Primary Assessment: How Has It Come To This?

Today, in between writing reports I discovered a couple of polls going around Twitter. Both were about what to do about the current assessment arrangements for KS1 and KS2.  One asked whether we should strike or not. The other asked whether it would be more effective to strike or to boycott the assessments.  My question is: how has it come to this?

After a widespread questionnaire last year, a seemingly-serious announcement about tackling teacher workload and the promise of having a year to implement new changes, teachers are now left with mere months to start collecting mountains of evidence and ticking off assessment criteria.  It will take many, many hours and will have close-to-zero positive impact on children's learning.  Talk about hypocrisy.  I recently heard the fact that Jeremy Hunt is investigating the low morale among junior doctors being compared to "Harold Shipman launching an enquiry into patient mortality rates" (Adam Hills on The Last Leg). Would it be criminal to suggest the same comparison with Nicky Morgan investigating teachers' workloads? 

As I see it, there are a few options for assessment arrangements this year.  None of which I wholly agree with but all of which are possible:

1) Teachers go on strike.

Potentially, the government listen and change things, perhaps abolishing national tests or teacher assessments this year.  This is hugely unlikely.

2) School leaders, supported by their governors, decide to boycott the assessments.  

They submit no data or put all children as working below expected standard.  If a record number of schools don't reach the floor standard then the government must stop lying about the fact that education has improved under the Tories.  It would leave OfSTED in a complete mess because there would be too many schools to inspect and many would become RI or below. The problem with this option is that it takes a great deal of confidence for a Headteacher to support a boycott. Also, it would only work if it were widespread enough, covering all authorities.  I'm not sure how parents would react if their children have been working towards the new SATs all year.  

3) School leaders put pressure on Year 6 and Year 2 teachers to reach or exceed the floor standards.  

This is the most dangerous but, sadly, the most likely.  If we all bow down to the expectations required of Year 6 now it means one thing: lots of cheating.  Teachers will be sat by children telling them what to write to ensure they have the evidence for working at the expected standard.  High expectations are important but Year 6 teachers have exclaimed online that this is what they are going to have to do to meet the floor standards.  This then leaves secondary teachers with no idea of children's true ability and means the government can bleat on and on about how they've raised standards with no mention of the broken teachers, anxious children and foul play which has been created in the process.  And, worse still, this relentless rate of change and ridiculousness imposed on us from the government continues. 

I am not a parent but I have a huge amount of sympathy for those parents of primary-aged children.  There is no certainty about their school future except that it will be tough.  Tougher than before in terms of content but even more so because of the unknowns. Their headteachers, teachers and parents have no clue how things will look for them in the next couple of years and I can't imagine that's been the situation for many years in primary schools. 

I always like this blog to be about solutions and ideas for primary classrooms.  Recently, it has had to take a much more negative tone because the government has completely lost sight of the children at the heart of why we do our job.  Their best interests have taken a backseat to political agenda and media image.  I have no solution for this except that teachers have got to have a voice.  This is mine. What is yours going to be?  Get on Twitter, write a blog, write a letter, sign a petition, join a union, email your headteacher, follow the NAHT, speak to parents, talk to friends; just do something.  It's time for teachers to take back the classroom. That is the only solution I can see making any positive difference. 

Teachers quitting, cheating or boycotting: how has it come to this?

A Few Thoughts On Attracting and Retaining Teachers

In the last few months, I have had many conversations about these issues with colleagues and friends.  We've all generally agreed but nothing will ever change with people just saying their thoughts in conversations.  Hence, I am sharing my views in this post.

It all started with that advert. You know. The one which says that great teachers earn up to £65,000 each year.  Twitter went into meltdown trying to locate such teachers.  Did anyone find them? Anyway, my first reaction to the advert was that I'm earning well below half of that amount so, according to the DfE, I'm clearly not 'great'.  My second reaction was one shared by a huge amount of those who I spoke to.  Why are we using money as an incentive to attract teachers?  This made me consider what attracted me to teaching, especially given that I grew up as a headteacher's daughter saying over and over again, "I'm never going to be a teacher."

During my A Levels, I got my best grades in Economics.  I loved the idea of business and was pursuing a Management and Spanish course at university.  When I was a teenager, I spent a lot of time volunteering at kids' clubs, nurseries and summer camps.  While completing my UCAS application, I realised that, were I to go into a career in business, I would spend my working life in the office and my spare time volunteering to help children. I judged that if I became a teacher, I could make a positive difference to children's lives during the working day and have some time for myself.  Basically, I became a teacher for a good work/life balance; ironic really. 

