New 'baseline assessment' considered for primaries

The Government is also consulting on bringing in a new "baseline assessment" to ensure children are making progress, which could be "a simple check of a child's ability" in their first weeks of compulsory schooling, or maintaining existing teacher-marked tests at age seven.

The current system requires that children reach Level 4 in English and maths at the end of primary school, with primaries expected to ensure that 65% of their pupils achieve this standard. They are also measured on the progress they make between ages seven and 11.

But ministers are proposing that from 2016, schools will need to have at least 85% of their students reaching the new higher standard.