Two in five parents want SATS to stay

SATS tests still have strong support among parents, according to an opinion poll for the government.
44% want the tests to stay, compared to 36% who want them replaced with another system. The rest were "don't know"s.
Despite this result, most parents had not used SATS to see how their child was doing at school, to monitor their progress, or to identify areas where their child needed support, or did not intend to use them in that way.
One in three parents said SATS had been no use to them, or they didn't expect them to be of any use.
Of those who wanted SATS to be replaced, half favoured a combination of the teachers' judgement of a child's progress and assessments carried out by the child's teacher.
The poll was conducted by Ipsos MORI and the results are based on interviews with 936 parents of at least one child of school age.
National Curriculum Testing at Key Stage 2: Quantitative Topline Report

Heads and teachers to vote on SATS boycott

Head teachers and teachers are considering a boycott of next year's SATS tests.
The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT)and National Union of Teachers (NUT) will debate identical resolutions at their conferences calling for a boycott of the Key Stage 1 and 2 tests in 2010.
Both organisations have agreed that if the tests continue beyond 2009, it will damage children's education.
Mick Brookes, general secretary of the NAHT, said, "We feel it is unconscionable that we should simply stand by and allow the educational experience of children to be blighted and for colleagues to be humiliated and demeaned on an annual bsis by the publication of league tables."
The NUT's Christine Blower said "Primary schools' patience in enduring the damage caused by the tests has been stretched to the limit and beyond." She said it was unjust that primary schools have to continue with the tests the Government has decided to drop in secondary schools.

Government is a bad influence on schools say researchers

Experts have fiercely criticised of government interference in the primary classroom.
Children are missing out on a “broad and balanced primary education” because of the government’s preoccupation with “standards” says the
Cambridge Primary Review, an independent study funded by Cambridge University and the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation.
It has published a string of reports on different aspects of primary education. The latest, called Towards a New Primary Curriculum, welcomes the Early Years Foundation Stage but says that for older primary pupils “memorisation and recall have come to be valued over understanding and enquiry” because of government policies, including SATS testing.
Cambridge Primary Review
http://www.primaryreview.org.uk/index.html

SATS firm sacked

The private company responsible for marking this year’s SATS papers has been sacked.

The American company ETS was stripped of its contract by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, which appointed them in the first place. The announcement came after thousands of complaints from schools about delayed results and inadequate marking.

Results were so late that by the end of July some children still hadn’t received their marks. Some heads said SATS papers had been returned unmarked, with pupils marked as absent.

Heads reported problems with the system from early on. At one point, according to the BBC, ETS had 10,000 unopened emails from schools.

Minister blames teachers for children's SATS stress

Schools minister Ed Balls has accused primary schools of causing children unnecessary stress over SATS.

In an interview with the New Statesman magazine he said some teachers worry children by giving them advance warning of exams.

“It is totally the wrong way of doing things. No seven year old should ever know they are doing SATS.”

Headteachers, who have repeatedly called for SATS to be scrapped, said Balls was guilty of hypocrisy.

English children "most tested"

Primary school children in England are tested more heavily than most other developed countries.

A ‘testing culture’ means pupils face more testing, in more subjects, from an earlier age, a report by the Cambridge-based Primary Review found.

Comparisons were made with 22 other countries, including the Netherlands, France and Japan.

Children who start school early were also discovered to be at a disadvantage.

Those beginning at the age of four sometimes found the experience stressful. They performed less well all the way through education, and achieved lower grades at GCSE.

Primary schools in England were also found to be larger than in other countries, with an average of 224 pupils.

The Structure and Content of English Primary Education: international perspectives

TA concerns about lost childhood

Teaching assistants have raised concerns about a ‘loss of childhood’ affecting primary children today, in the biggest enquiry into English primary education for over 40 years.

They also highlighted the ill-effects of technology such as play stations, the internet, television and mobile phones in allowing children access to material ranging from ‘unsuitable’ to the ‘pernicious’.

In the survey by the independent, Cambridge University-based Primary Review, 64 teaching assistants were interviewed, of a total of 750 children, teachers, parents and others.

Teaching assistants generally felt that school stress, family breakdown, and consumer and media pressures was leading to a loss of childhood.

They made comparisons to being allowed to play freely outside unsupervised without the fears common today such as strangers and traffic.

Concern was also expressed about children using bad language, a loss of mutual respect, and a sense that ‘society doesn’t function as well as it did’.

In the classroom, teaching assistants said they would most like to see teaching concentrating on the basics of literacy, numeracy and ICT, without ignoring the need for life skills such as communication.

In the survey children said they suffered stress about exams and anxieties about modern life.

Climate change and terrorism were frequently cited, as well as the gap between rich and poor.

In addition children worried about traffic, knives, guns, strangers, and other personal safety issues.

The authors of the report say the line of questioning at the sessions was open, not leading, and that responses were very consistent although the sessions were held in very different regional venues, and people often referred to specific local issues to illustrate their views.

The Primary Review

KS1 writing standard falls again

THE basic writing standards of seven-year-olds have fallen for the second year in a row, government figures show.

80 per cent of children reached Level 2 in writing tests, down from 82 per cent of children last year.

For maths, science and reading, figures remained the same as the previous year, and one point down on 2005.

Girls outperformed boys in every category, particularly writing, where 86 per cent reached the target compared to 75 per cent of boys.

Schools minister Andrew Adonis said he was pleased with the results but stressed the need to push for improvements.He said: "We know that children who reach the expected level in reading, writing and maths at seven years old have a much better chance of leaving primary school with a solid foundation in literacy and numeracy skills.

"That is why we are doing much more to support early reading, writing and maths."