To be able to provide pupils with the best education it is vital that teachers know pupils' strengths and weaknesses, and baseline testing will help teachers identify these. To be clear, there is absolutely no suggestion of introducing the kind of formal testing in reception that is used with older children - that would be completely inappropriate.
Reception baselines will involve children sitting down one-to-one with their teacher when they start school for a simple education check-up. Most schools already do this so they know what individual care and attention the child needs. The content will include simple tasks typical for children at the start of reception, such as counting and recognising letters, numbers and everyday objects.
As part of the Government's plan for education, Ministers want to see all children leaving primary school with a good standard of reading, writing and maths, and teachers agree that measuring progress is the best way to ensure primary schools are doing this. The reception baselines have been evaluated by a team including independent early years experts, and there are a number of approaches that schools can use, so each school can choose one which fits their existing school practice. The tests are run by external providers and paid for by the Department for Education directly.