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!

Bizarrely the DfE think KS1 tests are this week ... Can they get anything right?

It's more likely that someone from the DfE will post the test content online

My THREE kids will have a great day out of school and will learn a valuable lesson about our right to industrial action,

It's not industrial action, though, is it? It's an act of civil disobedience against government by the electorate, not action against an employer by employees. Teachers take industrial action, they strike, but parents and pupils cannot do that.

Civil disobedience has, in the past, successfully pressured governments into changing policy, but has also sometimes had consequences for the individuals involved.

Are you naysayers actually aware of what forced academisation means?
This action is unrelated to the White Paper though - it's an opportunity for parents to object to the testing regime implemented as part of the new curriculum.

That message implies that we can discuss the content in two weeks time then...

Or simply exercising the right of peaceful protest while educating their child about the history of the trade union movement and perhaps the suffragettes

Just retweeted that. Yes some people might do a SAT this week but just after a bank holiday and at the beginnig of the month? Not many I am sure. It does read as if it is the official week.

When I said on a thread the other week that they were going to look silly if they tweeted to say not to release the details of test, this wasn't exactly what I meant.

Is there anything they can get right?

I hope Henry Thoreau will get a mention too, mrz 

I'm taking annual leave to take my children out of school to support the strike and know several others that are doing the same.

I actually prefer the idea that this is an act of civil disobedience! It doesn't put me off at all. I've talked to my children about how we're striking to support the school and protest to the government.

More likely Coco the clown if we are discussing the DfE

Good luck!
My son was in year 6 last year and my daughter was in year 2. I thought they were hard then so I dread to think what they are like this year. I agree that children will be turned off learning if pushed too much.

Crazy Government! I swear Nicky Morgan and Jeremy Hunt are nuts!

My dd would have done them last year, but she didn't as luckily she was H.ed

I am seeing how much the tests have changed over the years and they are unrecognisable to when our grown up dc took them.
Such a shame that it has come to this.
nothing wrong with testing, everything wrong with SATS management.

My DC are off. I'm in favour of testing. I am not in favour of sats which have reduced my happy confident bubbly child into a stressed, confused, quiet child.

Here's a video to keep everyone's spirits up during the Kids' Strike, an MP talks about SATs:

hmm three mums phoned in sick this am ..saying their child is ill...thought there must be something going on

Phoning in sick is a cop-out; the whole point is making a stand for what you believe in!

i mean they are phoning themselves off sick to stay at home with their 'sick' child , they work for my husband ..

Ah. I see. Inconvenient for your business - which is one of the consequences of such action, unfortunately

Phoning in sick is a cop-out; the whole point is making a stand for what you believe in
Precisely - pathetic.
if they beleive in it they should take a day's annual leave and put their money where their mouth is.

believe

Any idea how many kids went on strike today, seemed to be business as usual at DDs school?

There won't be any way to officially measure the number. Pretty much zero here I think according to HT. I think it could be very varied around the country.

I asked my DS if anyone was missing from his class he said he didn't think so...So assume not.

No one from our year 2 was absent. Not sure if the rest of the school had everyone in but the staff said no-one had heard anything about striking.