As the Government announces new tests for four and five year olds, education reporter Lyn Barton looks at the implications for Bradford.

'DON'T PANIC' is the message to parents over plans announced by the government to test the abilities of every youngster starting school.

Head teachers say the new assessments for four and five-year-olds will amount to more of the same in Bradford, where a system has been up and running for some years.

But they have warned mums and dads who coach their children could ultimately be hindering their development.

"It is not a stressful thing for the children, they don't even know they are being assessed," said Kay Lee, head teacher of Wellington First and First Schools Convenor for the district.

"We usually say: 'Whose turn is it to come and look at my special book.

"They are very keen and usually enjoy the personal attention. Plus it helps the teacher."

Under the government's plans, each four or five-year-old school starter will be taken to one side by a teacher and a brief 20 minute assessment will determine exactly where they are in terms of literacy and numeracy skills as well as social development.

The tests will be used a 'baseline' to check the child's development through the vital first few years of school.

Head teacher of Worthinghead First, Pam Ensor, believes it is a good idea and will help identify youngsters in need of special attention at both ends of the scale.

"I welcome it. If we are going to test children at the age of seven you really need to know how much progress they have made since they started school."

Worthinghead is one of the many first schools in the district to already run the Early Years Screening programme devised by Durham University and approved by the government.

She agreed children and their parents were by and large happy with the arrangement.

"It is not a test as such. It is all done one to one and for young children they love working like that.

"There is nothing sinister and it is not an exam situation."

However, parents should be deterred from giving special coaching to help their children 'pass' the assessment with flying colours.

"I wouldn't wish for parents to feel their children should be doing better in these assessments because that defeats the object," explained Mrs Lee.

"If you distort the starting point by some coaching it distorts everything that follows because it will be very difficult to measure progress if we haven't got the right start."

In preparation for the first round of tests this term, the government has already sent out millions of leaflets to reassure parents.

In announcing the Education minister Charles Clarke said there was no need to panic and it was not a question of a child failing or passing.

A note of caution was sounded by the biggest teaching union in Bradford, the National union of Teachers.

Secretary Ian Murch broadly welcomed the baseline assessments as a good starting point to keep an eye on the development of young pupils.

But, he said, they should not be used as league tables of achievement.

"It is right to check out children and assess them when they come into school, it's just like going to a doctor who will check you out before recommending a course of action.

"But standardised tests could be difficult for children with learning difficulties or those with English as a second language."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.