Who said it's teachers who make children do phonics tests..?
This is government policy.
The aim of testing is to compare schools and to determine progress, if any, of individual students from Reception to Y6. The child's results will apparently never be reported to the parents. The results are purely for government use. The results will flag students who need extra support, allegedly. Money for this will come from the fabled money tree.
www.theschoolrun.com/reception-baseline-assessment-tests-explained-for-parents
www.theguardian.com/education/2014/feb/01/reception-children-compulsory-tests-2016 Projected now to start 2020. Piloting to take place in 2019. That is this year!
Weird, isn't it, that phonics for all at age 4 is apparently such a well evidenced policy, based on research, and couldn't possibly pose any problems because it is well researched and based on evidence, but only in 2020 will the government get around to seeing whether it is effective.
Kinda supports the suspicion that phonics for all at age 4 is actually a programme designed with party political motives uppermost in mind and not based on any evidence whatsoever, a massive exercise in pulling the wool over the eyes of the voting public, an experiment hundreds of thousands of children have been subjected to, only without any of the means of measuring its effectiveness or issues. A completely cack arsed exercise, in other words.
www.gov.uk/government/publications/key-stage-1-tests-2018-english-reading-test-materials
'Key stage 1 tests: 2018 English reading test materials'
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/711236/STA187960e_2018_ks1_English_reading_Paper1_reading_prompt_and_answer_booklet.pdf.pdf
'KS1 English Reading'.
'Paper 1: Reading prompt and answer booklet'.
It seems to me that a serious attempt at teaching focused reading is either made in Reception (age 4/5) or in Y1 (age 5/6) if children are expected to read and respond to this drivel
www.gov.uk/government/publications/reception-curriculum-in-good-and-outstanding-primary-schools-bold-beginnings
Bold Beginnings link here.
www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jan/16/tests-reception-children-immoral-england-play
What a sorry spectacle.
Roberts-Holmes says the test risks making social inequality worse, as parents with high expectations will prepare their children, which could mean these infants have a higher score and that higher expectations will follow them throughout their school careers. The opposite could be true for children from disadvantaged homes.
Another problem many early years teachers have with the test is that they won’t be given the results, so won’t be able to use it to help children. The DfE tender document, issued just before Christmas, makes it clear that the outcomes will not be available in detail.
This has led to Early Excellence, the supplier of the most popular observation-based tests used in 2015, to pull out of tendering. Jan Dubiel, its national and international director, says: “We are not opposed to the idea of an entry assessment. But all assessment should support learning. It’s absurd and ridiculous to test purely for accountability.”
He argues that research is clear that testing is unreliable until the age of seven, when the brain enters a new phase of development.
“By the time children are eight or nine they know that in a test the point of the game is to get the right answers. Very young children respond very differently and give you the right – or the wrong – answer in different situations.
“Unfortunately, the government has not engaged with us at any point around baseline even though we have asked to meet them. It’s quite clear that there is ideological opposition to observational assessment.”
The DfE view is that the early years foundation stage framework, which does include observation, helps inform teaching and learning and the baseline tests will inform the government’s big picture on progress in schools over time. In the tender, the government is at pains to point out that the results will not be used to judge teachers or schools.
But many remain sceptical, because the government clearly has concerns about the reception year in some schools. The Ofsted report highlighted that a third of five-year-olds, and half of disadvantaged ones, were not reaching expected standards of development in their reception year. The inspectors recommended more focus on reading, including phonics.