Testing times for primary school pupils and Labour’s education policies
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Version 0 of 1. The new baseline assessment tests being brought in to primary schools will mean pupils are assessed in the first couple of weeks of reception class. Last month, campaigners including professional associations, unions, academics and educationists called for the tests to be stopped because they: are statistically invalid; will formalise a testing culture from the age of four; will be used to judge teachers and schools; and, most importantly, will be dangerous for children. Teachers in the NUT will be at their union conference over the Easter weekend, and the first motion on the agenda is one which calls for a different vision for primary education. This debate will centre on the baseline assessment. The NUT will take a vote on a boycott of the tests. The union will also be asking parents to take part in the campaign by telling schools that they do not want their children to be subjected to this damaging experiment. Schools can bring the tests in this September, 2015. They can opt to use one of the six private providers set to make money from selling the tests to schools. We do not want these tests to become part of the school routine as it will then be harder to get rid of them. We have the most overtested children in the developed world already, and the addition of the new baseline assessment will drive this test culture to an even younger age. We should not let that happen.Sara Tomlinson Lambeth NUT and Primary CharterNeil Leitch CEO, Pre-school Learning AlliancePhilip Pullman Children’s authorLiz Bayram Chief executive, PACEY (Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years)Lynn Hannay Chair, National Association of Primary EducationChristine Blower General secretary, NUTJune O’Sullivan CEO, London Early Years FoundationSylvie Gambell Chair, National Campaign for Real Nursery EducationProfessor Penelope Leach Psychologist and writerMichael Rosen Children’s authorSusie Orbach Psychotherapist and authorSue Palmer Author of Toxic ChildhoodCoralie Allison Early years teacher and NUTAmy Barry Sheffield NUTDr Teresa Belton Author, Happier People, Healthier PlanetSian Bloor Trafford NUTDr Sally Blythe NeuroscientistDr Simon Boxley University of WinchesterPhil Brett Writer and NUTFran Byrne Lambeth early years teacher and NUTTanith Carey Author of Taming the Tiger ParentPaula Champion Nursery teacher, Primary Charter and NUTBridget Chapman National chair, Anti-Academies AllianceJohn Coe National Association of Primary EducationAnna Colgan Lecturer in early years educationLucy Cox Brent NUTJohn Dougherty Children’s authorTony Dowling Gateshead NUTJane Eades Wandsworth NUTMaggie Edgington NCRNEDr Nadia Edmond University of BrightonJess Edwards Primary Charter founderProfessor David Elkind Author of The Hurried ChildErica Evans Senior lecturer in early years education, University of BrightonProfessor Colin FelthamDugald Ferguson Retired teacher and writerKenny Frederick Retired headteacherAnna Gawthorpe Lambeth early years teacher and NUTAlan Gibbons Children’s authorAudrey Glover Lancaster NUTEmma Ann Hardy Northern Rocks and Hull NUTJennie Harper Early Years teacher and Wandsworth NUTDr Richard House Educational consultantDr Gaie Houston PsychotherapistNina Hurst Early years practitionerDr Frances Hutchinson Editor, The Social ArtistDr Pam Jarvis Too Much Too Soon campaignSally Jenkinson Author of The Genius of PlayProfessor Gus John Honorary fellow and associate professor, UCL Institute of EducationAlex Kenny East London NUTMary Kerr Canterbury and District NUTJanet Klaar Steiner Waldorf teacher trainerMartin Large PublisherKimberley Lawson Green party PPC for Surrey HeathKatie Lindenburg Waltham Forest NUTDavid Lorimer Programme director, Scientific and Medical Network; editor, Network ReviewSissy Lykou Senior lecturer, Edge Hill University, and psychotherapistDr Lyndsey Moon Counselling psychologist and university lecturer in psychologyDoug Morgan Birmingham NUTStuart Morgan-Ayrs PsychotherapistSimon Murch Sheffield NUTBarbara Murgatroyd Retired primary headteacher, NAHT member, WakefieldDr David Murphy University of NottinghamJan Neilsen Wandsworth NUTProfessor Jayne Osgood Author of Narratives from the NurseryKarin Parkin NUTMarie Peacock Early years professional; chair of Mothers at Home MatterDr Bronwen Rees PsychotherapistDr Rupert Read Green candidate for MP for CambridgeLouise Regan Primary headteacher; Nottingham City NUTKaren Russell Hounslow NUTJackie Schneider Music teacherKate Shelley Early years teacherStefan Simms Ealing NUTPippa Smith Safer media campaignerJane Walton Early years teacher; Wakefield NUTAnna Watson Early years teacherPenny Webb Registered childminder and campaignerJonathan Woollard Mid-Essex NUTDr Felicity de Zulueta Consultant psychiatrist (psychotherapy) • Tristram Hunt neatly avoids the issue when answering Patrick Yarker about making grammar schools non-selective (You ask the questions: Labour, 31 March). When the 11-plus examination labels and damages so many children before they have had the opportunity to develop, it is hardly surprising that parents should feel compelled to try to get their children into the selective schools in order to avoid this premature and stigmatising failure. That is not popularity – it is desperation. What Hunt overlooks is the dismal performance of the rest of the schools in the grammar school counties. The two-tiered system predicated on antediluvian beliefs about intelligence and testing does needless and wasteful damage to thousands of children. A Labour education policy should focus on all children being able to receive a life-enhancing and supportive educational entitlement. Summative judgment about achievement is more appropriate to when the education process is complete rather than when it is only half way there.Keith LichmanSecretary, Campaign for State Education • Labour’s proposals for “peer review” inspections where schools are judged by headteachers in a system overseen, but not led, by Ofsted mirrors results of our inspection survey in December which we submitted to Ofsted’s consultation. Of the teachers we polled, 79% said inspections impacted negatively on their wellbeing, while just 10% said inspections had a positive impact on student results. Instead, 53% of teachers called for more feedback on how to improve and 51% said they favoured peer or mentor assessments. Given the negative impact of inspections on a significant number of teachers, the current regime urgently needs to be reviewed or changed. We would welcome cross-party support for measures like this which consider the health and wellbeing of staff and improved outcomes for students.Julian StanleyChief executive, Teacher Support Network Group • I agree that decoupling AS and A level was a mistake, but Tristram Hunt’s suggestion that the process should now be scrapped is nothing short of criminal. Billions of pounds has been spent on gearing teachers up for the new specifications: hundreds of continuing professional development courses have been run; many, many hours spent by exam boards, examiners and advisers from HE in designing and writing the new specifications; and many new textbooks have taken the last year to write and publish (they are largely now published). It is simply petty point-scoring on behalf of Labour to suggest that they would stop this process. They have just lost my vote. What makes Mr Hunt think that two years is a sensible lead-in time? The current developments have been ongoing for longer than that. Teachers depend on textbooks and, for new textbooks to be written, new specifications would have to finished by next Christmas. I don’t think he has any idea of all that has been happening to gear up for this change and yet has some fantasy that he and Labour can do it better. In fact all you have to do is redivide the material – which is exactly what WJEC have done. In psychology they have almost exactly the same content as a three-unit decoupled exam for WJEC Eduqas and as a four-unit old-style AS+A2 for WJEC, which will be compulsory for all schools in Wales. All boards could do that in an instant.Cara FlanaganBonar Bridge, Sutherland |