Hundreds of pupils did not take Sats as 52 Leicestershire schools boycott tests
Hundreds of 11-year-olds did not sit their Sats as scheduled yesterday as more than 50 Leicestershire schools joined a boycott of the exams.
Unions have argued the tests put too much pressure on children and are used to compile league tables, which do not give a true picture of children's achievement.
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Sandra Sutcliffe of Montrose School who is boycotting this years SATs
More than 10,000 pupils in the country were due to start the national curriculum maths and English assessments yesterday.
The National Union of Teachers and the National Association of Headteachers predicted about half of the schools in the UK would join the industrial action.
Leicester City Council's education authority said it had been informed that 16 of the city's 74 primary schools were boycotting the tests.
In the county 36 of 226 primary school teachers said they were joining the action.
Leicestershire's acting NAHT president Pat Mullins, of Woodstone Community Primary School, in Ravenstone, said: "If those figures are correct it's a little lower than expected.
"That's slightly disappointing but I think many of the heads still agree with our view even, if they did not feel they could take part in the boycott."
Sandra Sutcliffe, headteacher at the Montrose School, in Aylestone, took part in the boycott by having 52 pupils take last year's Sats, rather than this year's official papers.
She said: "I'm not against testing and I don't dislike the idea of exams but they should not be the be-all and end-all.
"Parents have a right to know how their children are progressing, so I will be marking last year's Sats and sending out the results along with teacher assessment.
"I think it is not right that after eight years at a school a child should be judged solely on short tests."
Melanie Plant, 36, has an 11-year-old son Charlie, at Montrose School and said she agreed with the head's decision. She said: "Charlie is very bright and quite studious but he's just 11 and it's a bit much."
Ruth Livingstone, 29, has an 11-year-old son, Jamie, at the school. She said: "He was actually looking forward to the tests and had worked very hard. I think it's a bit mean that he could not do them."
Sheila Grice, headteacher at Mountfield Lodge Primary School, in Loughborough, had the children doing normal lessons instead of tests.
She said: "I discussed this with parents a while ago and had no negative comments. Sats are very stressful for parents, children and teachers.''
A spokesman for Leicestershire County Council said it would be down to governing bodies to decide whether to take sanctions against boycotting heads – such as docking pay.
A city council spokeswoman said the majority of schools were carrying out the tests.
11 Comments
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by anne, Leics
Sunday, June 20 2010, 1:10AM
“Claire, NWL
I have had three children at three different private schools. They are NOT tested every term. Two of the schools sent home a termly report card based on teacher assessment.”
by Laura, Leicester
Tuesday, May 11 2010, 9:07PM
“I know an "outstanding" school on the boycott. Excellent SATs results many years running. Superb teachers. Children assessed and tested through the year. There is evidence to prove a child¿s level across all years.
I took the SATs when I was seven and eleven and on arriving at high school I tested by those teachers and those primary school tests were pointless. Teachers have to see a student ability for themselves old scores however recent are still old. I had forgotten half of it over the summer anyway.
Trust your teachers as Ofsted maintain teaching standards not SATs. Every child matters and every child is different. Let the curriculum make more room for history, geography, science etc as teaching to the test is unfair. Boycotting today will not alter the standard of education today or in the coming years.
Let¿s act in the best interest of our children. Children aren't afraid of tests; most of them like competition, but maintaining hot housed scores are harder than getting them in the first place. Children should enjoy education as they progress through.
If a SAT is a measure of a child¿s ability, we¿d all better hope our children don¿t have colds, hay fever, headaches, tummy aches, fall out with their friends, parents divorcing or family loss on the days when they are taking the tests as ¿bad days¿ make parents and schools look bad.
Teachers should stand by their unions as their unions stand by them.”
by David, Great Easton, Rural Leicestershire.
Tuesday, May 11 2010, 3:35PM
“Are the unions running Education now?!!
I find it absolutely deplorable as it sets a bad example to the pupils.
Have we lost the art of negotiation, I think so.”
by Claire, NWL
Tuesday, May 11 2010, 1:54PM
“The issue with this is that it also measures teachers performance and they cannot cope with that.
In private schools in which everyone excepts children preform to a higher standard and they are tested every term .
People working in the public sector need to accept performance related assesment like anyone in the private sector would expect.I really think the issue here is nothing to do with the children and everything to do with teachers being terrified that their incompetancies with be shown up.”
by Avtar, Oadby
Tuesday, May 11 2010, 1:12PM
“If we had direct democracy we could choose the type(s) of education system we have for ourselves. Until then we must rely on politicians elected with a minority of votes who have no expertise in anything other than selling BS to decide on our education system for us!”
by J, Leicester
Tuesday, May 11 2010, 12:25PM
“There has to be some quantifiable way of measuring the performance of pupils within a school and the school itself. I'm sorry but Teacher Assessments alone do not do this.
If Teacher Assessments were indeed such a good measure then why do we bother with testing at GCSE and A-Levels? Perhaps we should just let the teachers decide what grade to give students for these as well because a month of two hour long tests is a lot more stressful than a couple of 45 minute tests!”
by Debbie, leicester
Tuesday, May 11 2010, 11:57AM
“Your comments are spot on Ivor!”
by G, Leicester
Tuesday, May 11 2010, 11:39AM
“Montrose School has flourished under the excellent leadership of Sandra Sutcliffe (attaining Beacon status) and she wouldn't be taking this action unless she thought it was absolutely necessary .My daughter attended this school from the age of three and a half to eleven and is just about to take 11 GCSEs, all the time she was there the school achieved the best SATs results in the city and I doubt it's any different now!”
by Matt, Leicester
Tuesday, May 11 2010, 11:24AM
“I'm not against the principle of testing children in this way, it's a good gauge to see how they are doing.
I am a little more concerned that schools will focus all their energies in preparing the children for these tests at the expense of a more well rounded education. To me it seems that it's not the pressure on the kids the teachers are worried about but rather the way the results of the SATS will make their schools look and in turn reflect on their own positions.
By using the old SATS to test kids the schools are saying they don't mind assessing their children but don't see why they have to be linked to the infamous league tables.”
by Pete, Wigston, Leicestershire
Tuesday, May 11 2010, 11:16AM
“It is unfair on the children who have been working very hard for at least a year if not three, for the tests to be cancelled at such short notice. The tests should have been cancelled from next year instead.”