Assessment and Creativity

[MDrake91]

Hello, I am currently writing my dissertation to become a Primary School Teacher.

I am writing specifically about the restriction testing has on creativity in the primary classroom. I am writing a chapter soley based on the perspective of the parents.

I would really appreciate any personal experiences with this topic from parents.

e.g. Does your child mind doing tests or do they frustrate them?
Do you feel that your child learns better through creative lessons?
Do you feel that regular testing, for example SATS, have helped your childs learning or helped yourself?
What is your personal opinion of the current primary education system and what changes would you make? (based the on the topic of creativity and assessment)
etc...

Thank you x

My job is to teach children not to entertain Ofsted

Speaking as a parent whose child completed Y6 in 2011 I would say that the testing during that year is constant and most of the lessons were geared towards the SATs tests. My dd recognised this and found it very frustrating particularly in areas such as writing where she enjoys being creative but there appear to be few marks in the SATs tests for this.
Am a bit unsure about what you mean by creativity in your question. Agree that there should be more time for creative subjects such as Art, Music and DT. These tended to be taught on a topic basis at dds school. E.g. they would have a specialist Art or DT week with lots of creative activities where the children would get very enthusiastic and motivated and then that was that subject covered for the whole year! I would not really consider this to be good practice.
However creative learning does still need to be well-planned with clear learning objectives and sometimes this does need to be communicated with the parents. Too often particularly at KS1 creative learning involved children dressing up as book characters and parents having to be creative by coming up with costumes at short notice. I am not sure what if anything the children learnt from this, particularly those who were already keen readers. If anything I would say that dressing up reduced pupils concentration at times so was rather counter-productive!

When we talk about creativity in teaching it isn't restricted to the arts

Perhaps this article will help

www.teachingexpertise.com/articles/creativity-in-the-curriculum-1561

www.teachingexpertise.com/articles/valuing-and-developing-creativity-1007

My ds is indifferent about tests. He loves to be creative. Regular testing does not improve his learning. Improving the system? I'm disappointed that some teaching bores him. I was pleased when he had a teacher that 'got' him and he enjoyed being in her class. Your questions are a bit vague and obvious. Testing and creativity are parts of the school experience. I'm not sure what link you are trying to make?

Does your child mind doing tests or do they frustrate them?

Depends on age group and circumstances and individual child. How long is that string? And is being frustrated always a bad thing?

Do you feel that your child learns better through creative lessons?

How do we define a creative lesson? Ime a session on times tables can be creative because it is led by an inspiring teacher who fires the pupils with his own enthusiasm: otoh a lesson planned specially with all the creative trappings can be dull as ditch water because the teacher doesn't have the energy or confidence to inspire the hearers.

Do you feel that regular testing, for example SATS, have helped your childs learning or helped yourself?

SATS were pretty useless because the school lied about their significance andd dd knew they were lying, so just felt cynical about the whole thing. GCSE testing is proving useful. Ds is constitutionally lazy and needs regular threats of detention to take any trouble over anything (not just school work, anything in life), so no doubt testing has a role to play for him.

What is your personal opinion of the current primary education system and what changes would you make? (based the on the topic of creativity and assessment)

I would monitor exactly what headteachers are allowed to tell their classes about the implications of SATS: any headteacher who fails to make clear that SATS are primarily about assessing the school and who causes pupils unnecessary stress by pretending that this is an exam which will count for their future job prospects should face a disciplinary hearing.