Over the next few days, in addition to the regular content, we are running some guest pieces covering some aspects of schooling and education. Schools recently went back for the start of the new term. The purpose of these pieces is to address some of the politics of education for pupils, parents and educators.
More Than A Score campaigns to change the high-stakes, high-pressure assessment system in primary schools and to make good mental health the basis for good learning. It brings together a range of organisations campaigning for changes to the assessment system in England’s primary schools.
End of the road for SATs
by Alison Ali, More Than A Score
Imagine a policy issue where all the key stakeholders are in agreement about the need for reform. Where policy change would substantively improve the lives of children, particularly those from deprived or disadvantaged backgrounds and where the long-term positive effects would be measurable across the whole of society.
In primary schools today, this issue is assessment and accountability. Of course, there is a funding crisis in schools and the lack of investment in resources, staff and infrastructure affects almost every school in the country. It must be addressed.
However, ask the overwhelming majority of parents, teachers or school leaders what single reform would make the biggest difference to primary teaching and school life and they will immediately point to SATs and the government’s high-pressure testing regime. This system of accountability based on the results of tests taken in five out of seven primary years has negative consequences for learning, for staff retention and morale and for children’s mental health.
Children in England now take high-stakes, high-pressure tests in:
Reception: the baseline assessment taken in the first six weeks of term
Year 1: the phonics screening check which, experts agree, measures how well children can decode sounds, rather than reading ability
Year 2: key stage 1 SATs in English and maths, due to be made optional in 2023/4
Year 4: multiplication tables check, measuring children’s recall abilities in one area of maths only. An online test where 8- and 9-year-olds have just six seconds to answer each question and the pass mark is 100%
Year 6: key stage 2 SATs; four days of English and maths tests taken under the same exam conditions as GCSEs
The results of all of these tests are used entirely for accountability purposes. One year’s set of results can prompt an Ofsted inspection from which forced academisation may follow.
The consequences in the classroom are inevitable. The curriculum is narrowed to focus solely on English and maths and on what can be tested. Not imagination, story-telling or problem-solving but phonics sounds in year one; times tables recall in year four and the much-derided SPAG curriculum in preparation for SATs - fronted adverbials and all.
In 2020 and 2021, all primary assessment was suspended. Schools used the time to fully explore the curriculum, not rush to complete it in time for SATs week in May. Children were spared reams of practice papers and cramming. Heads told us that preparations for year 6 starting secondary school, even in the midst of a pandemic, were improved.
In 2022, when the government restored the full raft of tests, parents, teachers and heads had seen the benefits for themselves. Opposition to the current system intensified.
The vast majority of school leaders have opposed the system for many years. In 20221:
Only 3 per cent of heads wanted SATs to go ahead
Only 8 per cent of heads said they believed the results would provide any useful information about their school
For years, the government has propagated a myth that parents support the current regime. That can now be refuted. Parentkind — the body representing the country’s PTAs — carried out their own research in March 2022.2 They found:
89 per cent of parents believe SATs should be replaced by an alternative
85 per cent don’t consider SATs results when choosing a school
86 per cent believe they are not a useful way to measure school performance
Most damningly of all, 95 per cent of parents believe SATs have a damaging effect on children’s well-being.3 No wonder sixty per cent of year six pupils told us they were worried about the tests and one in ten reported sleeping badly4.
This is a system which is failing our children - literally so, when over forty per cent of children have started secondary school this term having been told they “did not reach expected standards”.
At More Than A Score, we believe that schools should be held accountable and children should be assessed responsibly, to support their learning. Parents, teachers and heads — those who know children best — agree. It’s time for policy-makers to follow suit.
More Than A Score is a coalition of organisations campaigning for changes to the assessment system in England’s primary schools. Members of the campaign include the British Educational Research Association, the UK Literacy Association, parent groups Save Our Schools and Let Our Kids Be Kids, and the National Education Union.
NAHT, March 2022
Parentkind, March 2022
Parentkind, March 2022
YouGov, March 2022