Here’s a bit of fun to end the week – unless of course you publish guides on passing SATS in which case it is time for a very stiff drink.
Teachers at a union conference threatened to strike today if ministers end national tests for 11-year-olds, days after a rival teachers’ union voted for a boycott to force their abolition.One teachers union (NUT) has demanded the end of SATS and the government says teachers will be in breach of their contract if they carry out threats not to put the kids through the exams. But the NASUWT says it will take action if the government drops the SATS. While the majority of teachers seem anti-SATS the SATS that have now become optional (but for which the government produces the papers) are being taken up by most schools (at least according to the number of papers ordered by schools from the Dept of Cushions and Soft Furnishings.
NASUWT argue that teachers can’t mark internal tests instead of sending papers away to be marked by external markers, and so they would strike if SATS go.
The secondary SATS have been dropped, but it seems NASUWT is encouring secondary school members to keep doing them, so that they have less internal marking.
The Secretary of State has now asked for pilots of an alternative system of testing, carried out when teachers consider children are ready. But the NUT has voted to ballot members to boycott the tests next year and members demonstrated outside the annual conference in Cardiff, chanting “no more useless tests”, which personally I think is against school rules and should result in detention. I mean, you wouldn’t get us football fans doing that.
There’s more on education marketing at www.educationmarketing.org.uk
Tony