Parents support teachers - Boycott Sats - Kids' Strike May 3rd

[SuzieAllkins]

I am hoping that parents have heard of the Kids' Strike on May 3rd which has been set up by an anonymous group of parents who say 'Enough is enough'?' Their campaign supports schools in trying to reach the Government with the message that we need to stop national testing and let teachers teach in the way that they know is best. As a former primary school teacher (who used to administer Year 6 SATs) and a parent of two young children I shall be fully supporting this campaign on 3rd May by taking my school aged child out of school for a fun day of learning. I do not want my children to become stressed and develop a negative attitude to learning. Although the school my eldest attends is wonderful in developing the 'whole child', the pressure is on the teachers to 'perform' and submit figures to reach unreachable targets. It is wonderful to see, on the Letthekidsbekids website that so many head teachers and teachers are supporting this campaign and are saying thank you to parents for helping their voice to be heard. Our children are too young to be put under pressure like this - the new curriculum's demands are bewildering to me! Children at the age of 6 and 10 years are expected to know grammatical knowledge which even scholars in the subject can't answer!! These are not skills which will set our children up for life. There are many around the country who are supporting this campaign. If you haven't heard about it, check out the website to see if you'd like to join in on Tuesday!

Oops, "their", not "there. But I will just add to that it's been 10 years since phonics was mandated, and this foot-dragging is still going on. How many more children would be better able to cope with their SATS if every school had been teaching phonics thoroughly and well during that time, I wonder?

Sorry. I wasn't very clear. I didn't mean that parents should deal with the school. I meant the inspection system. I don't think parents have a chance at changing school systems at all.

I'd say the evaluative reports have possibly underestimated that. My guess is they are looking at reading. When you start to take spelling into account, then I suspect the results look even worse.

In a way that proves my point though. There are some fairly objective measures involving phonics that schools are supposed to be following. And many, if not most aren't. It doesn't really matter what the system is there is always a way to subvert it.

Not to mention that levels were never particularly objective even with moderation. I think many yr 3 teachers in junior schools might be quite surprised to find that levels are supposed to be objective and standardised, even with 'moderation'.

So because your school failed the children, then you think the system needs to e changed for all schools,

How many schools are in the same position, though? The team that turned my DDs school around had seen it all before, and were supporting several local schools at the same time.

I suppose it's why I am sceptical and jaded when I hear the catastrophising about the numbers of teachers leaving the profession.

The teachers I've seen leaving aren't the good, conscientious teachers who have made an immediate difference to DCs by putting in hours of work; the ones who I know have left are the ones who weren't willing to do that.

The ones who left are the ones who grumbled about having to attend training, the ones who called in the Union when subjected to annual appraisal (for the first time since being an NQT) and the ones who complained that they'd never had to provide evidence of pupil progress before.
I've seen and heard the resistance to change from teachers who have been identified as inadequate and who leave teaching (or move abroad, or become supply teachers) because they are unwilling to accept independent judgements about their teaching practice and won't change the way they teach.

Doesn't that depend slightly on whether the methods of pupil progress were actually worthwhile though.

Levels were never supposed to be used to measure progress over a period of time such as a year. Which is why they were fairly useless at doing so. They were never a particularly good measure for either children or performance management targets.

Wasn't this all a good few years ago, though?

Levels were never supposed to be used to measure progress over a period of time such as a year. Which is why they were fairly useless at doing so. They were never a particularly good measure for either children or performance management targets.

Which is, presumably, why we are now in "life after levels"?

Only, for the first 12 months after levels were scrapped, if not longer, most schools have continued to use "levels" while evaluating the mish-mash of other possible assessment and tracking systems on offer from a plethora of LAs, unions and private companies.

Have any schools embedded an alternative system that works, yet?

Or is the professional view that it is a waste of time because progress cannot be measured&reported on and that it is an insult to teachers who should be trusted to do their job without accountability or scrutiny?

Very foolish (retired teacher).
Children get anxious if they are kept away from school for no apparent reason, and the other children will certainly tell them.
Plus the work they miss will have to be covered.
Better writing to Nicky Morgan and your local MP.

feenie - the improvement team are still in the school - it was only 3 years ago it was deemed inadequate and most of the staff left in the last 2 years. Pupils, including my DD, had been failing to make progress for several years prior to that judgement, though; even at the time of the previous inspection (>8 years ago) when pastoral care was given a lot more focus in the inspection regime.

