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Sats for seven-year-olds in England to be scrapped
Sats for seven-year-olds in England to be scrapped
(35 minutes later)
National curriculum tests for seven-year-olds in England are to be scrapped, the government has confirmed.
Compulsory national tests for seven-year-olds are to be scrapped as part of a radical overhaul of the way progress is measured in England’s primary schools, the government has said.
The controversial tests, taken by around half a million youngsters each year, will no longer be compulsory from 2023, as part of a major overhaul of primary school assessment.
The controversial standardised tests in reading, writing and maths for year 2 pupils – known as Sats – will become optional from 2023, the education secretary, Justine Greening, has said. They will be replaced with an assessment of children’s abilities at the start of reception year.
Instead, children will undergo a “baseline” check at the age of four or five, in their first year of infant school.
The move comes after the key stage 1 tests attracted controversy over the pressure they placed on children at a young age, with teaching unions debating a national boycott and some parents keeping their children off school in protest.
Ministers have also confirmed plans to bring in a times table test in two years time, which will be taken by children in Year 4 - aged eight and nine - rather than by 10 and 11-year-olds in Year 6, as had been originally suggested.
But the raft of changes also includes a new multiplication table check to be taken by pupils in year 4, and an earlier check on “school readiness” to be made at the end of the early years foundation stage.
While the move to scrap Sats for seven-year-olds has been broadly welcomed, concerns have been raised by union leaders about the baseline and times tables checks, with one arguing that these assessments will be of “no educational benefit to children”.
“These changes will free up teachers to educate and inspire young children while holding schools to account in a proportionate and effective way,” Greening said.
Plans for a shake-up of the system were first announced and put out to consultation earlier this year. Thursday’s announcement confirms that the Department for Education is pushing ahead with its proposals.
The changes were welcomed by the National Association of Head Teachers.
Under the changes, Key Stage 1 tests in reading, writing, maths and science – known as Sats – will no longer be compulsory.
“The decision to make Sats for seven-year-olds non-statutory in favour of a new reception baseline assessment may well be met with trepidation by some, but it is absolutely the right thing to do,” said Nick Brook, the NAHT’s deputy general secretary.
Schools will also not be required to submit teacher assessments to the government of pupils’ work in reading and maths at the age of 11.
“Under current accountability arrangements, the hard work and success of schools during those critical first years is largely ignored.”
This is not necessary because these subjects are already tested through Sats tests in Year 6, and will help reduce teacher workload, the Department for Education said.
A baseline assessment for four-year-olds at the start of reception – the start of formal schooling in England – had previously been introduced by the former education secretary Michael Gove. But the policy was dropped by the government in 2016 after the forms of assessment proved to be incompatible.
Primary school Sats have long been controversial, with critics arguing that they put too much pressure on young children, while supporters say they help identify youngsters that need assistance and ensure schools are helping children grasp the basics.
Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, said it was disappointing that the government had chosen to revive baseline assessments at the start of primary schooling.
There will be a baseline assessment which will be used as a marker of children’s abilities in their reception year, at the start of their schooling, the DfE confirmed, and this information will be used to track and measure youngsters’ progress until they leave primary school.
“No one is arguing against the value of early assessments – but narrow, reductive baseline testing is not the solution,” Leitch said.
It means that schools will be held to account for the progress that children make throughout their primary school careers. Sats for 11-year-olds will remain.
“Such tests not only often produce unreliable results, they also risk placing undue pressure on young children at the very start of their educational journeys.”
The times tables check, which will begin in 2019/20, will help children’s “fluency in mathematics”, the government said.
Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, said her members “accept that there is a need for an on-entry assessment to establish a benchmark for evaluating future pupil progress, but these assessments must be administered in ways that are manageable for schools and do not create additional workload burdens for teachers and school leaders”.
It has been confirmed that this assessment will be taken by Year 4 pupils – two years earlier than expected.
The new baseline assessment – to be carried out by classroom teachers – would begin in 2020, with key stage 1 tests continuing until 2023 in order to maintain accountability measures until the end of primary school, when tests are sat in key stage 2.
When former education secretary Nicky Morgan first mooted the idea last year, she said that every pupil would be expected to know their multiplication tables up to 12 x 12 by the time they reached the end of primary school (Year 6).
The changes announced by Greening also include a loosening of requirements for assessing the quality of pupils’ writing in key stage 2, another area that has been the subject of much criticism.
The education secretary, Justine Greening, said: “These changes will free up teachers to educate and inspire young children while holding schools to account in a proportionate and effective way.”
But Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “The reception baseline assessment and multiplication tables check will be of no educational benefit to children and break the promise not to increase the assessment burden on primary schools.
“These tests will be a waste of valuable time, energy and money and should not be introduced.”
Nick Brook, deputy general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “The decision to make Sats for seven-year-olds non-statutory in favour of a new reception baseline assessment may well be met with trepidation by some, but it is absolutely the right thing to do.
“Under current accountability arrangements, the hard work and success of schools during those critical first years is largely ignored. If designed properly, these new assessments can provide useful information for schools to help inform teaching and learning whilst avoiding unnecessary burdens on teachers or anxiety for young children.”
