tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267682090689767325.post3605169409844373803..comments2024-03-06T17:42:12.089+00:00Comments on Mrs P Teach: Primary Assessment: How Has It Come To This?Jo Paynehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244035112356402105noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267682090689767325.post-45500459214871028382016-02-20T11:51:02.106+00:002016-02-20T11:51:02.106+00:00As a current Year 6 teacher, I’m going to see how ...As a current Year 6 teacher, I’m going to see how the rest of this year pans out, but am certainly considering my career options. <br /><br />This post sums up everything that is wrong with this assessment system/government. Three brilliantly analysed options have been discussed, yet I suspect no thought was given to just doing the tests and teacher assessment for writing honestly and not worrying about the consequences. How sad that we have all become so worried by the possibility of the children not meeting this expected standard. The KS2 SATs are just a stick for the government to beat schools with, and make themselves look good in the process. They have no impact on learning whatsoever. Surely the point of Year 6, as Nicky Morgan said in her hostage-style video, is to prepare children of for the next stage of their education? Well spending the entire year working towards these standards is having no positive effect for the children in September. It’s not like the data is going to be reliable anyway, as you said, because schools are so fearful of being below the floor targets. In my opinion, three things need to happen:<br /><br />1. Scrap the writing assessment for this year. It’s a glorified SPaG test, anyway, and we already have one of those. <br />2. Keep the other tests as they are, but scrap these ridiculous floor and progress targets which are causing such stress and anxiety. <br />3. Next year, bring back the teacher assessed writing, but don’t ‘double-test’ the children on punctuation and spelling. Instead make it a best fit model so that both creative and technical writers can succeed. Oh, and perhaps release the exemplification materials and deadlines before the start of the school year; September 1st will be fine. <br /><br />This would ease so many of the current issues. You could still have your up-levelled curriculum, and make yourselves look great as more and more children reach the expected standard in the run-up to the next election, schools will be far more honest as the fear of accountability will be reduced, teachers will be able to do a better job TEACHING, rather than ticking boxes, and general workloads will be eased. <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267682090689767325.post-30965762805627508292016-02-17T21:43:18.140+00:002016-02-17T21:43:18.140+00:00Hi Jo
Certainly food for thought. Sadly, I see th...Hi Jo<br /><br />Certainly food for thought. Sadly, I see the only reality being a group of professionals being pushed to the maximum for what?... Meaningless targets. <br /><br />There are so many examples of good practice around Europe, like Denmark for example, where children enter formal schooling much later than in the UK but, by the age of 11, (nice embedded clause) exceed the attainment of our Year 6s. <br /><br />What's it all about? It's the world we live in but regrettably, I'm not sure what we can do about it. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com