Goblin I have explained to my 8 yr old and 5 yr old why they won't be going in and they are far from anxious about it.

My eldest daughter said that she hopes other parents also 'stand up for what they believe'.

She's also a great MATILDA devotee and agrees that 'sometimes you have to be a little bit naughty '.

GoblinLittleOwl
Well said.

Will be interesting to see if any other than SAHM MC chattering classes kep the kids at home.
How many people will be taking a day's leave from work?

Have I said that teachers should be trusted to do their job with no accountability and scrutiny? I don't think I did. I do think that measures should be beneficial and useful to children, teachers and parents and being falsely reassured by a number isn't.

I'm not sure just replacing levels with stuff that looks like levels is the answer. It might need something more nuanced.

Rafal

It doesn't really matter what the system is there is always a way to subvert it.

Exactly this. Which is why I really can't feel much sympathy for all the complaints about SATS. Yes, the new SATS are a clumsy, bodged intervention by the government. But they are an intervention that has been made because there is so much resistance to evidence-based practice within the profession, and such enthusiasm for baseless fads. I know it's not really the teachers' fault - I blame the education academics, primarily - but it's just so frustrating.

I'm not sure just replacing levels with stuff that looks like levels is the answer. It might need something more nuanced.

It may well do. But given that some of the new systems have been developed by Teaching Unions, who arguably are best placed to call on the experience and views of their members, I'm struggling to understand where people think that a new, nuanced, fit-for-purpose system is going to come from.

Life After Levels opened the door for the creation of systems that were useful to pupils, parents and teachers - but it hasn't happened. There are no requirements on schools as to how they should monitor pupil progress; just the requirement that schools are able to demonstrate how they do so. The opportunity was there for the taking for the profession to create something that they could see the value of themselves.

Instead, the new systems are now being criticised by members of the Unions who developed them - but of course, the finger of blame is being pointed at Government, rather than the fellow professionals responsible.

Schools that have replaced levels with something that looks very like levels have found themselves on the wrong side of OFSTED

Schools that have replaced levels with something that looks very like levels have found themselves on the wrong side of OFSTED

That's good, isn't it? That means that schools that have bought in systems that aren't useful to pupils, parents and teachers will be required to change them?

What about the systems developed by the Unions - are they approved of by OFSTED?

No

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Bl**dy fuming

I hope so Mrz, but I still think that there's a lot of beginning/developing/secure within a year group stuff still about, which can end up being misused in the same way as levels.

Do you know what Ofsted are looking for?

I wonder whether the problem is that anything that fits nicely into a spreadsheet has a tendency to run into the same issue of just ticking off objectives as quickly as possible to show progress.

As far as I know only the NAHT has come up with a pn assessment framework

I'm not sure OFSTED know Rafa ...I do know some schools using commercial computer based systems have also been criticised

My THREE kids will have a great day out of school and will learn a valuable lesson about our right to industrial action, the fact that as humans we don't have to just roll over and accept it and I GUARANTEE that not one will feel any " anxious if they are kept away from school for no apparent reason, and the other children will certainly tell them" What total bollocks. If they feel "anxiety" what are you teaching them at home? that their worth rests on their school attendance?

We need to lose this mentality and stand up for our kids AND AND AND our wonderful teachers.

Are you naysayers actually aware of what forced academisation means? Have you read the laytest info for academies on how to raise standardss? By "raiusing qwuality of kids"? ie - by kicking out the SEN kids?

Sounds good huh?

My 5 kids include 1 boy with severe autism and a daughter with Downs syndrome. Want to blame us for that? So where do A and D fit in when your typical kids have hit their targets?

Look, either you stand up now or you keep your gob shut when the likes of Monsanto, Netsle and FrackersRUs source your kids education and curriculum. Nicky Morgan is the Education Jeremy Hunt. Divide and Rule - I'm horrified reading on here that a forum that I thought was dedicated to the good of our KIDS, appears to be dedicated to shutting up and keeping the status quo. Our Mothers did not raise us with a wolf in our hearts to sit quiet. Get arses up and support your children. if you cannot do that - what is the point opf it all? We were bred to howl at injustice.

Excuse typos. Whoever said varifocals are the bomb lied through their a*se.

Nothing much changes there then.

I think whatever system schools come up with does need to take a more rounded view of 'progress'. IMO there's a very big difference between a child that can just about do something, a child that usually does it without much effort and a child that does it automatically. Consolidating skills to the point of automaticity is a perfectly valid form of progress, whatever the numbers might say.