SATS results annulled

[AllMimsyWereTheBorogoves]

Link to report in the Standard here. Hmmm. I'm a long way on (thank goodness) from having to worry about stuff like this as a parent, but as a local resident and taxpayer I'm not happy.

Is this kind of thing common? I hope not.

I'm probably being stupid, but why does this make you unhappy as a local resident and taxpayer?

Because when I read in the Standard before Christmas that Grinling Gibbons school had been ranked first in the country on some measure or other and was doing fantastically well, I was delighted. It's in Deptford and its intake is largely from lower income families, and incredibly diverse from the point of view of ethnicity. It seemed like a huge boost for our area to have such a fantastic school changing the lives of children who really need that leg up.

Now it looks as if the results that were so widely feted were in fact faked in some way. That is such a downer. All the good things that may have been going on in this school will now be ignored as people focus on this one revelation.

Also, there are unanswered questions about the role of our local education authority. Did they question the results? If not, why not?

That's a shame. It's not common.

I am aware of one school in my area where this happened recently. Rubbish for the children involved, as they had been repeatedly told how important the SATS were, and then they didn't get the results. The parents I knew were very disappointed in how the school handled it too.

I don't think this is common at all. What a shame for all the children. Who must be disappointed and confused.

it happens to several schools every year