On 3 December 2020, the government made a number of announcements regarding primary statutory assessment in 2020/21.

This included the following detail:

• The multiplication tables check will be non-statutory, so it does not have to be administered by schools in 2021
• The grammar, punctuation and spelling test at key stage two will also be non-statutory, so it does not have to be administered in 2021
• Key stage one assessment in reading, writing and maths will be by teacher assessment only. The tests used to inform teacher assessment at key stage one will be non-statutory, and no new key stage one tests will be made available in 2021
• There will be no teacher assessment of science in 2021 at either key stage one or key stage two
• Key stage one phonics and the autumn term year two additional phonics check will go ahead. However, we have continued to press the government regarding the year two check. As a result, the guidance will be updated tomorrow to give more clarity on the use of the data. We expect it to state the following:“Data from the autumn year two phonics check will not be used in Analyse School Performance or in performance tables, or the Inspection Data Summary Report (IDSR) and local authorities will not use this data for accountability purposes.”
• Key stage two Sats in reading and maths and teacher assessment of writing will go ahead in 2021. The administration of these will be made more flexible with an extended timetable variation window.