Pay was never a part of my decision, nor was it a contributing factor for my friends.  Generally, teachers become teachers so they can have some sort of positive impact on their pupils' lives.  That is why we work far beyond the hours people expect of us and do unusual and uncharacteristic things (scooping fox poo from the school field anyone?!).  So does the DfE want scores of teachers entering the profession because of monetary incentives?  Surely it would have been better to use Taylor Mali's original poem about What Teachers Make.  Aren't those the sort of teachers we want in our profession?

I know that there is a massive need to recruit more teachers.  Six years ago, when I was training, the university had the prerogative to say yes or no to their applicants.  However, I recently read this article which states that, for three years running, ITT application numbers have missed government targets.  So, not only are fewer people wishing to be teachers, the universities are now under more pressure to accept people who would have previously not been successful in their applications, thus increasing the retention problem which I will come to later. 

So what is stopping people from applying to be teachers? I think the problem is three-fold: the press, OfSTED and people's personal stories.  Positive news articles about teachers are few and far between.  Strikes, cuts, league tables and workload stories are more common and are giving a less-than-attractive view of our profession.  More and more people are aware of OfSTED and their role in schools.  During my last inspection, the local pub called the school to offer lasagne for the whole staff because they knew of the pressure on that first night after the call.  OfSTED gradings appear on a variety of websites, including Rightmove and Zoopla.  Also, the pressure of OfSTED is reported time and again on websites and blogs.  It is stories about inspections, like this recent one, which target emotions and make even dedicated teachers question whether it really is all worth it.  

As is mentioned in business time and again, word of mouth is the best advert.  In order to attract new applicants, the DfE need teachers to give a positive view of their profession.  Up until recently, my optimism has meant I was able to do that.  However, I honestly don't think I could recommend teaching to many people right now.  I could only suggest teaching to the strongest, most organised and highly adaptable people I know.  I work in a "good" school with a solid, realistic leadership team and so can only imagine what those in schools with a lesser grading or weaker leaders would say.  This makes me incredibly sad for a job which I love so much and which is important to so many. 

I would need an extra few hands to count the number of people I know who have left the profession or opted to do supply instead over the last few years.  Which leads me on to retention.  Why is UK education struggling to hold onto so many of its employees?  Why are there so many headteacher jobs vacant?  Personally, I think it's the pressure from out of school which is causing massive stress to leaders, teachers and many other school workers.  OfSTED have tried over the last few years to dispel any myths and stop leaders adding to teachers' workload with documents like this.  However, all the while OfSTED exists and is making judgements about schools from the data presented to them, jobs, lives and teachers' wellbeing are suffering.  

Planning, teaching and assessing; it's a simple cycle which teachers are trained for.  It's my favourite part of the job because, in essence, it IS the job.  However, teaching nowadays involves a vast amount more than the important bits and often the peripheral jobs take the longest time and cause the most amount of stress.  I think teachers are exasperated and bored of doing useless (to them) tasks to please other adults rather than help the children in their care.  And there is no obvious panacea to put an imminent end to this.  Some of us can sit and wait for the light at the end of the tunnel, some can focus completely on the children and remember the reason we ended up in the classroom in the first place, but for others it just isn't worth even that any more so leaving the profession becomes their only option.  

This post has turned into a much longer one than I originally planned and has a more negative tone than I would like to have on this blog.  I do really love teaching...because of the kids.   However, I still have those moments when I think what I would do instead and imagine that the grass could be greener with different job title.  Always, I get to the other side of those moments and come to the same conclusion: there is nothing else I would want to do and nowhere else I'd want to be.  I just wish the DfE would make it easier for others to arrive at a similar decision.

Other education bloggers' thoughts on attracting and retaining teachers:

David Didau

Old Primary Head
Justin Gray
Teacher Toolkit

Leader Learner

I'd be very interested to read your own thoughts in the comments below.

Why Can't Our Impact Be Measured By...

•  ...the times during a lesson a child says, "Ooohhh, I get it now!" in the way teachers get so excited about? Even if it's after a fifth or sixth different explanation? 
• ...the smiles on children's faces as they enter our classroom? Or perhaps by the quantity who say, "Thank you" at the end of the day?  Surely that's the sign of a great teacher? 
• ...the good choices made by pupils when they've done something wrong? When they own up immediately and apologise with heart?  What about those children who choose to do the right thing when previously they would have chosen the other option? 
• ...the unprompted learning which children complete at home? Their page of maths calculations which they did when 'playing schools' or the thousands of questions they answered on an educational game before breakfast?
• ...the quality of work, views and comments from around the world on the school blogs? Surely they demonstrate wonderful learning and brilliant opportunities? 
• ...the free extra-curricular activities which we diligently run after, before and during school in order to provide a holistic experience for the pupils we value so much?  Don't they give opportunities for children to shine and be proud of something they've learned? 
• ...the messages we receive in cards and on little notes? These show that parents and children are happy with the job we are doing...doesn't that count for something? 
• ...the value we put on the non-core subjects that are being desperately squeezed out in favour of 'more important' subjects?  Surely keeping children active and involved in the arts is having a positive impact on their learning too? 
• ...the quality of the productions we stage? Or our sporting achievements?  What about the quality of the crops which our gardening club produce? Or the skills of our chess players? 

