BillMC:

If anyone thinks that endless testing as a means of judging kids, teachers and schools doesn’t adversely affect the curriculum then they can’t have much idea about what’s going on.

SATs are at the end of years 2, 6, and 9. So, in the first 9 years of schooling, they sit SATs 3 times in total. Hardly endless…

Rachel

My lads are 5&6 and the level of homework they get from their school is bonkers. I’m not sure when they are actually meant to be kids instead of academic learning machines. My 6 year old (7 in August so one of the youngest) is getting anxious about the timed bit of the test. Getting anxious about a test at 6!!! FFS it’s ridiculous IMHO.

You do weigh and you react to the data once it’s brought together with other relevant information you have; evidence based decision making.

Forced Acadamisation being the very embodiment of evidence based decision making, I presume?

I really don’t get what ‘evidence’ you’re meant to get from a test on a 6 year old. everything, if you listen to the ‘Experts’

Hardly endless…

and schools will give them a ‘trial’ paper for each about some months before the actual SATS run under the same conditions.

So that’s 6 times in 9 years with months of trial papers and specific teaching towards the tests each time.

If it was necessary to sit SATS in order to receive a decent education then governments would make the independent sector do them too.

[edit] damn I told myself I’d leave this thread alone…

So, the message from parents and teachers is “Don’t worry kids, if you don’t want to do something then you can just refuse or avoid it, and it will go away”

I’m sure that will play out well in the longterm…

Force 10 in the Royal Worcester

Two simple lessons

keep gov’s [of all sorts] out of education [as much as possible]
the parents seem to be the ones getting stressed [along with the teachers]

Blimey what a fuss about nothing

So, the message from parents and teachers is “Don’t worry kids, if you don’t want to do something then you can just refuse or avoid it, and it will go away

re-enforced at some stage by skipping school to have a cheap educational experience holiday. The “Me, myself,I society”

Or from the other side, ‘Ministers ignore the shit out of the experts and do what’ll make you look good to your core vote’

the message from parents and teachers is “Don’t worry kids, if you don’t want to do something then you can just refuse or avoid it, and it will go away”

Lets hope it does not **** up their education and critical thinking as much as yours 😉

Is it only with fox hunting you support direct action?

So, the message from parents and teachers is “Don’t worry kids, if you don’t want to do something then you can just refuse or avoid it, and it will go away”

That’s the heart of the issue for me. My youngest isn’t 7 yet and will sit it shortly. He’s doing fine at school and is not in the slightest bit anxious about it as far as I can tell – and I don’t particularly want to bring it up as a major issue.

But…that is what this ‘strike’ does. It prompts the kids to question what is wrong and potentially (I’m thinking Year 6 here) gives them a convenient excuse not to do their best. Taking them out today is just the wrong thing to do. I’m also not convinced all parents who do will engage the kids in softer forms of education today as the whole movement advocates. Plenty parents shopping in town with junior in tow this lunchtime…

This has done the rounds and I am sure most have seen it. But it is an interesting take on education and links to the idea of standardised testing.

It prompts the kids to question what is wrong

Heaven forbid!! What would the country be like if the folk below stairs started questioning the Eton Boys???

Totally wrong to strike and I think we should all just accept it. The government’s right about everything and we really need to learn that they always make the best decisions….some citizens are getting too big for their boots. Must be the education that’s doing that….

Could you tell me that again edenvalleyboy. But could you pat me on the head while you’re doing it, then tell me not to worry my little head about the grown up stuff?

Ta.

As I said earlier on the thread, the government spokesmans line on Five Live this morning was basically just that.

I listened to this last year, he does appear to have done his homework….
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04dmxwl
worth listening to.

my kids have just passed through primary school and they certainly need testing and whats more the teachers should sit the test as well.. we send her school letters back with spelling and grammar corrected, I ve had a stroke so my poor spelling and grammar can be laid at that door but for my yr 5 daughters teacher not to mark projects shes had for over a month and for her not to know whats happening one day to the next when they spend 24 hrs a day 7 days a week preparing for lessons and booking holidays in New York and Andorra that she has told the class about this year i expect them to have a thread of an idea what the main learning will be in coming weeks

kids love a test.. the 10 year old above has 20 words to learn how to spell each weekend.. which she does … however they are not tested on their learning as its ”too competitive and alienates the less able”

we send her school letters back with spelling and grammar corrected

I must remember this as soon as my chap starts. Schools love parents to get involved like that.

