SEND parent groups have written to Bridget Phillipson MP, Secretary of State for Education.
Dear Secretary of State
As parents of children with SEND, we need you to understand the devastating effects SATs have on our families—and to reconsider meaningful reform of the primary assessment system.
76% of our children fail SATs. Imagine what that actually means. Children who already face huge challenges at school spend their entire Year 6 convinced they are not clever enough. They feel they don’t belong. They try harder every day, but the odds are so stacked against them that the weight of it all eventually breaks them.
Every SEND family knows that attendance does not equal attainment. For our children, attendance too often equals anxiety, poor mental health, physical illness, and loss of learning. In too many cases this tips families into collective crisis—emotional-based school avoidance becomes entrenched, mothers’ careers stall, and households suffer loss of income.
Forcing children into a system that actively harms them is not the answer. Changing the system so that our children want to attend is.
The run-up to secondary school is already a vulnerable time. Just when we want to work with schools to build confidence, SATs dismantle it—leaving self-esteem and nervous systems in tatters. Too many children leave primary school disengaged from learning, carrying only a badge of failure for all their efforts.
None of this is the fault of our children, our families, or our brilliant educators. It is a systemic problem—and it is solvable.
An assessment system that narrows the curriculum, encourages teaching to the test, piles pressure onto young shoulders, and destroys a love of learning fails all children—and fails children with SEND the most.
We urge you to take our concerns seriously and change course before yet another generation of primary school children is let down.
Signed
Alex Partridge, host ADHD Chatter/author Now It All Makes Sense
Anna Maxwell Martin, actor
Annie Ridout, author
Black Child Down Syndrome Project
Black SEN Mamas
Citisen4U
Generation Alphabet
I Am Paying Attention
Grace Timothy, host/author, Is It My ADHD?
It’s That Parent
Nurtured Neuro Kids
Pamela Aculey, writer and founder, Just Like Me Books
Redbridge SEND
Ruth Lue-Quee, education expert
SEND Mummies
SEND Rights Alliance
Shush
Special Needs Jungle
Square Peg
Suitable Education for Every Child
The Hidden 20%
Jo Clayton and Natalie Lauren (Unauthorised Absence film)
Caro Giles, writer, Unschooled
Heidi Mavir, founder EOTAS Matters, writer, Your Child Is Not Broken