This week we saw the national release of provisional Key Stage 2 outcomes. Camden primary schools continued to perform exceptionally well this year, outperforming schools nationally against the odds. A big well done and thank you to all involved!
Ever since SATS tests were introduced in the mid-1990’s they have been contentious. There have been concerns over the impact on the broader curriculum in upper Key Stage 2, reflected by a stronger focus on the wider curriculum in the inspection framework in 2019 and an explicit recognition of potential gaming and narrowing of timetables. However, a complete rejection of statutory assessments needs to be balanced by the potential usefulness of a formalised assessment point and national benchmark. The pressure on primary schools is less that children take tests, after all this is fairly common practice across the primary phase, more in the method of how outcomes are used. A survey organised by Parentkind found that 89 per cent of parents would support SATs being replaced by an alternative measure such as ongoing teacher assessment checked by external moderators. In 2022, ICAPE reported that than three quarters of parents (76 per cent) and educators (76 per cent) agreed with the statement: ‘There should be no statutory assessment in primary schools.’
Without national checks, there is of course a risk of schools marking their own homework and in the absence of benchmarks, poor school performance going unchallenged. The British Educational Research Association (BERA) produced the report High standards, not high stakes in 2021, recommending a new system as an alternative to SATs involving longitudinal sampling that would allow contextual variables to be considered. With the rise in numbers of pupils with high needs who will often struggle to meet national benchmarks, despite making good progress, the need to consider context has never been more pertinent. The new Government is about to embark on a curriculum and assessment review, let’s hope that a consideration of both broader achievement and local contextual measures informs this thinking.
We are less than two weeks away from the Summer break, and next Friday will be the final bulletin of the academic year. Enjoy the weekend!
Stephen Hall
Chief Executive Officer, Camden Learning
