Are tests doing our kids more harm than good?
LOVE them or hate them – they are the Marmite of exams.
SATs start today for thousands of 10 and 11-year-olds across the North East and stress levels are rising for both kids and parents. It’s a week of exams – and spread across the whole month of May are similar tests for children aged six and seven.
But the row over whether they do more harm than good continues.
On Friday More Than A Score (MTAS) campaigners took out wraparound adverts in a string of local newspapers across the country.
They said: “SATS – these tests damage our children” and called on the government to ditch them.
The MTAS said: “Primary school children in England are some of the most tested in the world. For nearly three decades now, we’ve been putting children through SATs. You may have gone through this process while you were at primary school – but a lot has changed.
“Year-on-year, successive Governments have forced SATs to become more and more data-driven, pressurised, and unsustainable. Too much homework, compulsory revision clubs, endless test papers and drilling are just some of the symptoms of this groaning, untenable regime.
“Yes, schools need to be held accountable to children, parents, communities and Government. But the current system is not fit for purpose. Ranking schools based on SATs results is misleading – it doesn’t paint a true picture of the quality of education a school provides. And, increasingly, it’s causing damage to children’s mental health, wellbeing and education.”
Concerned mum Elizabeth Grey, from South Shields, is backing the campaign. She has three children and is against SATs.
She said: “I am a parent with three children, aged 10, seven and five. I first became aware that England has a terrible obsession with testing children when my middle child, Henry, sat the government’s ‘Baseline’ test in September 2015.
“To my horror, I learned that within 10 hours of school, Henry had been assessed, labelled, ranked, scored and placed in the lowest of five withinclass ‘ability’ groups because he didn’t have an understanding of phonics and didn’t yet know how to write his name. I then learned that the results of this test would be used to project his SATs performance seven years later. He was four years old.
“All three of my children learn differently and have different strengths and weaknesses, but they all have the same unlimited potential to succeed. One of my children absorbs lessons and memorises facts very easily. I have another who ticked all of the boxes when she started school this year and will undoubtedly be privileged through the system for fitting inside the ‘one-sizefits-all’ box. “Then we have Henry, who is extremely creative, imaginative, has enviable social skills and learns through doing. He’s my square peg, and none of the things he excels at are assessed or valued because they can’t be easily tested and turned into data. “SATs are currently looming for my eldest child – the one with the great memory. He won’t be assessed on his ability to write beautifully or think critically. Instead, he’ll be assessed on how well he’s retained the facts his teachers have been forced to drill into him. The government thinks recognising a fronted adverbial in a sentence is of more importance than thinking critically. Is it any wonder that the UK ranks top in ‘lowvalue’ learning?” It’s not all teachers who love SATs either. In 2001 Newcastle headteacher Helen Quick admitted altering pupils’ answers on national test papers and resigned. Miss Quick gave up her position at Wyndham Primary School in Kenton, confessing she had corrected the 11 year olds’ SAT papers in maths and science. Her union – the National Association of Head Teachers – put her “error of judgement” down to stress, after an inspection by the education watchdog, Ofsted, three years earlier said the school had “serious weaknesses”. Prior
The government thinks recognising a fronted adverbial is more important than thinking critically Elizabeth Grey
to the incident, her integrity had been “impeccable”, the NAHT said.
All these years later the argument about SATs continues to rumble on.
SATs were introduced in Autumn 1989. Dubbed “the most controversial of education reforms”, the national curriculum was implemented in all state primary and secondary schools in England and Wales and key stages were established for testing.
They are set by the The Standards and Testing Agency of the Department of Education who “set the tests to assess children in education from early years to the end of key stage 2” for pupils aged between 7 and 11.
On its website it says: “We provide an effective and robust testing, assessment and moderation system to measure and monitor pupils’ progress through primary school from reception to the end of key stage 2. We are also responsible for developing and delivering the professional skills test for trainee teachers and managing the general qualifications logistics service provided to exam centres and examiners.”
Child and adolescent psychotherapist Alison Roy has her views.
She said: “Children who spend significant amounts of time in harsh and overly controlling environments will not thrive– they will suffer.
“They will perceive they have no choice but to prioritise the unrealistic demands of those adults who seem to have little regard for their need for security, nurture and a protected space to learn about themselves and their world through creativity and play. These children will also learn to distrust their feelings and seek to please others without having a clear sense of themselves and their identity.
“This is the danger of SATs or testing regimes where targets and the need for ‘success’ and perfection has little to do with the healthy growth and future potential of the individual child.”
Despite all this, there are said to be some positives that sit alongside the negatives. Councils across the country implement the SATs put out by the Government and education bosses at Newcastle City Council have views for and against them.
A spokesperson for Newcastle City Council said: “There are advantages to having standard performance indicators as this can help to show where schools need to do more to raise achievement, and this in turn can help improve school accountability.
“The tests can also provide a focus for pupils and, in some cases, can help to motivate children in their work. They may also be useful in helping parents to understand the standard their children are at when they reach the age of 11.
“However, it is important to acknowledge that there are a number of concerns about the effect the tests may have on education, particularly in light of the pressure that schools feel they are under in order to perform well.
“There is a risk of pupils feeling stressed and upset – particularly in cases where children are struggling in English and maths – there is also a risk that because schools are focused on the test subjects, other areas of learning may suffer. As a result, while the tests can provide some useful performance information it is important that this is not looked at in isolation.”