Cancel the SATs in May 2016

My petition has now got over 33,000 signatures! Amazing! Keep sharing and signing people and thank you xxx

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/122038

I love writing to my MP part 2

Suffice to say, my MP did not give me a satisfactory response!

Here is my second email to him about SATs:

Dear Mr Hall,

Thank you for your reply.

While I appreciate that the intricacies of the wider education reforms that have occurred over the last couple of years are not necessarily within your field of expertise, I would expect you to be able to address my concerns more directly than you have chosen to do.

Firstly, the independent review lead by Lord Bew which was partially triggered by the widespread boycott of end of Key Stage 2 SATs in 2010, did lead to some significant steps forward in what was right for schools and children up and down the country. Namely, as you rightly point out, that writing be based on teacher assessment over a year rather than an arbitrary test at the end of Year 6. 

As you have also pointed out, the report recommended that tests should still continue as a way of monitoring children's basic skills in reading and maths. I would strongly argue, as a teacher of Y6 for more than 10 years, that these tests neither demonstrate that pupils have mastered those skills nor do they reassure parents that their children are receiving the best possible education. 

I would like to point out that although the review appeared to recommend a small test for spelling and punctuation it in no way recommended a 45 minutes grammar paper which does not help children to use better grammar in their writing, which is surely the point of learning grammar rules; it also did not recommend testing 4 year olds within weeks of starting school and it did not recommend a timed times table test at the end of year 6; it certainly did not endorse the idea that children who do not pass the end of key stage 2 tests should be counted as failures and made to resit it at secondary school until they pass. Tests are a one off that assess how much information children have remembered over a period of time, but I am not here to argue about the futility of testing children, my point is more about the way in which changes to current assessment procedures have be carried out.

One problem is that teachers and Nicky Morgan disagree on what 'enough of the curriculum' is. As an end of Key stage test measures attainment at the end of a key stage, I would have thought that the children taking that test would have needed to cover everything in the curriculum in that Key stage, which is 4 years. These children have only been taught from the new curriculum for two years.

Furthermore, schools were told they would be informed of changes to the curriculum with enough time to prepare. Again, perhaps Mrs Morgan and teachers differ on how long this time frame should be as well. We were given sample tests at the end of Summer, interim frameworks in November and writing exemplification in February. I can categorically state that this is not enough time to prepare anyone.

Finally, schools were also advised that the expected standard would be around the same as the previous national average expectation of a 4b. Again, as an experienced Y6 teacher I can tell you that this sits concurrent with what has been recently phrased as 'Mastering the basics.' Unfortunately, it appears that yet again Mrs Morgan and teachers disagree on what mastering the basics is. The level of expectation, across the board has dramatically increased to what was commonly known as a 5c in 'old money' if you like. This is not mastering the basics this is expecting all children to be above average, thus eliminating the notion of average altogether. 

I would like to reiterate my view that I welcome changes to the national curriculum and preparing young people for secondary school. What I think is unfair is the chaotic and frankly shambolic way in which these changes have been carried out. 

So, in summary:

Year 6 children have not been taught enough of the new curriculum

Schools have not been given enough time to prepare

The standard is much higher than schools and parents were told it would be

If you could address these issues more specifically I would be extremely grateful. Feel free to pass this on to Mrs Morgan if that is more appropriate.

Kind regards

Dawn Wootton

I love writing to my MP part 1

This is a bit out of date now as my petition has received over 32,000 signatures in less than a week!!! But this is still relevant:

Dear Mr Hall,

As a constituent of Thornbury and Yate I feel I should contact you about a very pressing issue: The Key Stage 1 and 2 SATs that are to be held in May. 

I am a primary school teacher at Horton CE VA Primary School and I currently teach Y6. These children have only had a diet of the new curriculum since September 2014 and while it has increased in rigour and includes some content, particularly in maths which was only previously covered under the secondary school curriculum, they were on track to do well at the end of this year. 

However, all that changed when the exemplification materials and interim assessment frameworks came out. These children have now been set up to fail. What we are supposed to do, as teachers, with three months notice is to get a minimum of 65% of these children to the expected standard. A standard which is out of reach for most of them. Under the old curriculum the required standard was a 4b. Most of my year 6 children would have reached this standard easily in all subjects and I would have had several attaining level 5 and even level 6- showing outstanding attainment and outstanding progress- something for the county and the dept of education to be proud of. Now, they and we as teachers have no idea what the thresholds are in the new reading and maths papers, or how on earth these results are going to impact their future or that of our school.

I urge you to raise this issue with Nicky Morgan immediately. I have no problem with raising standards and welcome some of the changes that have been made to the national curriculum. But to test children on this new curriculum now makes the assumption that these children have been taught from this new curriculum for 6 years when you take into account the cumulative effect of KS1 and KS2 programmes of study. These are bright children that would have done well if assessed against the old curriculum standards- or even a phased in combination of the two. These children are being set up to fail; it is not right and it is not fair. Their future is at stake- for what? So that I can be held accountable? So that my school can be judged? Bring it on- come and judge. See how I teach, look in my books, through my planning, my assessment folders. Ask me about every single one of the children in my class and I will tell you something good, something outstanding- that they are all superstars. And these little superstars are working their socks off because they want to do well. It breaks my heart a little bit that these children want to do so well because I know what it is really all about. 

These children are being experimented on because the DfE and the STA have not thought their plans through- even the current arrangements are only interim and could change again next year. The real experts: the teachers, the parents, the head teachers, the teaching assistants and the children could come up with a much better, more rigorous, fairer system- if Nicky Morgan would only listen to us. 

I have started a petition to cancel the end of key stage 2 SATs in May. It has already gained 759 signatures in the last few hours. I know that you presented the transport secretary with a petition recently that had 1100 signatures requesting junction 18a on the M4. I think it is only fair and in the best interests of all the y6 children in your constituency that you do the same with my petition and hand it directly to Nicky Morgan. 

I have contacted you on previous cases regarding other issues and I don't believe I received a reply. I would very much like to hear your views on this and to know what action you intend on taking.

Kind regards

Dawn Wootton