Press Release

Tories proposals on SATS

15 June 2009

Commenting on Shadow Schools Secretary Michael Gove's proposals to reform SATs tests Christine Blower General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, Europe's largest teaching union, said;

The Conservative Party's proposals this weekend have focused the attention once again on the issue of SATs testing. It is now imperative that all parties comes together and seriously consider what is best for our children and young people.

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) are campaigning nationally against SATs because they are bad for children, bad for teachers, bad education and bad for communities. We are prepared to speak to all the main political parties about how we rid primary schools of this high stakes test regime that distorts the curriculum and damages our children's education.

We continue to be totally opposed to League Tables and policies from any party that lead to their creation. Having tables based on tests taken in a different school is unacceptable. We want all political parties to accept and promote assessment by teachers which arises out of children's learning. It would be a message greatly welcomed by teachers in all phases. It would relieve pressure in the system and lead to better outcomes for teachers and taught.

Of course having the whole of year 6 freed from tests would be likely to be an improvement but just moving SATs to year 7, would not be acceptable. Where secondary schools have existing internal arrangements for year 7 which have been agreed as reasonable in both educational and workload terms, we would not want them upset by external imposition.

Secondary Schools must not bear the brunt of any new system that is put in its place. A manageable workload for teachers has to remain a priority and there must be no new additional tasks in the form of unnecessary assessment and testing. Any proposals which intend to continue high stakes tests and league tables but just move the responsibility on to Secondary School teachers would be flawed and totally unacceptable.