By James Searjeant, Greenwich
Primary assessment should serve children, not data
The final recommendations of the Curriculum and Assessment Review, led by Professor Becky Francis and her team, contain many of the principles I have long championed as a primary headteacher. Inclusion, belonging, and a curriculum that values every child for who they are, not simply for what they achieve in tests, have been central to my career and contributions to this process. I recognise the enormous task Professor Becky Francis and her team undertook and congratulate them on producing a thoughtful, ambitious, and evidence-rich report. The emphasis on teacher agency, curriculum flexibility, professional trust, and a whole-child approach offers real cause for optimism, principles I have stood for from the start.
Worryingly, primary assessments such as the Year 1 phonics screening check, times tables tests in Year 4, and Key Stage 2 SATs are likely to remain part of the system for the foreseeable future. It is time to ask how long the current approach can continue to limit the breadth and richness of children’s learning. Assessment should evolve, not only in what and how we teach, but also in how we measure progress, ensuring that tests support learning rather than dominate it. Assessment should help teachers identify needs, guide instruction, and celebrate achievement in ways that nurture curiosity, creativity and wellbeing.
Yet the primary assessments currently in use are not inclusive and are increasingly unfit for purpose. Standardised testing in its current form is a twentieth-century tool that has little place in twenty-first-century education. Key Stage 2 SATs in particular often limit the breadth of the curriculum, narrowing what children learn to what is tested. They continue to disadvantage children with special educational needs, those from disadvantaged backgrounds and those whose strengths lie outside what is measured. Assessment remains essential but it is time to explore fairer, more inclusive ways to measure learning. Bold and innovative educational leaders have a role in demonstrating what these methods can look like and testing in this outdated form should end sooner rather than later. Without change, the system will remain trapped in old methods, constraining the education of a generation of children.
As a headteacher, I witness daily the consequences of a testing system dominated by data. Teachers leave the profession, recruitment for Year 6 teachers becomes harder, and parents and carers see the toll on their children’s mental health. The focus on testing limits the curriculum for those who need it most and places a heavy burden of accountability on school leaders, many of whom are leaving the profession too. The review should mark a moment for assessment transformation, yet in many ways it sadly maintains a system that continues to challenge primary-aged children.
At the same time, the review has significant strengths. Professor Becky Francis and her team clearly listened to thousands of responses from schools, parents and carers, pupils, and experts, producing a report that gives schools space to innovate and adapt to the needs of their communities. We now have the opportunity to continue our own revolutions in teaching and learning without upheaval, evolving our curriculums to prioritise curiosity, creativity, wellbeing and standards alongside assessment that is meaningful and purposeful.
This opportunity will only be meaningful if assessment systems truly reflect learning. A national conversation should follow this review, examining how inclusive current primary assessments are, how they reflect the diversity of achievement across all children, and how they support human skills and wellbeing.
Children are more than a score.