SATS

[disneyatemydaughter]

Ofsted have recently dropped the category that used to look at exam results; they plan to focus instead on "quality of education". The crisis in recruitment and retention of teachers will not be solved by this change, nor will our children be much better off.

In a system where standardised testing remains the focus of almost everything, children are converted into numbers. The test-based system creates demoralised teachers and children who decide they are good at this, rubbish at that, from the age of 6 (when SATS begin).

We should encourage our children to discover and think for themselves. Testing does little to encourage thought. It is now time to abandon SATS! disneyatemydaughter.com/2018/10/13/i-am-dealing-with-people-and-not-with-things/

I completely agree, this was a really good read! I think that the SAT's system is becoming more and more outdated and stress and anxiety is quickly growing in children as a result of these preliminary exams. We are currently delivering our Mindfulness Programme in schools to prepare children for SAT's exams and ensure that they enjoy and learn from this stressful period rather than worry about failing🙏

Ofsted have recently dropped the category that used to look at exam results

Unfortunately, no, they haven't.

With you 100% on the rest of your post though.

So they haven't dropped results? To what extent are results to be part of the new 'quality of education' category?

The old 'outcomes for pupils', that included exam performance, is "to be dropped in Ofsted’s inspection reports." - www.theguardian.com/education/2018/oct/11/ofsted-to-ditch-using-exam-results-as-mark-of-success-amanda-spielman

From Amanda Spielman's speech
Proposed changes
"In fact at the top level, there are 3 main proposed changes. The first change is losing outcomes as a standalone judgement. The second change is broadening the existing quality of teaching, learning and assessment judgement into a quality of education judgement. This one should include curriculum alongside teaching, learning and assessment, and will also reflect outcomes. Then third, we propose splitting the current judgement of personal development, behaviour and welfare into 2 separate judgements: one for behaviour and attitudes and the other for personal development.
Under quality of education, we intend to look at 3 distinct aspects. First the intent – what is it that schools want for all their children? Then the implementation – how is teaching and assessment fulfilling the intent? Finally, the impact – that is the results and wider outcomes that children achieve and the destinations that they go on to."

"That doesn’t mean there will be no link between what we find about the quality of education, and what the published data says. They are, one hopes, somewhat correlated. "

Thanks, I see, so 'outcomes' will still be in there.

And 'behaviour and attitudes' get their own category - I did realise that. It's odd, suddenly, to place more emphasis on behaviour; surely good behaviour should flow naturally from the school working well in other respects, not be so much of a focus in itself?