...instead of by a series of meaningless numbers decided on one day at the end of their time with us for which they lose real learning opportunities while relentlessly practising test skills?

The OfSTED Experience

An average sized 1.5 form entry primary school in rural Hampshire, we had never been particularly worried about what OfSTED would say.  We were good.  Everyone told us we were "good", nothing more, nothing less.  When they came they would find us to be "good".  It was so clear, I stopped using other words when describing the school - "it's a good school," I would say!

So when they eventually called and judged us as "outstanding", no one was more surprised than us.

In the summer for 2011, the school received the Golden Ticket - OK, well letter - from OfSTED saying we had another year before they'd inspect the school.  So from the summer of 2012 we aimed to be "performance ready", creating alternative timetables, just in case "the call" arrived and it was "showtime".   However as days, weeks and months passed, with local schools getting inspected and no call for us, we started to believe they were never going to call.  2013 began and there were still no signs of our favourite inspectors.  By the Easter holidays, we'd been waiting a whole year for their visit - we'd almost lost hope, if "hope" is the correct word.  SATS week came and went and it was the week before Summer half term.  3 days to go - one day for them to call - before our week long break.  We were doing assessments and on the wind down.

Then -  as message was passed on from office staff, to senior leadership, support staff and, eventually, teachers in front of their classes - one thing was sure: it was "showtime". 

Panic mode set in.  Many of us had plans, but only for that evening with friends and family, lesson plans were non-existent because of the assessment week we were in.  Families and friends were notified, social plans for the next 48 hours were cancelled and an extremely kind parent (aka - angel) called to offer lasagne for the team at 6pm.  All teachers were thinking aloud to anybody who would listen.  Ideas were conjured up based on the assessments we'd been doing and, slowly and surely, a timetable came to be created.  The whole team set-to, ensuring the building and contents were "performance ready" as well as us.  The photocopier went into overdrive creating resources, copying assessments and re-doing displays.

10 hours later - with the school ready, plans in place and emotions subdued - it was time for the final preparation: a good night's sleep.  

So that obviously didn't happen.  Our amazing headteacher was up and out of his house at 4:30am and at school by 5.  I was awake when he woke but chose the "tossing and turning until the alarm goes off" tactic so was in school just after 7am, like most of the other teaching staff.

By the first morning, the mood had changed from panic to determination.  We would get through it and we would be good. 

The inspectors put the staff team at ease in a 4 minute introduction to the inspection and the aims.  The bell rang and the day began.  Whispers were flying round the school - Who had they observed? How long were they in there? How did they do? What was the feedback?  The staff were all so supportive to each other and constantly offered help, advice, tea, biscuits and other necessities (!!) in minutes, hours and seconds of need.

The children were absolutely wonderful - after all, it was their time to shine too.  

One thing had become clear from all the observations - the learning objective and success criteria were key. The inspectors loved the idea of levels on the steps to success and were incredibly impressed with how the curriculum was designed to provide a true purpose for all learning.  The first day had passed and the word "outstanding" had entered our school.  Many lessons had been judged as "outstanding" and it was clear that the inspectors liked the school.

Day 1 was nowhere near as long as "The Call" day.  I was home by 8pm.

Advice and feedback from Day 1 was taken into account when planning and preparing for Day 2.  I'd been observed teaching ICT so knew I was probably due a visit in Maths or Literacy.  Lo and behold, the lead inspector turned up in my maths lesson - one which I was incredibly pleased with and proud of.  At the point she left the room after 30 minutes, the inspection was over for me.  I knew that I wouldn't get another visit and my class could do the finishing edits to their stop-motion animation movies ready for the cinema afternoon with their parents, that afternoon!!  The children spent the rest of the day preparing for the cinema and I didn't see the inspectors again.  They were locked away in the headteachers office before giving feedback to the governors.

Just before the headteacher walked in to give us the feedback, I had naively said, "We'll be good.  Everyone's always says how we're good."  I felt bad about saying that afterwards. 

The whole crazy experience was over in 52 hours.  We had proved that a school can get "outstanding" under the new framework with a dedicated, not overworked, team who loved the kids, loved their job and knew the importance of it.  We did nothing different to what we normally do, we just had to show the OfSTED inspectors "normal" in a very abnormal week.  But, as anyone who works with children knows, the "normal" week never turns out to be as normal as it first appears.

We never needed an OfSTED-judged label to do our best for the children, and we still don't now.  

But the judgement has given us reason to celebrate with friends, family, colleagues and pupils and we'll continue celebrating forever...well, until we get the next call!