Dozens of Bristol schools will not take part in English and Maths tests in 'Sats' boycott
DOZENS of schools in the Bristol area will not be taking part in national tests in English and maths due to start today.
Their head teachers are joining a boycott of the tests, known as Sats, which are held for children in their final year before secondary school.
It is not known how many schools in South Gloucestershire and North Somerset will observe the boycott but two unions – the National Association of Head Teachers and the National Union of Teachers – estimate between a quarter and half of schools across England will take part. In Bristol, more than 20 out of 101 schools will take part in the boycott and in Bath and North East Somerset at least five out of 63 schools will participate in the industrial action.
The boycott means hundreds of children in the Bristol area will sit out the tests while thousands of other pupils take the exams.
The unions voted to refuse to administer the Key Stage Two tests, which many heads and teachers say force schools to make 11-year-olds spend too much time learning to pass the Sats papers rather than experiencing a wide and creative curriculum.
But some heads, including a number who voted for the boycott and others who are sympathetic to the reasoning behind it, are going ahead with the papers this week because they feel it is unfair on children who have prepared for the tests all year to deny them the chance to sit them.
But the large number of primaries joining the boycott means the test results will not be able to be used to compile league tables of results, which are often used by parents to compare schools and help them decide where to send their children.
The outgoing Labour government urged the 16,000 eligible schools in England to hold the tests. Education Secretary Ed Balls wrote to governors saying schools had a professional and moral duty as well as a legal duty to oversee the tests.
But Nina Franklin, Bristol divisional secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said attempts by ministers to put pressure on head teachers not to carry out legitimate industrial action had actually encouraged more to take part.
Jeremy Blatchford, executive member for children and young people's services at North Somerset Council, did not know how many of the area's 63 primary schools would be boycotting the tests when the Evening Post contacted him yesterday.
Spokesmen for South Gloucestershire Council and Bath and North East Somerset Council also did not have full figures.
Chris Watt, cabinet member for children's services at B&NES, said: "We have quite an unclear picture. The unions have told schools that they are not obliged to tell the local authority if they are boycotting the tests. What we do know is that out of our 63 primary schools, five are definitely boycotting the Sats, 12 are definitely not, and we don't know about the other 46."
Bristol City Council issued advice to chairmen of governors and head teachers last week, suggesting that governors at schools where the tests were boycotted should dock half a day's pay from the head teacher.
Council spokesman James Easey said 22 schools had informed the authority they would be boycotting the tests and two still had to make their intentions known.
Sea Mills mum Bridget Goodwin, 41, who was campaigning for children to be able to take the tests, said the school her daughter Josie attends, Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Primary in Lawrence Weston, had now decided, despite reservations, to go ahead with the Sats.
Another parent who contacted the Post, Pat Boulton, said children had been "caught in the crossfire" of wrangling about the tests, with the continuing uncertainty and confusion causing them additional stress.
One head teacher, Rob Worsfold, of the highly-rated Air Balloon Hill Primary in St George, told parents via his school newsletter that Sats had done untold damage to the education of children in Key Stage 2, aged seven to 11.
17 Comments
View all
by Liz, Bristol
Thursday, December 16 2010, 7:37PM
“I test software. My work is measured and evaluated every step of the way and the purpose of my job is to evaluate the work of others. This does not have to be adversarial in any way. I see no reason at all why the work of schools and teachers shouldn't be evaluated too.
I'm old enough to remember 99% literacy in the UK. I learnt spelling and punctuation in the 60's and 70's probably one of the last generation to learn how to use our language with any accuracy. Over the years I have worked with intelligent people who can scarcely express themselves in writing or verbally. I have met some who didn't really know what spelling was for (to aid communication). I'm talking about graduates mainly, and people in white collar jobs. The reason why so many intelligent people wield our language like a blunt instrument is because the teachers stopped teaching it. We all remember what education was like in the 80's and it will take a few generations to fix the mess.
