Letter to your MP Regarding the Touchscreen RBA

The Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) is a statutory test taken by every four and five-year-old starting school in England. Since September 2025 it has been delivered on a touchscreen tablet despite research showing the touchscreen element of the test is distressing for children, that it tests digital skills rather than maths and literacy and provides inaccurate results and therefore unreliable data.

If you are a parent or guardian of a child at school in England and you have signed our Open Letter to the Department for Education please write to your MP to let them know your concerns and to ask them to raise this with Government Ministers. Please download a copy of the Open Letter to send with your email.

You can find your MP here

DOWNLOAD LETTER (WORD DOC)

DOWNLOAD LETTER (PDF)

DOWNLOAD THE OPEN LETTER TO DFE (PDF)

Dear [Title and Surname MP],

I am writing as a parent and a member of your constituency to raise concerns about the mandatory touchscreen version of the Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) which was introduced in primary schools across England in 2025.

I have signed an open letter organised by SafeScreens, signed by thousands of parents and guardians, which has been sent to Paul Waugh MP, Minister for Early Education. I am attaching a copy of the letter.

The letter highlights a stark policy contradiction:

The DfE’s early years screen guidance dictates that adults must co-engage, prompt, and discuss when screens are used with young children.
The DfE’s assessment rules for the RBA state that teachers must not prompt or support children beyond their standardised assessment script while the child interacts with a touchscreen device.

The mandatory touchscreen element of the RBA dictates that teachers must follow a set script and are barred from helping children navigate the touchscreen, even if the child is visibly struggling.

An empirical, peer-reviewed study of the research authored by academics from Leeds Beckett University and University College London, has been published in Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood this month: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14639491261480602

The study found that every child observed showed visible distress whilst using the touchscreen, and that results were skewed by digital familiarity rather than actual ability – meaning the assessment not only breaches the DfE’s own guidance, and sets an unwanted inappropriate presumption that 4-year olds should be familiar with touchscreen tablets, but also now produces unreliable data.

The Department for Education produces a non-digital, paper version of the RBA for use with children with specifically diagnosed needs, but it does not currently permit any other children to access that version. The open letter we have signed asks the Department for Education simply to grant access to that non-digital, paper version of the RBA to any parents who request it – to give parents a choice.

The autumn term testing window is about to begin so time is of the essence. I would be grateful if you could raise this issue with the Minister urgently on my behalf, and I would welcome your support regarding this issue which will affect young children throughout your constituency. I am attaching a copy of the open letter and supporting research.