What do you think of the new SATs tests?

The media coverage of the new SATs has been almost inescapable in the last few weeks. First we had the accidental publishing and later scrapping of the KS1 Grammar test, then we had the ‘SATs strike’ and now teachers, parents and children are in full test mode for the month of May. So what do you think about the new tests?

Which of these options best reflects your opinion of the new National Tests?

  1. 6% said I like the new tests. I think the difficulty level is perfect.
  2. 6% said I like most of the changes that have been made, but I think some are too hard.
  3. 17% said I think the tests have been implemented too quickly.
  4. 44% said I dislike the new tests. They’re too difficult and cause anxiety for the children.
  5. 28% said I don’t think children aged 11 and under should have to sit formal tests at all.

Comments

Anon said on 7 May 2016

As a teacher at KS1, I understand the need for assessment, but removing the chance for children to use apparatus in mathematics is not age appropriate and we have been forced to introduce written methods to children before they are truly ready. Also removing the option for teachers to assess reading in a 1:1 situation is leading to more stress for less able or less confident children who still need to read aloud.

Dee said on 6 May 2016

The main issue is not whether children should be tested, there should be a summative assessment to correlate with the teacher's assessment, but with the content and the criteria. The SPaG paper for year 6 is absolutely ridiculous. Staff are more than competent are having to learn content that is completely new to them and by this I do not mean they have never taught it before, but they have also never learnt it - even in secondary school! We are consulting each other as we deconstruct sentences as the differences between the parts seem interchangeable and often even the experts cannot agree. It is not apparent how this knowledge will improve the children's writing and it seems to be bogging them down. This is also evident in the year 2 class as they cannot write as expressively as they would like, instead they seem more focussed on trying to shoehorn in the expected phrases, punctuation and style. I am absolutely in favour of there being a greater emphais on SPaG. Spelling and Punctuation does need to be taught discretely as well as in context. My issue is the level to which it has been prescribed with no real reason or evidence to support the decision. The other point was criteria - I do not teach in year 6 but am part of that Key Stage. It seems ridiculous that whereas all the other years can say what is expected of a child in that year group and can provide evidence for them being secure, working towards or exceeding, the year 6 teacher has no idea what this constitutes for her children. It is bizarre. SATs as a benchmark are pointless. The secondary schools actually tell the children (sometimes even at transition!) that will not even look at the SATs results but will CAT test them and use those instead. How demoralising for the primary school staff who know their school is judged on something that no-one else cares about. As well as this, let's hope that there is no political agenda that will mean the threshold will be moved in order to manipulate the results - this has been done to either show how effective some government initative has been or to show how awful schools are and why they should therefore become academies! So sorry about the rant but it is so unfair.