Indeed those who do well on testes love them as they get self esteem form being the best

you are right we should not give a shit about those who struggle
**** them
🙄
All parents only GAS about their offspring the teacher has to care about everyones and do the best for all

Totally wrong to strike and I think we should all just accept it.

I refer you to the Human rights charter and the fact that strikes are a human right. Why should I accept that ?

some citizens are getting too big for their boots.

Floggings? Public Lynchings? Black balling them? How shall the state crush them?
The state exists to serve the interests of the civilians. Civilians do not exist to serve the interests of the state.

Indeed those who do well on testes

Sorry JY…you know I don’t take the mick out of your spelling, but that did make me giggle. 😀

maked sense when i read this….

“These tests are not about gauging – or even accelerating – your child’s progress.
These tests are part of the Government’s agenda for removing schools from local authority control and handing them – and their assets – to private Academy chains.”

there’s a reason why governments do the things they do – tories privatize….

One of my twins got really stressed out about these, they sat mocks and everything. She mistakenly saw a classmates paper with a 0 score and it made her realise that she had the potential to be a failure. We had to have a word with the school about their approach. The other twin is in a different class and the teacher is head of KS1 and more experienced, and her approach has obviously been much better as the other twin isn’t phased at all by it. I’m not sure that all the technical grammar is absolutely necessary, they know more about it than me now! But in general it seems to be common sense stuff to me and some of it provokes genuine interest from them. We spent ages discussing homophones the other day.

We spent ages discussing homophones the other day.

Yes there’s a lot of work on LGBT issues now days, I understand.

my kids have just passed through primary school and they certainly need testing…

Why, as a matter of interest?

you know I don’t take the mick out of your spelling, but that did make me giggle.

It would certainly make the collection of my worst /best efforts

😳

Just part of the ongoing tickboxification of every aspect of our society, innit?

Worse than that, in line with the tories attempts to privatise the NHS, this is the next step towards bringing the private sector into education. I try not to take a conspiratorial view, but when you see SATs being reorganised with very little notice so that kids are doing stuff that used to be two years above them, it’s bloody hard not to come to the conclusion that they are being set up to fail so that the tories can play the inefficient-public-sector-look-it-needs-to-be-privatised card. How long before we see schools being tendered out to private providers?

some citizens are getting too big for their boots.

That’s the funniest thing I think I’ve ever read on here 😀 I bet the likes of Louis XVI and Tsar Nicholas II said something similar before their untimely demise.

edit: see what you did there 🙂

she had the potential to be a failure

Hasn’t everyone?

Why was it a surprise?

Privatising education will mean everyone can buy a certificate, create more jobs for qualified students and allow the govt to spend more money on war toys.

tests will prove this.

Kids love a test? Yours might. My 7yo is shitting herself. Exam stress at 7, lovely.

She is highly strung, and does not have the maturity to deal with it yet.

There’s loads of past papers to read and learn from so not hard to prepare for.

Worse than that, in line with the tories attempts to privatise the NHS, this is the next step towards bringing the private sector into education.

easy starter:

a. This is true
b. This is untrue
c. This is actually quite funny

I try not to take a conspiratorial view, but when you see SATs being reorganised with very little notice so that kids are doing stuff that used to be two years above them, it’s bloody hard not to come to the conclusion that they are being set up to fail so that the tories can play the inefficient-public-sector-look-it-needs-to-be-privatised card. How long before we see schools being tendered out to private providers?

No need to answers a or b – even KS2 students would see through that!!

The Tories are that competent, that they could pull that kind of stunt off!!!

