests, and fully support this decision.
“Early years policy must always, without exception, have the needs of the child at its centre — but with baseline tests, this is simply not the case. Early assessments should be holistic and well-rounded and so we remain extremely concerned that the proposed tests focus so heavily on the narrow skills of language, literacy and numeracy. Broader skills such as physical development and personal, social and emotional development may be harder to measure but they remain a vital part of children’s early learning.
“The government must accept that it has made a serious error in judgement here, and start engaging with parents and educational professionals to ensure that children are adequately — and appropriately — supported at the start of school and beyond.”
For further information, please
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Notes for editors
- The Pre-school Learning Alliance is the largest voluntary sector provider of quality affordable childcare and education in England.
- Through direct provision and its membership of 14,000 nurseries, sessional pre-schools and parent and toddler groups, the Alliance supports over 800,000 children and their families in England. The Alliance also develops and runs family learning programmes, offers information and advice, runs acclaimed training and accreditation programmes and campaigns to influence early years policy and practice.
- For information about the Pre-school Learning Alliance, visit our website: