Sats for seven-year-olds set to be scrapped

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-39436927

Controversial national tests taken by seven-year-olds in England could be scrapped under new government plans.
The move follows years of pressure from teachers, parents and educationalists opposed to putting young pupils through high stakes national Sats tests.

Finally! It was the daftest idea ever.

[Osem]

Osem Jnr. will be pleased.

[pip08456]

It was doomed to failure before it started.

What I find abhorrent is the parents who seem to think it is up to the Government and the education system to teach their children.

I speak as a father who garned the interest of a child and taught her to read before she even started school.

Parents have just as much responsibility if not more to educate their children than any government body.

Those ideals seem to have gone though.

[richard s]

Here here...

[heero_yuy]

So the first time any child gets independently benchmarked is at 11? Could be 6-7 wasted years at the hands of no good teachers and schools. Billiant.

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

So the first time any child gets independently benchmarked is at 11? Could be 6-7 wasted years at the hands of no good teachers and schools. Billiant.

So teachers,education experts and parents are all wrong? After all even when I was at school there was only one national educational test in primary. It was the 11 plus..and how divisive was that? No child should be put through the stress of testing UNTIL they have the basic skills to do so. Not every child is set in aspic at any age.They all develop at their OWN pace particularly between the ages of 0-11.

[heero_yuy]

So no improvements needed then?

One in five British students leave school without acquiring basic skills, according to a new report commissioned by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The report, titled 'Universal Basic Skills: What countries stand to gain', was produced by economists Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann.

It includes the biggest ever global school rankings, which rank 76 countries according to how well their students perform. The analysis is based on test scores in maths and science, and is an expansion on the OECD's Pisa test scores.

Asian countries dominate the top of the rankings, with Singapore heading the table, followed by Hong Kong in second place and South Korea in third.

The United Kingdom ranks 20th, and the United States comes in at number 28.

Source

If you don't properly test how can you gauge IF you're getting better?

[Pierre]

SATS, as I'm always being told, are to test the school and not the child.

There are many ways school standards can be tested without putting unwarranted stress on 7years and their parents.

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

So no improvements needed then?



Source

If you don't properly test how can you gauge IF you're getting better?

Well if they can read fluently,write well,are numerically literate what more do you need to know? Teachers will be checking this on a weekly basis as they have ALWAYS done. You are behaving as if they will just be left to their own devices and the teachers won't be doing anything at all.If you don't believe me go and do some voluntary work in school as I did when my children were in the infants and juniors. Secondary school is early enough to start testing.As a secondary teacher all I ever required was that the children had basic skills like times tables,reading,writing,some scientific basic knowledge. After all there's plenty of testing done for the 7-8 years after the age of 11.

[heero_yuy]

You're 18 and leaving education, the world of work is at your feet.

Or is it? Not so, according to the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).

A survey by the business group has found eight out of 10 British school-leavers "lack essential business skills" such as numeracy.

More than 80% of young people require "significant training" before being put to work, according to the 4,000 finance professionals questioned.

The figure is worse than last year, when 75% of school-leavers were said to need this level of help after being hired.

The top areas of weakness for new recruits are people skills and business skills, followed by technical skills.

Source

It's not just financial sectors that make this observation

Over three-quarters of employers believe that action is needed to improve maths and English skills, following concerns that poor skills in these areas can have a real impact on business, according to a new survey.

The review of business leaders found that many reported problems with young employees and potential recruits who had "difficulties constructing emails, use text speak rather than properly constructed sentences, and had poor spelling and communication skills".

The findings raise concerns that current qualifications taken by schoolchildren do not provide pupils with practical and relevant workplace skills.

Nearly half of employers said that they are most concerned with the English skills in young people, while 17 per cent cited maths as their main worry.

According to the report, only 11 per cent of respondents said they had no concern about either subject.

Source

So here's the dichotomy: Teachers, professional educators etc. who think they're doing a wonderful job and employers aghast at great swathes of school leavers who can barely read, write, add up or string a coherent sentence together after 12-14 years of education.

[Taf]

Our twins, and many of their peers, left Infant school with very poor skills. Ditto Junior school. Ditto Secondary school.

Each stage blamed the previous one for not teaching to the necessary standards, but nothing was done to remedy this. They just plodded on and on with more and more pupils falling further and further behind.

Testing at set stages might have stopped this situation arising. But teachers don't like it as it can highlight poor teachers, and schools don't like it as it can highlight poor schools!

I think the mistake that's being made is making the testing too formal and rigid, raising anxiety and fear amongst students.

Originally Posted by Taf

Our twins, and many of their peers, left Infant school with very poor skills. Ditto Junior school. Ditto Secondary school.

Each stage blamed the previous one for not teaching to the necessary standards, but nothing was done to remedy this. They just plodded on and on with more and more pupils falling further and further behind.

Testing at set stages might have stopped this situation arising. But teachers don't like it as it can highlight poor teachers, and schools don't like it as it can highlight poor schools!

I think the mistake that's being made is making the testing too formal and rigid, raising anxiety and fear amongst students.

Which is why there will still be 'testing' and checking just less informally.

[Taf]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

Which is why there will still be 'testing' and checking just less informally.

Did you not mean to say "less formally" ?

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

Source

It's not just financial sectors that make this observation



Source

So here's the dichotomy: Teachers, professional educators etc. who think they're doing a wonderful job and employers aghast at great swathes of school leavers who can barely read, write, add up or string a coherent sentence together after 12-14 years of education.

None of this will be affected by 7 year olds not being formally tested..and the SATs tests for year 6 will still take place.

---------- Post added at 16:27 ---------- Previous post was at 16:26 ----------

Originally Posted by Taf

Did you not mean to say "less formally" ?

My bad.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Taf

Our twins, and many of their peers, left Infant school with very poor skills. Ditto Junior school. Ditto Secondary school.

Each stage blamed the previous one for not teaching to the necessary standards, but nothing was done to remedy this. They just plodded on and on with more and more pupils falling further and further behind.

So what did you do? to help your kids improve their skills?