Abstract
In September 2021, following the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Department for Education introduced a national standardised digital Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) for all English 4-year-old children. We analyse RBA and its associated Quality Monitoring Visits, as a further intensification of the new public management of early years education to produce ‘school-ready’ human capital. This paper reports on professionals’ and children’s responses to RBA by analysing the mixed-methods data from a nationwide survey of early years professionals (n = 1032) and six in-depth case study Reception classes with teacher interviews (n = 14) and researcher observations (n = 12). An adult thematic analysis of the responses suggests that some children and their teachers used their agency in creative ‘small acts’ of micro-resistance. These ‘small acts’ of resistance and refusal are theorised as micro-political contestations of a policy that is antithetical to early education’s socio-cultural approach. More research is needed to further understand the politics of young children’s rights, agency, micro-resistance and refusal.