Tag Archives: sats

Mark Valladares

9 July 2019 – the overnight press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 9th July 2019 - 6:45 am

Teachers agree – it’s time to scrap SATs

Responding to today’s indicative ballot by the National Education Union, revealing that 97% of primary school teachers want to replace Key Stage 2 SATs, Liberal Democrat Education spokesperson Layla Moran MP said:

Today’s ballot shows that teachers have had enough with SATs. They want to deliver a high-quality education, rather than be put under the unnecessary pressure of a high-stakes testing regime that offers no benefit for their class.

The pressure on headteachers and teachers to perform well cascades down the school to pupils. Teachers put on revision classes, booster sessions

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James Kempton

Opinion: “The Importance of Teaching” White Paper – putting Lib Dem policy into action?

By James Kempton | Wed 24th November 2010 - 3:08 pm

After a year’s work in the run up to the General Election co-writing the Liberal Democrats’ Equity and Excellence education policy paper with other members of the 5-19 Education Policy Working Group, I opened the Coalition Government’s first education White Paper with understandable trepidation.

Nothing can be more important than giving every child a fair start in life, but the education system inherited from Labour offered some young people pretty much the best education system anywhere in the world, while leaving others ill-equipped, under-funded, and lacking the skills needed to get on in life.

The White Paper launched by the government today, called The Importance of Teaching takes as its starting point the unflattering international comparisons of the performance and skills of our pupils. Its critique of where and why the school system is underperforming is one that will be very familiar to most Liberal Democrats. It is a vision for a system based on excellence, underpinned by freedom and fairness: an education system which challenges low aspiration and achievement and where school-level innovation and diversity are seen as strengths to be welcomed.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 29 Comments
Helen Duffett

Sats results: Record fall in English results

By Helen Duffett | Tue 4th August 2009 - 3:45 pm

Figures published today show that fewer 11 year olds have reached Level 4 in English, the standard expected for their age group. A fifth of 11 year olds did not achieve this level, in the tests taken in May.

The drop in results is the first since Sats tests were introduced in 1995.

From the Daily Mail:

“The depressing figures come despite Labour investing billions over the past decade in literacy and numeracy drives.
This September alone, around four in ten children – almost 220,000 – are expected to move up to secondary school without sufficient mastery of the three Rs.
They

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Mark Pack

Why you should Google your suppliers

By Mark Pack | Tue 27th January 2009 - 9:53 am

An interesting piece in today’s Guardian with the news that Lord Sutherland, who chaired an inquiry into last year’s Sats test shambles in England, has pointed out that basic checking of the competency of a supplier can including Googling their name – but this wasn’t done when the Sats testing contract was awarded:

Giving evidence yesterday, Sutherland said: “I don’t know companies that don’t do that kind of probing, whether it’s by telephone or Googling.

“If you Google, first you get the press cuttings and then you say, ah no, that’s so and so but here’s a serious report that maybe we

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