Thousands of primary age kids will be kept off school today

Infinite Chaos · May 3, 2016

Parents are threatening to keep their children off school for the day in a protest about primary tests in England.

More than 40,000 parents have signed a petition calling for a boycott of primary school tests, which are due to be taken later this month.
Parents supporting the Let Our Kids Be Kids campaign have complained of a damaging culture of over-testing.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan says taking pupils out of school "even for a day is harmful to their education". Link.

Testing at 7 now - is this the way to go?

12 years ago, the London Challenge raised standards across the capital which had had the worst results across the country for years but that programme was ended. The poor white, black and asian kids who went through the challenge ended up being the most likely in the whole of the UK to go on to good university and do well.

We also had EMA which (cost money) was very successful as a social mobility tool as it got students to engage and work hard (for financial reward).

Can we get politicians out of education please?

joG · May 3, 2016

Infinite Chaos said:
Testing at 7 now - is this the way to go?

12 years ago, the London Challenge raised standards across the capital which had had the worst results across the country for years but that programme was ended. The poor white, black and asian kids who went through the challenge ended up being the most likely in the whole of the UK to go on to good university and do well.

We also had EMA which (cost money) was very successful as a social mobility tool as it got students to engage and work hard (for financial reward).

Can we get politicians out of education please?

Yes. I read about that and heard a piece on German public radio. I was not sure, why parents should not want transparency of their children's development. But I also do not understand, why the government would not make the testing voluntary.

Infinite Chaos · May 3, 2016

joG said:
~ But I also do not understand, why the government would not make the testing voluntary.

The govt view is that they are "testing the teachers" and it is also because the Dept for Education is mainly responsible for organising the testing process.

ministers feel able to design a curriculum for primary schools, and a way of assessing it, which pay little attention to decades of educational research into how children learn, and into the kinds of assessment that can support that learning.

~

That price is being paid now: by pupils who study an inappropriate curriculum, and submit to the drills that prepare them for tests, and by parents who are increasingly unhappy about their children’s experience at school.

Tigerace117 · May 3, 2016

Infinite Chaos said:
Testing at 7 now - is this the way to go?

12 years ago, the London Challenge raised standards across the capital which had had the worst results across the country for years but that programme was ended. The poor white, black and asian kids who went through the challenge ended up being the most likely in the whole of the UK to go on to good university and do well.

We also had EMA which (cost money) was very successful as a social mobility tool as it got students to engage and work hard (for financial reward).

Can we get politicians out of education please?

Speaking as a student, more of the standardized tests they have us do are, to put it bluntly, bull****. People obsess over something which quite literally has the power to change your future, up until the point you take it---at which point nobody cares anymore.

Also, especially in elementary schools kids simply don't care about the standardized tests and will more or less wing it, which hardly gives you a good reading on a students academic progress.

But seven year olds are too young to be doing this sort of ****.

Manc Skipper · May 3, 2016

I tend to agree, especially since a head teacher resigned claiming some of the new sats questions have already been put to kids at a level two or even three years higher. The kids are being set up to fail, then the teachers excoriated for it.

Infinite Chaos · May 3, 2016

Tigerace117 said:
~ But seven year olds are too young to be doing this sort of ****.

Wholeheartedly agree. Money wasted on designing tests should be spent on resources, after school classes, better and more childcare for parents who want to work and better nutrition for young kids.

Tigerace117 · May 3, 2016

Infinite Chaos said:
Wholeheartedly agree. Money wasted on designing tests should be spent on resources, after school classes, better and more childcare for parents who want to work and better nutrition for young kids.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a sort of obsession with standardized testing in schools.

Thousands of primary age kids will be kept off school today

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