Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of (a) the effectiveness of the primary school assessment system and (b) whether that system reflects priorities of parents.

The Department ran a consultation in 2017 to seek views about key issues in the primary assessment system, including how we can ensure the assessment system is proportionate while continuing to support high standards in our primary schools. The consultation was open for 12 weeks and received 4,165 responses from a range of groups, including parents.

Our response set out a number of actions, including developing new and revised assessments by working closely with key stakeholders such as teachers. When developing new assessment policy, such as the new engagement model and the reception baseline assessment, the Standards and Testing Agency seeks the views of parents or their representative organisations to inform decision making. The response also set out how we would provide clearer and more meaningful information to parents on how their children are progressing as well as identifying where additional support may be required.