School tests could result in coaching for three-year-olds

♦ Plans to test four-year-olds in their first weeks at school will result in children being coached by parents from the age of three, campaigners have warned.

The Government has announced that the controversial new assessment, to be rolled out by the end of 2020, will be used to measure the progress children make at primary school.

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, warned that it would encourage the coaching of preschoolers to ensure they were test ready.

“The simple fact is that no testcondition assessment can be designed well enough to reflect the complexities and variation of a child in reception,” he told the Guardian.