Testing times

Standardised testing for five-year-olds have been set up to be “deliberately vague” to support the notion that Scotland’s attainment gap is closing, a primary teacher has claimed.

Five-year-olds should be having fun, not being subjected to tests to prove political points.

toup Having discussed the tests in detail with one of my children’s teachers it’s clear that, properly used, they’re a valuable diagnostic that helps the teacher better target learning to the specific needs of each child (in particular where an aspect of learning needs to be reinforced or supported), while also monitoring their own performance to identify aspects of their lesson planning that they perhaps need to work on.

SAM

According to the teacher, the test questions tended to be “very poorly phrased – often at best they are ambiguous and at worst they are so badly written that they are actually misleading”.

Persona non grata There is a difference between formal testing of five-year olds and an assessment to find out the level and requirements of the child. Testing is unnecessary and causes stress, whereas an assessment can be done without children even knowing they are being assessed. But why is this a matter for politicians?

Willy Spinny Assessment in schools drives the methodology, and active learning becomes secondary to “teaching the test”. Young people are badly served by society’s craving for “results” and league tables.

YC1 Rather than identifying the needs of individual pupils, I get the impression these tests

are designed to measure the performance of teachers.

Sheumais Five is a bit young for testing, P5-P7 is a different story. But the separatists have been failing our kids’ education for 11 years.

John Wastle We do need to assess the achievements and any problems of children if we are to improve the quality of their education. But I agree that the methods and means in use are less than they could and should be. I wish we followed Finland and didn’t start formal schooling until the age of seven.

Andrew Macaulay Finland by all means, but be wary about the lessons you are inclined to take from it – my experience as a parent is that Scottish system is/ was superior but, being a dependent nation, the propaganda is incomparable.

Stuart