SATs on the scrapheap?

Since the marking fiasco over the Key Stage 2 SATs in 2008, when results were repeatedly delayed and then published incomplete, tests in science have been abolished and children face exams in just English and maths.

But that is not enough for some, with the prospect of a boycott of next year’s tests likely to be voted on by teaching unions early this year.

The National Union of Teachers (NUT), which represents some 2,800 teachers in Oxfordshire, recently held an indicative ballot which found 95 per cent of those surveyed believed the controversial tests should be scrapped.

The National Association of Head Teachers has said it has received “strong support”

for action following a survey of 22,000 headteachers, assistant heads and deputies.

Gawain Little, a teacher at St Ebbe’s Primary School, Oxford, and president of the Oxfordshire branch of the NUT, explained the union was not against assessment.

He said: “What we are in favour of is an assessment system which is accurate, useful and really works for teachers and children but there are various problems with SATs.

“The tests themselves are incredibly unreliable because they are based on a 45-minute assessment during which a child might be having a good or bad day.

“Another thing is the narrow range of subjects and skills within the subjects that are assessed, which by no means reflect the entire breadth of what children do in primary school.”

He added: “Because of the publishing of SATs results and league tables, it does mean schools are judged on a very inaccurate form of assessment.

“Schools working in tough circumstances and more difficult areas can suffer falling rolls as a result of this, which in turn means they don’t get the financial support they need because it is linked to the number of pupils.”

The NUT favours sampling as a means of measuring national standards, and a greater emphasis on teacher assessments which would give parents feedback on how well their children are doing.

Mr Little said for parents trying to judge which school to send their children to do, there was nothing better than going into see a school and seeing pupils and teachers at work.

Zara d’Archambaud, headteacher at New Marston Primary School in Oxford, which has about 240 pupils, said she would back a boycott of the tests.

She said: “My worry is that you get a snapshot of how well those children have performed on that day, rather than an accurate assessment of their longer achievement.

“If you have a child who is not feeling 100 per cent on that day, that is what they are assessed on.

“Teachers believe children need to be assessed in order to accurately plan for their next stage, but when you are using only one snapshot to put school into a league table, it is not your most accurate way of doing it.

“It is important to look at both progress and standards.”

In last summer’s tests, there were only three primary schools where all the children achieved Level 4 in English, maths and science, the standard every 11 year-old is expected to achieve.

At one of them, St Peter’s Primary School, Cassington, there was also a higher proportion of children achieving Level 5s — and the school also had the highest contextual value added score, which measures how far pupils have progressed from their starting point.

Although celebrating her children’s achievements, headteacher Sara Lawrence said too much emphasis was put on league tables.

She said: “It doesn’t always do a service to what schools are providing.

“Our results this year have been excellent, but we don’t teach to tests at all.”

At the other end of the scale was Windale Primary School, in Oxford’s Blackbird Leys estate.

The school had the lowest proportion of pupils achieving Level 4 when all three subjects were added together.

Headteacher Maureen Thompson said the issue was less about assessing children’s progress and more about how that information was made public.

She said: “Each year somebody has got to be bottom.

“I know we are on a three-year rolling upward trend in all our subject areas, but you have to remember we are from a particularly socially deprived area and our starting points can be much lower than some areas of the county.”

While only 62 per cent of pupils at the school got Level 4 in English, she said more than 80 per cent had made more than two levels of progress in the subject.

But Mrs Thompson said: “I don’t think progress should be everything because schools that do very well in attainment need to be celebrated as well.

“Without a doubt the tests are useful, there is no problem with assessing children, my concern is that we also look at the progress children make and try and compare like with like — the schools in areas like Blackbird Leys, Rose Hill and Littlemore are vying for top and bottom place in our little group every year.”

In summer 2009’s tests, published in December, pupils in Oxfordshire performed broadly in line with the national average, with a slightly higher proportion of county pupils making the expected grade in English.

Michael Waine is Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet member for schools improvement, and a former primary school headteacher.

He said: “I feel that some rigorous assessment needs to be made and I think it needs to be at the end of Year Six rather than Year Seven, which is what my party supports.

“I do think it ought to be contributed to by teacher assessments but there ought to be some form of test that is simple to administer and simple to mark, and takes away the plethora of quangos that surround it at the moment.”

He added: “It is a very expensive way if testing and the grounds rules change year by year, so I can understand completely headteachers questioning the validity of scores that come out at the end.”

Mr Waine said English and maths were part of “everyday life” in primary school and said: “We do need a clear benchmark at the age of 11 on which to build future expectations and I don’t think there is any doubt about that.”