At the age of 10 and 11, children should be expanding their knowledge and enjoying a wide and varied curriculum. They should be preparing to take their next steps towards secondary school. Instead, thousands of year 6 pupils spend months cramming for KS2 SATs.
Teachers have no time to deliver varied and interesting lessons as they focus just on English and maths. Many of them feel compelled to ‘teach to the test’.
At home, pupils and their parents undergo stress and pressure as they fear the stigma of failure.
And what purpose do these tests serve? Absolutely none, other than a way to judge schools against each other. Children become data points and their education is sacrificed to a system that is in thrall to league tables.
The system was designed to measure schools’ progress but it’s not working out that way. With such a narrow curriculum, SATs can’t paint a true picture of all that a school has to offer. Meanwhile, children believe that SATs represent a judgement on their own abilities. Almost one in four now believe their results will help them to find a job in the future. And over a third of children taking SATs in 2018 had to be told they had failed, just as they were about to embark on secondary education.
At More Than A Score, we believe there is a better way to assess our schools and measure our children’s progress. We’re calling for the government to commission a comprehensive, independent review of the current system to produce recommendations for an approach that’s fit for purpose.
Please join us to call for change in the current over-testing regime. There are lots of ways to make your voice heard. Our parents’ toolkit includes resources and ideas to help you take action.
