Bexhill schools back nationwide SATS test boycotts

MOST primary schools in the Bexhill area are backing a national boycott of next month's Sats tests for 10 and 11-year-olds.

Test papers will remain unopened and locked away in cupboards before being returned to Government assessors - seals unbroken.

The one exception is Chantry Community Primary School in Barrack Road, where headteacher Christine Dickens confirmed: "Our children will be taking Sats next month."

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Sats - Statutory Assessment Tasks or Tests - assess Year 6 children's abilities in maths and English before they to secondary education. Nationally, 600,000 are due to sit the tests.

Test papers are marked externally and results published nationally, with politicians claiming they show how well or otherwise pupils are taught. But many parents and teachers oppose them, arguing they put unnecessary pressure on both children and staff while simply ticking boxes for statisticians.

They come at Key Stage Two in a child's education, and are now held in England only. Tests elsewhere in the UK, and at Key Stage One (age seven) and Key Stage Three (age 14) have already been dropped.

The boycott call follows a nationwide ballot among the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and the National Union of Teachers (NUT). Another teaching union, the NASUWT, was against action.

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At the NAHT 61.3 per cent of members supported the move on a turnout of just under 50 per cent, while 74.9 per cent of NUT members backed the boycott on a 34 per cent turnout.

David Pratt, Little Common Primary School head teacher and chairman of the local school consortium's primary action group, said: "Despite threatening noises that a boycott is in breach of the law, it isn't. This is a properly constituted trade dispute and the ballot was held according to electoral law."

Mr Pratt added: "Secondary schools are not well served by Sats, as children are often intensively prepared for the tests and results are artificially inflated.

"Test marking has also been notoriously inaccurate, and there is a huge weight of opinion that this is not the right thing to be doing with our 10 and 11 year olds."

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Mr Pratt said most Bexhill schools would rely on teacher assessments of each pupil - given to parents, secondary schools and the education authority - in order to remain accountable.

He said: "At Little Common are are using some test material alongside teacher assessments, but in a low-key way rather than the panoply of sitting separately at desks in an exam hall.

"We know the children and we are going to be the arbiters of their abilities. The big bonus for us all is we have not been forced down the road of zealously preparing for Sats."

Each school is 'finding its own way' through the dispute, and Mr Pratt said that within the teaching profession those schools deciding to still go with Sats this year were none the worse thought of.

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"Some feel there has been a momentum about preparation thus far that they've got to do them," he said. "There is no three-line whip that says they must back the boycott."

But he said what was 'extraordinary' and 'quite shocking, was the disrespect shown by officialdom to heads opposed to Sats, especially as teachers' representatives had offered to go to arbitration.

Chantry School, headteacher Mrs Dickens said: "Our children have worked hard for Sats and, in fact, spend the whole year looking forward to them.

"We make it a fun week, with a free breakfast club, arts and sports, and an outing on the Friday, so there is no stress on the children. I also believe schools have to be accountable."

Schools boycotting Sats will stay open as usual when tests are due to be taken from May 10 to May 13.

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