NUT boycott of SATs 2016

[bicyclebell]

Feenie and Mrz this is something you mentioned in a different thread the other week.

Something about the NUT and Head Teacher's union giving the government a week to respond to their request.

I haven't seen anything about this in the news and wondered what happened - or are they still waiting?

[Feenie]

The government did indeed respond - not got time to go into the details, but if you head over to TES news, you will be able to watch Nicky Morgan's hostage video and keep up with the story.

I have yet to see the NAHT's or the NUT's response to the reponse, iyswim.

[gutrotwein]

Thought this open letter in TES news about expected standards of KS2 Sats put forward the points very succinctly. Open letter

As one of the 11% who jumped ship, I wish you the best of luck with your boycotts.

[Feenie]

Thanks, gutrotwein

Another good link here:

www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-views/government-owes-primary-teachers-apology

[bicyclebell]

Thank you for your replies to my question.

[mrsglowglow]

What a completely depressing situation. This government seem to be doing their upmost to suck the last drop of any creativity from our next generation of future writers. I have a daughter in year 6 and a son in year 5 and the relentless spellings and grammar homework is crazy. My sympathies to ks2 teachers having to roll out these lessons. Yet again our children's education has become a political experiment that appears to be setting so many to fail before they even reach secondary school. Maybe there's a hidden agenda whereby the plan is to turn them into future human robots all programmed to think the same. Social cleansing to rid us of anyone who dares to have a different perspective opinion. Sorry I sound like a drama queen but having just sat through a homework session this evening of comprehension and grammar papers please forgive me!

[mrsglowglow]

*perspective or opinion

[noblegiraffe]

The open letter in the TES is good, however one small point: the author says that students working towards the 11+, common entrance, GCSEs or A-levels knows a benchmark raw score that they should be working towards.

This isn't true, for the new GCSEs we are in the same boat, we have no idea what sort of marks a student needs to be aiming for to pass the new GCSE (or indeed achieve any other grade) and won't till after they've sat it. Knowing whether you've a good chance at passing your maths/English GCSE (or getting the required grade for A-level) is pretty bloody important!

The reason we (GCSE and SATs teachers) are in this ridiculous position is because the government rushed through the changes and haven't piloted them in any way. They have no idea how they are going to go. This is complete negligence and arrogance on their part, and also deeply unfair to the first cohort who are guinea pigs. GCSEs were piloted extensively, so it's merely a political decision not to bother.

[catkin2009]

Have you seen this? Parents' group supporting teachers in improving education for our children through a strike day for kids.
letthekidsbekids.wordpress.com/

[catkin2009]

Have you seen this? Parents' group supporting teachers in improving education for our children through a strike day for kids.
letthekidsbekids.wordpress.com/

[NathanielTapley]

Here's a video of an MP with some harsh words and a lovely poem about Nicky Morgan and SATs for everyone on Kids' Strike today...

[mrz]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-36196384

[Feenie]

Excellent