Do you think children in Year 7/8 should be taking exams?

[ellamorley1998]

Hey, I'm Ella and I'm a student journalist at the University of Essex. Sitting in a lecture, I came across an article which I would love some opinions on.

School Minister, Nick Gibb, is calling for children as young as 11 to take exams in the summer. He says that this will reduce their exam anxieties when they come to Year 10 and 11. Gibb has been criticised by MP's who have said that this was problematic and other commenters online have criticised the younger generations, declaring that the young "cannot cope with anything".

As parents, do you think this is a good idea? What's your opinions on the topic? How do you imagine your 11-12 revising for exams?

Here is some more information on the topic: www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sit-more-exams-to-beat-stress-schools-minister-nick-gibb-tells-gcse-pupils-63n02jt8d

Thank you!

Exams can be held in classrooms. Certainly until now my school has held end of year exams during lesson time.

What is wanted here? Experience of exams, or specifically experience of exams in an exam hall?

Even when you hold exams in classroom there can be disruption - at least there were occasions at my secondary where they cordoned off certain corridors for external exams and end of year tests.

I personally don’t think the disruption is a reason not to do end of year exams.

Ideally exams halls and formal class room exams should be experienced as I had both with end of year tests.
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However actual exam conditions are obviously the most important thing. No talking talk, timings, restrictions on what you have with them all of which happen short tests she gets now.

However tests now are end of topic or at most end of term - D1 has had no end of year exams where you have to go over stuff and longer term revision isn’t covered yet at school.

So yes I do think DD1 is less well prepared than I and DH were at similar age.

Eagle but there are actual exams going on in the exam halls from the start of May till the end of June. If the rest of the school are going to have end of year exams all in the exam hall, they'd have to have them squashed into July or probably before Easter.

I would bet that most schools already have end of year exams.

I have 3 kids at secondary school. They are assessed (tested) every half term (6 times a year) which is plenty. In non-exam years (y7,y8,y9,y10) one of those will be in the hall like GCSEs. In y11 they have more exam-style test conditions.

At our school they start in y7 so the kids get used to not the atmosphere and exam rules like not having mobile phones and having a clear pencil case. Normally my kids have their mobile phone in their blazer pocket so need to get into the exam routine of handing it in or having it in their bag instead.

I had them at xmas and summer from year 7 in the 80s. Dc have them once per term from year 7.

Our son's school had end of year exams each year from year 7, plus regular progress tests and end of topic exams right from the first term of year 7. The EOY exams were always done in exam conditions and they were told revision techniques etc right from year 7. Now he's doing his mocks in year 11, he has no stress/worries about exams as he has had so much experience, and his revision has been plain sailing as he's had plenty of experience as to what revision methods work best for him. I really thought that was the norm and am quite surprised that some schools don't seem to do much in the way of tests/exams - I'd have thought that would cause the kids a lot more stress suddenly facing exams when they've not had much exposure to them in earlier years.

I have a DS in year 7. They will have end of year exams from this year, and they also had a mid year exam in maths. They also sat CATs at the beginning of year 7.

They do take exams at DC secondary, but maybe the proposal is for something more obviously high pressure (?). Invigilators & big exam halls & all quiet for 1.5-2.5. hours?

For the kids struggling with impulse control problems linked to immaturity, this is too much to ask an 11yo to sit a yr11 style exam (& for schools to find the resources to invigilate them).

We always had these 35 or so years ago. The whole school had a week of exams+ silent revision sessions every summer. First year had 1 hours exams with extra ‘playtimes’ built in too. Exams were held in our own form rooms with our form teacher for first 3 years of secondary- they would sit and mark exams while they invigilated so it worked for everyone, when we got to O levels/cses it meant there was no big scary thing, we just got on with it having developed some good exam techniques over the years, and also knew that failing an exam was not worth killing yourself over, life still goes on. I would hope that these days schools with pupils with extra learning requirements could make arrangements so that they can be helped too, they often still need to sit exams at some point so appropriate arrangements could be helpful there too.

Was that a selective school in any way, Slightly?
30-60minute exam sounds feasible, per subject. But a lot of modern GCSEs are 1.25-2 hrs in a session, and each subject is 2-4 exam sessions.

Yes- but the non-selective secondary over the road did this too, many friends went there, so did most of the other secondaries and there was some movement between the schools each autumn based on end of year exams. It built up gradually from 1st year (now year 7) with shorter exams and got to 1.5-2hrs by year 10. There were lots of aspects of that school and the others in the area that weren’t great, and actually it wasn’t good for me as an overall experience, but in terms of exams it was fairly typical at the time and worked well.

Plus until year 10 we only had 1 exam per subject so a week was long enough to cover it.

Interesting article from a middle school bringing back exams in Years 7 and 8

adriancotterell.com/index.php/2018/02/17/bringing-back-exams/