OK, here’s a daring thought. If the tests are causing teachers to “teach to the tests” then they’re evidently bad tests. Likewise “preparing for the tests”- the preparation for the tests is the curriculum. If they’re supposed to gauge progress and attainment then they have to test to the teaching.

All of the commentary and criticism seem to reinforce this; the problem isn’t with testing, good testing wouldn’t raise half of these criticisms. Bad testing disrupts the learning process in order to produce poor answers.

@junkyard and Binners…amazed you took my post seriously.

There’s loads of past papers to read and learn from

errm, this year is the first year for a completely new set of test and testing regime.

Hence the spelling test being published as a sample paper in error – they only had one or two to put out to teachers.

She is highly strung, and does not have the maturity to deal with it yet.

Lets wrap her in cotton wool and never let her out the house then…

Kids love a test? Yours might. My 7yo is shitting herself. Exam stress at 7, lovely.

As I said earlier, why are schools even telling them they are doing a test, ours didn’t, it is a bench marking exercise it has no significance to the children at all. If the school is making a big thing of it that is a problem with the school.

Lets wrap her in cotton wool and never let her out the house then..

Lol, your solution to a difficult emotional situation is to just chuck her in the deep end and let her drown? Christ, I’m glad you’re not my dad!

As I said earlier, why are schools even telling them they are doing a test

They aren’t, I don’t think. She may be crap at reading, but she’s far from stupid. She’s sussed out what is happening.

wwaswas, how many ways can you skin a cat?

Bloody hell, some simple tests causing so much angst. and we wonder why education is a mess. They will be banning competitive sport next.

“Don’t worry precious, no need to go to school. Its a day off because of those nasty, nasty Tories.”

As I said earlier, why are schools even telling them they are doing a test, ours didn’t, it is a bench marking exercise it has no significance to the children at all. If the school is making a big thing of it that is a problem with the school

spot on mefty (as per) pretty pathetic if schools cant deal with it – but lets blame someone else….

she had the potential to be a failure

Hasn’t everyone?

Why was it a surprise?

A massive step forward in my eyes. Back in the old days you used to have to wait until the 11+ to write people off as factory fodder.

Now we can do it at 6. The logical next step, now there are no factories, is to get them straight off to making lattes in Starbucks. They might struggle with writing the names on the cups, but nobody really cares bout that bit, do they?

Bloody hell, some simple tests causing so much angst. and we wonder why education is a mess. They will be banning competitive sport next.

As above – some kids need a gentle touch, some don’t. For those who do, simply battering them does not help. Surely you must understand this? Or does a public school education beat any sympathy out of you?

If you only know robust capable confident kids, then you won’t see a problem. That doesn’t mean it’s not there. When you have to parent someone who is in tears beating herself up, you start having to see it from her point of view.

no idea but saying ‘there’s loads of tests out there’ was factually wrong.

The whole curriculum has been re-written, new tests set with wiodespread criticism of the content and style being used – it’s no wonder schools and parents are anxious about the process, outcomes and implications of this is it?

I’ve never said ‘don’t test’ I do question the need to do formal tests at this age and also the proscriptive nature of the curriculum and focus on ‘old school’ three r;s stuff that goes down so well at party conferences but which has little relrvance in most people’s lives.

The new KS1, KS2, KS3 and GCSE sylabusus (sylabi?) and exams are ideologically driven and a result of Gove’s desire to return the education system to a supposued utopian 1950’s model.

It happens every 5-10 years, there’s huge change, huge stress for all concerned, some new latrgely meaningless score attached to a child as they progress through the education system and then a new eductaion secretary turns up and says ‘hang on this is *all* wrong I’ve got a better idea’ and off it goes again.

Not at all mol – comprehensive approaches to education are flawed IMO

But these tests are hardly a battering – unless as mefty, schools approach them badly

still much better to go on strike and avoid them altogether eh? don’t want them scarred for life by the ordeal

waswaswas – im all for stopping temporary education ministers ticking their oar in.

just chuck her in the deep end and let her drown?

You think your daughter might die if she doesn’t do well in a test at school?