PRI0376

 

Written evidence submitted by Mel MacKinnon

 

 

Introduction

 

  1. I have been teaching for over 15 years and for most of that time in schools in Central London with all the challenges and rewards that such schools bring. I am now in my second year as a Headteacher of a school in Lancaster serving a community where over half the children  live in wards with an E or E* Deprivation Index. The school and staff work tirelessly to support and engage the community and children because we know that an engaging education really can and does transform lives. It is in this context that I question and challenge the purpose, delivery and use of primary assessments and welcome your inquiry in to these areas.

 

 

The purpose of primary assessment and how well the current system meets this

 

  1. Assessment is a factor of quality education and happens day in day out in classrooms all across the country. This assessment – the ongoing understanding of where children are and what they need to do next – is called formative assessment and is one of the bedrocks of good education.

 

  1. Summative assessment reports purely on what has been learnt and is most commonly captured through testing. Whilst summative assessments are useful for teachers to identify gaps they need to teach or children they need to give additional support too, this is not the intention of the Key Stage 1 and 2 SATs. These tests are purely used to hold schools to account and are an example of ‘valuing what you measure’ rather than ‘measuring what you value’. Think of your own memories of Primary School Education. What are the life changing experiences you had? I bet none of them had to do with sitting a test.

 

  1. The current expectations on Year 2 and Year 6 mean that children in these cohorts are being taught by teachers anxious about end of year summative assessments and percentages. The data will impact on their Performance Management, the school’s reputation and may be used – now not this year but possibly in the future – to force schools to make decisions they feel are not right for their community. These top down pressures mean that now more than ever, the curriculum taught in these classrooms is becoming ever narrower.

 

 

The advantages and disadvantages of assessing pupils at primary school

 

  1. As I have alluded to, there are many advantages to both formative and summative assessment. The skilful open ended question a teacher asks and the range of answers given demonstrates not just knowledge but learning over time and a child’s ability to link concepts. Summative assessments have their place too in informing areas of a curriculum all children or specific children need further guidance. But this is assessment used to teach – a real advantage – rather than assessment used to hold to account – a disadvantage. 

 

  1. This year our school, like many in the country didn’t hit the floor standard or the coasting standard and more importantly to the children involved, many of them left us with the label of ‘not at expected level’. These children have worked hard throughout their seven years with us whilst many have been sheltered from the pressures of the wider world – child protection, substance abuse, domestic violence, poverty – in our welcoming and safe four walls. They have loved their learning and yet they now leave with a label telling them are not ready to be elsewhere. If the children from a community like ours leave us without enjoying education then they will not go on to achieve well at Secondary and Further Education. From a purely economic point of view this is flawed as in the future they will take more form the state than they give. From a moral point of view it is reprehensible.

 

  1. The current floor targets of 65% and coasting targets of 85% may sound reasonable but when a closer look is taken at the content of the KS2 tests, one has to ask whether these are realistic.  53% of children reached the expected standard and only 49% of boys. How is it possible that so few children reach the government expected standard and what is going to happen to these labelled children in the future? Is it the children’s fault? The teachers’ fault? Or are the tests not fit for purpose?

 

  1. I would argue the latter. A glance through a SATs paper – be it Reading, Grammar or Maths – makes you think ‘for eleven year olds – really?’ More importantly, it makes you think that tests are written to catch children out rather than to support them in demonstrating and showing off what they know. The old style SATs were not perfect but the newer assessments led to children being confused, upset and feeling bad about themselves – everything a teacher tries day in and day out not to do.

 

  1. We need to know where children are up to in their learning and therefore what they are ready to go on to learn next. But this can be done through teacher assessment – as happens at Key Stage 1 and in Key Stage 2 writing – and needn’t be done through externally marked tests. These tests need to be sat at a particular time on a particular day and not all children perform as well as they can on a single day at a single time and especially not in a climate of high stakes that currently exists around SATs.

 

 

How the most recent reforms have affected teaching and learning

 

  1. Historically, our school has supported children who have joined school with significantly below ability to be in line with national averages by the end of their seven years with us. We have done this through hard work and providing an exciting, engaging and creative curriculum that allows us to ‘teach to the heart’. Put simply, if you are engaged with something, you will learn it. The current changes to the curriculum and its assessment of it are and will narrow our curriculum.

 

  1. We cannot know the skills that future generations will need and no one argues that a certain knowledge base is required. However, the current content and pitch of the content in English and Maths means that other subjects will be sidelined. Academic success alongside a love of learning is what every school aspires to and aims to deliver. All our children harvest food in a n allotment, all of them cook, all of them sing, all of them paint and build, all of them work in teams and hold debates, all of them perform and act, all of them compete at sport and all of them go on rich and life changing educational visits.

 

  1. The foundations for future Scientists, Artists, Builders, Writers, Explorers, Pilots, Teachers and Politicians are being laid in Primary Schools all across the country. A narrowing of the curriculum so that every child may identify a subordinate clause or be able to draw scaled drawing of a triangle may make our standings in questionable international tests increase but I don’t believe it will better equip the future workforce.

 

 

Logistics and delivery of the SATs

 

  1. Last year’s tests were sat by children following a four year programme of study and yet they were only in their second year of it. Children who struggle with spelling were assessed twice in the GPS test and Writing and children from disadvantaged and EAL backgrounds had to struggle through a Reading Paper which contained content totally irrelevant to their lives.

 

  1. The release of exemplification materials was late in coming and involved procrastination and change. The effect of this was that teachers were unsure of where children needed to get to what writing, in particular, needed to demonstrate. When examples were finally released they were deemed by the education body to more akin to a full year above that expected of a Year 6 child the year before. Furthermore, children were assessed against an ‘all’ rather than ‘best’ fit criteria system. This is not how creative writers write – that is how robots perform.

 

  1. The Assessment and Reporting Arrangements underwent 11 alterations over the course of the year and this impacted on Teacher and Senior Leader time. Security glitches around the Key Stage 2 GPS Test and the release of the Key Stage 1 GPS Test added more pressure. On one hand we have schools who have to keep tests paper under lock and key whilst on the other hand the Government made a fiasco of the tests delivery.

 

  1. Finally, there were vast number of mistakes made on the marking of the papers and yet this data is used to hold schools to account and to label children as failures. The delivery of the assessments has led to a loss of confidence by not only the profession but also by parents as seen by the numbers nationally keeping their children off school on ‘strike’. 

 

 

Next steps following the most recent reforms to primary assessment

 

  1. In short, the current system is flawed. The members of the profession know it, parents know it and the fact that your inquiry exists demonstrates that others know it. I believe that the current system needs to be scrapped and that a non political review of assessment needs to occur. The profession is often told how much they are trusted and maybe it is time for governments and future governments to demonstrate that that is true.

 

 

 

 

 

October 2016