In recent years I have seen young teachers in our primary schools struggling bravely to teach the basics having never learnt them adequately themselves. It isn't difficult, but it needs to be learnt at a young age. The reason we have SATS is to make sure teachers don't break their promise again, to make sure all our children learn the basics. If we get rid of SATS we might as well get rid of state schools because our children won't learn anything there. It's happened before, it'll happen again.
For the record, I took the 11-plus with a minimum of anxiety. That was an exam that really branded most children failures at 11. My son took SATS (at Air Balloon, in fact) with minimum anxiety and no undue pressure from the teachers. SATs are a doddle compared to the 11-plus, and they're a doddle compared to the highly competitive sports so many children do these days the minute they get out of school.”
by Paul, Redland
Tuesday, May 11 2010, 1:54PM
“"One head teacher, Rob Worsfold, of the highly-rated Air Balloon Hill Primary in St George." Highly rated, why by whom?”
by Paul, Redland
Tuesday, May 11 2010, 10:47AM
“Does anyone know the correlation between schools that normally do poorly in these tests and the schools where the head teachers refusing to set them?”
by John, Bristol
Monday, May 10 2010, 10:16PM
“Annette Hennessy misses the point as usual by a country mile but I expect that of her after reading loads of posts by her over the months.
The SATs and CAT tests are essential to hold schools to account. My daughter achieved very good marks in the final SATs tests at primary school yet the results were misreported to her secondary school due to clerical error. It took nearly 2 years to get meaningful targets set for her at secondary school since they were working off the misreported numbers.
Without these tests to give parents information we go back to the "good old days" of the 1970s and 1980s where the standard response at parent's evening was "doing as well as expected" that my parents were fobbed off with. Total tosh that does not allow critical examination of schools and teacher's performance from the people who are paying their wages.”
by Angela, Bishopston
Monday, May 10 2010, 7:46PM
“I think what we all need to remember is that the children have worked hard and put alot of effort into learning and this can be rewarded with good results. Also lets not forget that not all children are educated to an acceptable level and will leave primary school lacking knowledge and the sats can pick this up and help them with their move onto the next level of education. I fear this is all about school's worring they will be found out in regards to education and prepration affecting their ratings.”
by Tracey, Bristol
Monday, May 10 2010, 7:03PM
“My son has worried himself sick over the last few weeks all because of the SATs.
He has always done really well at school and has the ability to achieve great things but I have seen his confidence diminish in recent weeks due to the pressure of these tests. For the first time ever he has been reluctant to go to school and Sunday night he was a nervous wreck. My 11 year old son should not be made to feel like this - these tests are purely for the benefit of the schools and not for the children. If my son 'performs' badly in his SATs he will feel like he has failed (words spoken by his teacher at a recent parents evening!) and that's cruel to heap that amount of pressure on a child particularly when they are already anxious about 'going up to big school' in September.”
by JJ, Bishopsworth
Monday, May 10 2010, 6:57PM
“Sue, I like your spelling.”
by Sue, Bristol
Monday, May 10 2010, 6:21PM
“When I was 11 years old some 40 years ago I remember sitting exams at school. So what new exept the teachers dont wont to do it now it may well be now to test the school more than the children but I for one would like to know the school Im sending my child to gets good results shows the teachers have good teaching skills and just dont waist theres and the kids time every time the go to school I for one back the Sats.”
by Emma, Bristol
Monday, May 10 2010, 4:25PM
“And because the schools are pressured to achieve good results, they drill and drill the children with mock tests, revision and constant repetition just to get a pass result on the exam so that the school hits targets.”
by Emma, Bristol
Monday, May 10 2010, 4:12PM
“Janys these exams are not to ascertain your daughter capabilites and will not be used to offer extra tuition to children who fall below the standard.
These exams are used for their statistics to measure how well a school does overall.
If your daughter got low results, it would not affect the teaching provided in the future or support she is offered.
So you are supporting your daughter being used as a way for the government to see how well the school achieves, not how well your daughter does.”